Tuscon, AZ - Mission San Xavier Del Bac

After dropping Celia off for her check-up, we drove over to the Mission San Xavier Del Bac.

This Mission was was founded in 1692 by a Jesuit missionary, Father Eusebio Francisco Kino in the Wa:k village of the San Xavier District of the Tohono O’odham Nation. At that time, the area was part of Mexico. Father Kino was the first non-Indian to visit the village of Wa:k, or “Bac,” as he wrote it.

Construction of the current church took 14 years and was completed in 1797 - it is the oldest intact European structure in Arizona. The Mission San Xavier Del Bac is truly dedicated to the Native peoples of the area: while everyone is invited to attend Mass, weddings and baptisms are only performed for the Mission's Native American parishioners.

When we arrived, Ash Wednesday morning Mass was being held and so we visited the small museum area first. Once the Mass was completed, we were able to go into the Mission church; it is beautiful and very ornate. According to the Docent, the church was made this way on purpose... to impress and win the hearts of the native people in what was then Mexico. The church's interior is filled with marvelous original statuary and mural paintings. It is a place where visitors can step back in time and enter an authentic 18th Century space.

The 218 year old structure and artwork are in remarkably good shape, partly because of the favorable climate in the area but mostly because restoration has been an almost continual process for the past 115 years. Restoration experts from all over the world -including Turkey, Italy, Spain, and America - have come to the aid of this historic Mission.



The Mission San Xavier Del Bac was recognized as a US National Landmark in 1963.