La Misión de San Gabriel de Guevavi was founded by

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

missionary priests

Eusebio Kino Eusebio Francisco Kino, Jesuits, SJ (, ; 10 August 1645 – 15 March 1711), often referred to as Father Kino, was an Italian Jesuit, missionary, geographer, explorer, cartographer, mathematician and astronomer born in the Prince-Bishopric of Tre ...

and

Juan María de Salvatierra Juan María de Salvatierra, S.J., (November 15, 1648 – July 17, 1717) was a Catholic missionary to the Americas. Life history Salvatierra was born Gianmaria Salvatierra in Milan, then the capital of the Duchy of Milan, a part of the Holy Rom ...

in 1691. Subsequent missionaries called it San Rafael and San Miguel, resulting in the common historical name of Mission Los Santos Ángeles de Guevavi (). Located in what is now

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

, near Tumacácori, the mission served as a district headquarters for the Jesuits.

History

The mission location was originally a native

Sobaipuri The Sobaipuri were one of many Indigenous groups occupying Sonora and what is now Arizona at the time Europeans first entered the American Southwest. They were a Piman or O'odham group who occupied southern Arizona and northern Sonora (the Pimer� ...

or O'odham (Upper Pima) settlement, which Eusebio Kino visited in 1690. The mission was established in 1691, with Juan de San Martín as resident priest. By the late 1690s, the mission consisted of a church, a carpentry shop, and a blacksmith's area. Under Jesuit supervision, Pima laborers built a small chapel in 1701, using adobe bricks and basic tools. Guevavi was designated as ''cabecera'' (headquarters) that same year. Juan de San Martín left the mission in 1701, leaving it to be administered remotely by , Ignacio Xavier Keller, and Luis Xavier Velarde. A new priest, Juan Bautista Grazhoffer, was not assigned to the mission until 1732. Grazhoffer changed the mission name to San Rafael; another priest changed it to San Miguel in 1744. In 1751, Joseph Garrucho contracted Joaquín de Casares of Arizpe to direct Pima laborers in building a new and larger 15-foot by 50-foot church, the ruins of which still exist today. The mother of

Juan Bautista de Anza Juan Bautista de Anza Bezerra Nieto (July 6 or 7, 1736 – December 19, 1788) was a Novohispanic/Mexican expeditionary leader, military officer, and politician primarily in California and New Mexico under the Spanish Empire. He is credited as on ...

is buried in front of the altar. The church was damaged in the Pima Revolt, and renovated in 1754 under the supervision of Francisco Xavier Pauer. As of 1767, the mission had three : Mission San Ignacio de Sonoitac,

Mission San José de Tumacácori Mission San José de Tumacácori () is a historic Spanish mission near Nogales, Arizona, preserved in its present form by Franciscans in 1828. History Mission San Cayetano del Tumacácori was established by Jesuits in 1691 in a location near a S ...

, and

Mission San Cayetano de Calabazas Mission San Cayetano de Calabazas, also known as Calabasas, is a Spanish Mission in the Sonoran Desert, located near present-day Tumacacori, Arizona, United States. History 18th century The original San Cayetano mission at Tumacacori was fou ...

. At some times, it also had Mission San Luís Baconacos as an . The first

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...

priest, Juan Crisóstomo Gil de Bernabé, arrived in 1768 and took up residency at the mission with about fifty families. The

Apache The Apache ( ) are several Southern Athabaskan language-speaking peoples of the Southwestern United States, Southwest, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico. They are linguistically related to the Navajo. They migrated from the Athabascan ho ...

s attacked in 1769 and killed all but two of the few Spanish soldiers guarding the mission; in 1770 and 1771 the natives continued their attacks and the ''cabecera'' was relocated to Tumacácori. Mission Los Santos Ángeles de Guevavi was abandoned for the last time by 1776.

Missionaries

* 1691–1701: Juan de San Martín * 1701–1732: no resident priest * 1732–1733: Juan Bautista Grazhoffer * 1734: Philipp Segesser * 1734–1737: no resident priest * 1737–1740: Alexandro Rapicani * 1740–1744: Joseph de Torres Perea * 1744–1745: Ildefonso de la Peña * 1745–1751: Joseph Garrucho * 1751–1760: Francisco Xavier Pauer * 1760–1768: no resident priest * 1768–1771: Juan Crisóstomo Gil de Bernabé

Archaeology

The convento and church have been excavated by the Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society and the National Park Service. Historian John Kessell has written a comprehensive history of Guevavi. Archaeologist Deni Seymour has excavated a portion of the indigenous Sobaipuri-O'odham settlement of GuevaviSeymour, Deni J., 2011 Where the Earth and Sky are Sewn Together: Sobaípuri-O’odham Contexts of Contact and Colonialism. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City. and Father Kino's "neat little house and church."Seymour, Deni J., 2009 Father Kino's 'Neat Little House and Church' at Guevavi. Journal of the Southwest 51(2):285–316.

Tumacácori National Historical Park

The Mission's ruins were incorporated into

Tumacácori National Historical Park Tumacácori National Historical Park is located in the upper Santa Cruz River Valley in Santa Cruz County, southern Arizona. The park consists of in three separate units. The park protects the ruins of three Spanish mission communities, two ...

in 1990. It was declared a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a National Register of Historic Places property types, building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States, United States government f ...

in 1990.,

Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail

The Mission Los Santos Ángeles de Guevavi is a designated site of the

Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail The Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail is a trail extending from Nogales on the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona, through the California desert and coastal areas in Southern California and the Central Coast region to San Francisco.

, a

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...

area in the United States

National Trails System The National Trails System is a series of trails in the United States designated "to promote the preservation of, public access to, travel within, and enjoyment and appreciation of the open-air, outdoor areas and historic resources of the Nati ...

References

* * Burrus, E. J., 1965 Kino and the Cartography of Northwestern New Spain. Tucson, AZ: Arizona Pioneers' Historical Society. * Burrus, E. J., 1971a Kino and Manje: Explorers of Sonora and Arizona. In Sources and Studies for the History of the Americas, Vol. 10. Rome and St. Louis: Jesuit Historical Institute. * Burton, Jeffrey F., 1992a San Miguel de Guevavi: The Archaeology of an Eighteenth Century Jesuit Mission on the Rim of Christendom. Tucson, AZ: Western Archaeological and Conservation Center National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. * Burton, Jeffrey F., 1992b Remnants of Adobe and Stone: The Surface Archaeology of the Guevavi and Calabazas Units, Tumacacori National Historical Park, Arizona. Tucson, AZ: Western Archaeological and Conservation Center National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. * Karns, H. J., 1954 Luz de Tierra Incognita. Tucson, AZ: Arizona Silhouettes. * Kessell, John L., 1970 Mission of Sorrow: Jesuit Guevavi and the Pimas, 1691–1767. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press. * Masse, W. Bruce, 1981 A Reappraisal of the Protohistoric Sobaipuri Indians of Southeastern Arizona. In The Protohistoric Period in the North American Southwest, A.D. 1450–1700. David R. Wilcox and W. Bruce Masse, editors. Tempe, AZ: Arizona State University Anthropological Research Papers No. 24, pp. 28–56. * Robinson, William J., 1976 Mission Guevavi: Excavations in the Convento. The Kiva 42(2):135–175. * Seymour, Deni J., 1993 Piman Settlement Survey in the Middle Santa Cruz River Valley, Santa Cruz County, Arizona. Report submitted to Arizona State Parks in fulfillment of survey and planning grant contract requirements. * Seymour, Deni J., 1997 Finding History in the Archaeological Record: The Upper Piman Settlement of Guevavi. Kiva 62(3):245–260. * Seymour, Deni J., 2007 A Syndetic Approach to Identification of the Historic Mission Site of San Cayetano Del Tumacácori. International Journal of Historical Archaeology, Vol. 11(3):269–296. * Seymour, Deni J., 2007 Delicate Diplomacy on a Restless Frontier: Seventeenth-Century Sobaipuri Social And Economic Relations in Northwestern New Spain, Part I. New Mexico Historical Review, Volume 824):469–499. * Seymour, Deni J., 2008 Delicate Diplomacy on a Restless Frontier: Seventeenth-Century Sobaipuri Social And Economic Relations in Northwestern New Spain, Part II. New Mexico Historical Review, Volume 83(2):171–199. * Seymour, Deni J., 2009 Father Kino's 'Neat Little House and Church' at Guevavi. Journal of the Southwest 51(2):285–316. * Seymour, Deni J., 2011 Where the Earth and Sky are Sewn Together: Sobaípuri-O’odham Contexts of Contact and Colonialism. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.

External links

National Park Service – Mission Los Santos Ángeles de Guevavi
— ''Tumacácori National Historical Park''

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mission Los Santos Angeles De Guevavi Tumacácori National Historical Park Buildings and structures in Santa Cruz County, Arizona Catholic Church in Arizona 1691 establishments in the Spanish Empire History of Santa Cruz County, Arizona National Historic Landmarks in Arizona Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Arizona National Register of Historic Places in Santa Cruz County, Arizona Protected areas established in 1990 Former populated places in Santa Cruz County, Arizona Archaeological sites in Arizona Ruins on the National Register of Historic Places Historic American Buildings Survey in Arizona Missions in Sonora