Mission San José y San Miguel de Aguayo is an historic

Catholic mission Missionary work of the Catholic Church has often been undertaken outside the geographically defined parishes and dioceses by religious orders who have people and material resources to spare, and some of which specialized in missions. Eventually, p ...

San Antonio, Texas San Antonio ( ; Spanish for "Anthony of Padua, Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the List of Texas metropolitan areas, third-largest metropolitan area in Texa ...

, United States. The mission was named in part for the Marquis de San Miguel de Aguayo,

José de Azlor y Virto de Vera José de Azlor y Virto de Vera, second Marquis of San Miguel de Aguayo by marriage (born c. 1677 – died 9 March 1734), commonly known as the ''Marqués de Aguayo'', was the governor of the provinces of Coahuila and of the New Philippines in New ...

History

The mission was founded by the Cana people on February 23, 1720, because Mission San Antonio de Valero had become overcrowded shortly after its founding with refugees from the closed East Texas missions. Father

Antonio Margil Antonio Margil, OFM (18 August 1657 – 6 August 1726) was a Spanish Franciscan missionary in North and Central America. Based at the College of Santa Cruz in Santiago de Querétaro, after 1715, he worked largely in Texas and Louisiana. Father Ma ...

received permission from the governor of Coahuila and Texas, the Marquis de San Miguel de Aguayo, to build a new mission south of San Antonio de Valero. Like San Antonio de Valero, Mission San José served the

Coahuiltecan The Coahuiltecan were various small, autonomous bands of Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Native Americans who inhabited the Rio Grande valley in what is now northeastern Mexico and southern Texas. The various Coahuiltecan groups were hunter ga ...

Natives. The first buildings, made of brush, straw, and mud, were quickly replaced by large stone structures, including guest rooms, offices, a dining room, and a pantry. A heavy outer wall was built around the main part of the mission, and rooms for 350 Natives were built into the walls.Maxwell (1998), p. 29. A new church, which is still standing, was constructed in 1768 from local limestone.Maxwell (1998), p. 30. The mission lands were given to its Natives in 1794, and mission activities officially ended in 1824. After that, the buildings were home to soldiers, the homeless, and bandits. Starting in 1933, the

Civil Works Administration The Civil Works Administration (CWA) was a short-lived job creation program established by the New Deal during the Great Depression in the United States in order to rapidly create mostly manual-labor jobs for millions of unemployed workers. The j ...

and then the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; from 1935 to 1939, then known as the Work Projects Administration from 1939 to 1943) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to car ...

provided the labor to rebuild and restore the grounds of the mission. Some of the funding for the restoration came from money allotted by the United States for the

Texas Centennial Exposition The Texas Centennial Exposition was a world's fair presented from June 6 to November 29, 1936, at Fair Park, Dallas, Texas. A celebration of the 100th anniversary of Texas's independence from Mexico in 1836, it also celebrated Texas and Western ...

held in

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

in 1936. The mission walls and Indian quarters were re-built, and the granary was restored. Mission San José is now part of the

San Antonio Missions National Historical Park San Antonio Missions National Historical Park is a National Historical Park and part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site preserving four of the five Spanish frontier missions in San Antonio, Texas, US. These outposts were established by Catholic re ...

. In 2015, along with The Alamo and

Mission Concepción Franciscan Friars established Mission Nuestra Señora de la Purísima Concepción de Acuña (also Mission Concepción) in 1711 as Nuestra Señora de la Purísima Concepción de los Hainais in East Texas. The mission was by the Domingo Ramón ( ...

, it became one of five missions in San Antonio designated a

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

by the

United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, science ...

. Today the mission is an active parish, and is staffed by the

Order of Friars Minor The Order of Friars Minor (commonly called the Franciscans, the Franciscan Order, or the Seraphic Order; Post-nominal letters, postnominal abbreviation OFM) is a Mendicant orders, mendicant Catholic religious order, founded in 1209 by Francis ...

. The current pastor is Fr. Rogelio Martinez, OFM.

Architecture

The church facade features from the top: a cross, representing Jesus Christ,

Saint Joseph According to the canonical Gospels, Joseph (; ) was a 1st-century Jewish man of Nazareth who was married to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and was the legal father of Jesus. Joseph is venerated as Saint Joseph in the Catholic Church, Eastern O ...

(San José) holding the infant Jesus,

Saint Dominic Saint Dominic, (; 8 August 1170 – 6 August 1221), also known as Dominic de Guzmán (), was a Castilians, Castilian Catholic priest and the founder of the Dominican Order. He is the patron saint of astronomers and natural scientists, and he a ...

and Saint Francis,

Our Lady of Guadalupe Our Lady of Guadalupe (), also known as the Virgin of Guadalupe (), is a Catholic title of the Blessed Virgin Mary associated with four Marian apparitions to Juan Diego and one to his uncle, Juan Bernardino reported in December 1531, when t ...

(the Virgin Mary),

Saint Joachim Joachim was, according to Sacred tradition, the husband of Saint Anne, the father of Mary (mother of Jesus), and the maternal grandfather of Jesus. The story of Joachim and Anne first appears in the Gospel of James, part of the New Testament apoc ...

and

Saint Anne According to apocrypha, as well as Christianity, Christian and Islamic tradition, Saint Anne was the mother of Mary, mother of Jesus, Mary, the wife of Joachim and the maternal grandmother of Jesus. Mary's mother is not named in the Bible's Gosp ...

holding the infant Mary. Located at the south wall of the church sacristy is the Rose Window. Sculptor and significance of the Rose Window is unknown. According to folklore, the window was sculpted by a Spanish master craftsman and artist Pedro Huizar and dedicated it to his sweetheart Rosa who, on her way from Spain to meet with Pedro, lost her life at sea. The Rose Window was sculpted in 1775 and is an example of Baroque architecture in America. Many buildings on the campus of Texas Tech University in

Lubbock, Texas Lubbock ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Lubbock County. With a population of 272,086 in 2024, Lubbock is the 10th-most populous city in Texas and the 84th-most populous in the United States. The city is in the ...

, borrow architectural elements from those found at Mission San José.

References

External links

Mission San José y San Miguel de Aguayo
at the

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 ...

Mission San José y San Miguel de Aguayo
at the Handbook of Texas Online . {{DEFAULTSORT:Mission San Jose, Texas San Jose San Antonio Missions National Historical Park San Antonio Missions (World Heritage Site) Buildings and structures in San Antonio Churches completed in 1768 Archaeological sites in Texas Tourist attractions in San Antonio 1720 establishments in Texas 1768 establishments in Texas Spanish Colonial architecture in Texas 18th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States

History

Architecture

See also

References

External links