By Michael Patrick O’Brien–
The Sonoran Desert—the hottest in North America—is home to sky islands, to thriving agave, palm, and cacti plants, and to the only jaguar population living in the United States. They each are distinctive and beautiful.
None may be quite as striking, however, as the White Dove that soars out of the ancient and arid desert floor. We saw it in early December 2023.
Not the lovely white-winged dove (Zenaida asiatica) which migrates between the Southwestern United States and Mexico. I mean the almost-250-years-old Mission San Xavier del Bac just south of Tucson.
The mission, the oldest Catholic church in Arizona, has never moved. Yet, it has been in four different nations—New Spain, Mexico, the United States, and the indigenous Tohono O’odham nation.
Jesuit Father Eusebio Francisco Kino (1645-1711) started the mission in 1692. Kino was an Italian geographer, explorer, mapmaker, mathematician, and astronomer who, for the final two decades of his life, worked with the Sonoran peoples.
Unlike many of his contemporary Spanish missionaries looking for conquests or converts, the enlightened and compassionate Kino sought to improve the living conditions of the indigenous people he met. He promoted economic development and taught cattle breeding, agricultural methods, and iron work.
Kino also opposed the slavery and compulsory hard labor in mines that the Spaniards forced on many of the native people. Unfortunately, that positive mission statement did not always protect his foundation in Southern Arizona.
In 1770, Apache warriors—long time enemies of the Tohono O’odham people—attacked and destroyed the original structure which Kino had started. Thankfully, O’odham laborers and the Franciscans who took over the mission rebuilt it.
Work on the present structure—affectionately known as the White Dove of the Desert—started in 1783, the same year the American Revolution ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris.
Construction ended in 1797, just as George Washington finished his second term as the first president of the United States.
Mexico waged its own war for independence over the course of a decade and finally won it in 1821. The mission remained in Mexican territory for over 30 years until the Gadsden Purchase of 1854, when the mission became part of the United States.
In 1874, President Ulysses S. Grant established the San Xavier Tohono O’odham Reservation on lands surrounding the mission. As part of that nation even now, San Xavier still serves the local indigenous community as Father Kino intended, with help from the Franciscans who staff the church.
San Xavier today is known as the oldest working Spanish mission and the best example of Spanish colonial architecture in the United States.
The mission originally was named for St. Francis Xavier, a co-founder of the Jesuit order. Because the Franciscans have operated the mission too, with a few interruptions over the course of the last two centuries, the community also honors another St. Francis…the one from Assisi.
A Franciscan priest celebrated the Sunday Mass we recently attended. Before Mass, as we drove towards the sacred site, the brick and white stucco Moorish exterior did seem to rise out of the desert floor.
No nearby landmarks challenge either its height or visual appeal. From the front, the church looks like a dove, with two tall white towers acting as wings on either side of the brown-painted facade of the main sanctuary.
Giant saguaro cactus—which grow naturally only in the Sonoran Desert—decorate the grounds. The saguaro is the largest cactus in the United States and sustains many desert species integral to the Tohono O’odham culture.
We walked to the mission via the dirt and stone plaza in front of the church, and entered through huge heavy doors carved from mesquite wood. Once inside, two things happened almost immediately.
First, thick stone walls lowered the temperature by at least ten degrees. Second, the ornate two-centuries-old frescoed and gilded interior immeasurably raised our curiosity level and desire to explore.
The church was crowded, however, and Mass was about to start.
We pulled on sweaters and satisfied our curiosity by politely gawking—stationary from our wooden pew—while also trying to concentrate on the service in which we were participating. It was a challenge, but a happy one.
Many O’odham are Catholics, but also aware of their “himdage” or “way of life,” which includes traditions and beliefs of the tribe elders. During days past, when both the Franciscans and Jesuits had left the beloved mission behind, it was the local Tohono O’odham people who worked to restore it.
A larger community now has joined in, and efforts to preserve this unique Sonoran institution are ongoing. Retired pop star Linda Ronstadt told the New York Times the mission, where she had her children baptized, was one of her favorite places in her native Tucson.
We were delighted to visit and contribute a small amount to keep the White Dove of the Desert aloft.
*Mike O’Brien (author website here) is a writer and attorney living in Salt Lake City, Utah. Paraclete Press published his book Monastery Mornings, about growing up with the monks at the old Trappist monastery in Huntsville, Utah, in August 2021. The League of Utah Writers chose it as the best non-fiction book of 2022.
