Spanish missions in Arizona

Beginning in 1493, the Kingdom of Spain maintained a number of missions throughout "Nueva España" (New Spain, consisting of Mexico and portions of what today are the Southwestern United States) in order to facilitate colonization of these lands.

Jesuit missionaries

In the Spring of 1687, a Jesuit missionary named Father Eusebio Francisco Kino lived and worked with the native Americans in the area called the "Pimería Alta," or "Upper Pima Country," which presently is located in the areas between the Mexican state of Sonora and the state of Arizona in the United States. During Father Eusebio Kino's stay in the Pimería Alta, he founded over twenty missions in eight mission districts. In Arizona, unlike Mexico, missionization proceeded slowly.

Father Kino founded missions San Xavier and San Miguel at the Piman communities of Bac and Guevavi along the Santa Cruz.

Missions

* Mission Nuestra Señora de los Dolores founded on March 13, 1687. This was the first mission founded by Father Kino. By 1744, the mission was abandoned. The cemetery remans on the site of the Tumacácori National Historical Park in Southern Arizona.
* Mission San Cayetano de Tumacácori was founded in 1691, then moved in 1751 and renamed Mission San José de Tumacácori. The farming land around the mission was sold at auction in 1834 and the mission was abandoned by 1840. The remains are part of the Tumacácori National Historical Park in Southern Arizona.
* Mission Los Santos Ángeles de Guevavi was also established by Father Kino, one day after Tumacácori, in January 1691.
* Mission San Pedro y San Pablo del Tubutama, first founded by the Jesuits in 1691. The present structure is located on a part of the Tumacácori National Historical Park in Southern Arizona.
* Mission San Xavier del Bac, located South of Tucson, active religious use, founded in 1699. :* Mission San Agustîn, also known as San Cosme y Damian de Tucson, was established by Father Garcés as a "visita" or daughter church of San Xavier del Bac in the O'odham village of "Chuk-Son" in 1770. This community becomes to be called Tucson in the following century.
* Mission San Cayetano de Calabazas was established in November of 1756 by Jesuit Father Francisco Pauer.
* Mission Puerto de Purísima Concepción was founded in October, 1780 by Father Francisco Garcés.
* Mission San Pedro y San Pablo de Bicuñer was founded in January, 1781 by Father Francisco Garcés.

ee also

* Spanish missions in the Sonoran Desert
* Spanish missions in California
* Spanish missions in New Mexico
* Spanish missions in Texas
* Jesuit Asia missions
* Jesuit Reductions
* Reductions

External links

* [http://www.timsbaja.com/rjackson.html The Missions of the California's and Beyond]
* [http://www.nps.gov/tuma/Kino_Missions.html Kino Missions]
* [http://parentseyes.arizona.edu/missions/ Arizona Education, Kino Missions]