Mission Los Santos Ángeles de Guevavi


Mission Los Santos Ángeles de Guevavi was founded by Jesuit missionary Fathers Kino and Salvatierra in 1691 as La Misión de San Gabriel de Guevavi, a district headquarters in what is now Arizona, near Tumacácori. Subsequent missionaries called it San Rafael and San Miguel, resulting in the common historical name of Los Santos Ángeles de Guevavi.

History

Father Juan de San Martín was assigned as the first resident priest, with construction of a small chapel in 1701. Guevavi was designated as cabecera that same year. The ruins of the mission church are situated amidst a native Sobaipuri or O'odham settlement. Fathers Agustín de Campos and Luis Xavier Velarde visited occasionally after that. Father Grazhoffer reestablished a second church Guevavi in 1732.
In 1751, Father Garrucho contracted the building of a new and larger 15 foot by 50 foot church, the ruins of which still exist today. The mother of Juan Bautista de Anza is buried in front of the altar. By the late 1690s, the Mission consisted of a church, a carpentry shop, and a blacksmith's area. By the 1770s, the settlement had been abandoned. The first Franciscan priest, Father Juan Crisóstomo Gil de Bernabé, arrived in 1768 and took up residency at the Mission with about fifty families. The Apaches 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 in 1775.

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 Guevavi and Father Kino's "neat little house and church."

Tumacácori National Historical Park

The Mission's ruins were incorporated into Tumacácori National Historical Park in 1990. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1990.,

Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail

The Mission Los Santos Ángeles de Guevavi is one of the designated tour sights of the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail, a National Park Service unit in the United States National Historic Trail and National Millennium Trail programs. A and detailed , with a and the are all available for information about the historic 1776 Juan Bautista de Anza trail places. Here, in front of the altar the mother of Juan Bautista de Anza is buried.