Santa María Suamca (also Santa María del Pilar, Santa María de los Pimas, Santa María Búgota, Santa Cruz) was a

Spanish mission in the Sonoran desert The Spanish missions in the Sonoran Desert () are a series of Jesuit Catholic religious outposts established by the Spanish Catholic Jesuits and other orders for religious conversions of the Pima and Tohono O'odham indigenous peoples residing i ...

History

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

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 ...

founded Suamca in 1706 as a of Mission Nuestra Señora de los Dolores. It became an independent mission with the 1732 arrival of Ignacio Xavier Keller At times,

Mission San Lázaro San Lázaro was a Spanish mission in the Sonoran desert. Located in the Santa Cruz River valley, the European settlement was founded as a cattle ranch by José Romo de Vivar. The mission was founded by Jesuit missionary Eusebio Kino about 1695, ...

and

Mission San Luis Bacoancos San Luis Bacoancos, also called San Luis de Babi, was a Spanish mission in the Sonoran desert. History Jesuit missionary Eusebio Kino established the site in January 1697. It was designated as a of Mission Los Santos Ángeles de Guevavi in 170 ...

were administered as of Suamca. The missionaries abandoned Suamca in favor of

Mission Nuestra Señora del Pilar y Santiago de Cocóspera Nuestra Señora del Pilar y Santiago de Cocóspera was a Spanish mission in the Sonoran desert. History Jesuit missionary Eusebio Kino founded Cocóspera in 1689. It was initially a of Mission San José de Imuris, and at various times served ...

, after an

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 ...

raid on November 19, 1768 destroyed most of the buildings. In 1787,

Presidio Santa Cruz de Terrenate The Presidio Santa Cruz de Terrenate is a former Spanish military presidio, or fortress, located roughly west of the town of Tombstone, Arizona, in the United States of America. History The Presidio Santa Cruz de Terrenate was established on ...

was relocated to Suamca, which was subsequently repopulated and called Santa Cruz after the .

Missionaries

Missionaries stationed at Santa María Suamca included: * Ignacio Xavier Keller (1732–1759) * José Torres Perea (1741–1743) * Joaquín Félix Díaz (1733; 1760) * José Garrucho (1744–1748) * Miguel de la Vega (1749–1751) * Juan Nentvig (1753) * Francisco Hlava (1756) * Juan Labora (1757) * Diego Barrera (1760–1767) * Francisco Roche (1768)

References

{{reflist 1706 establishments in the Spanish Empire Missions in Sonora Jesuit history in North America