The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1907-05-18

Thomas A. Shaughnessy of Chicago.
an artist and newspaper man of great
merit, who has taken a deep interest
in the history of old Catholic missions.
contributed the followin interesting
article to the last number of "Exten-
sion" the publication of the Church
Extension Society of America, says
the Denver Catholic Register.
Neglect has lost to America many of
her most precious historical relics. the
Catholic missions. which marked, like
mle-stones. the progress of the nio-
neers in every quarter of the conti
ncnt.
generation may be charged the de-
structon Of two of the first fourteen
churches built in America, San Vide
fonso and Santa. Clara, which were
standing, one of them already bap-
tized in the blood OF martyred priests,
when the first Protestant colonists set
1OOl upon tI1lS hemisphere.
The missions of Santa Clara and
San Yidefonso stood in thevaley OF
the Rio Grande about thirty miles
above Santa Fe. New Mexico. Their
massive walls of adobe had for three
centuries been consecratcd to the
service of God.
From the time the missions were
built until they were torn down within
the past ten years, by misguided phil
anthropists. these buildings were
guarded with Jealous care by the In
dians, who gathered in the old mis-
sions on every Sunday and on feast
days to assist at the celebration of the
Mass or to recitc the Rosary.
or the fifty missions in which the
Sacrifice of the Mass was being cele-
brated in New Mexico and Arizona at
the close of the seventeenth century
comparatively few remain today and
of these few nearly all have been
stripped Of their original beauty.
While Catholic laymcn. Indifferent to
lected these sacred heirlooms of tho
Church. the burden they should have
been proud to ebar has fallen upon
the shoulders of n Catholic. Chne.
r. Lummis, the author, who has taken
It ,lpon himself to do Justice to tn"
memory Of the heroic missionaries
who civilized and claimed to Chris
tianity the Indians of the Southwest
He is now trying to preserve what
they built.
Among the missions that have been
hopelessly spoiled recently in an effort
to make them look modern, are San
Miguel at Santa F'e, built, according to
some historians, in the year 1545, ac-
cording to others in the year 1896. and
the mission founded by Fr Garcia. de
San Francisco at FL Paso in the sew
enteenth century.
The story of the building Of the
missions in the valley of the Rio
Grande from Ell Paso on the Mexican
border to Taos in the walls Of the
canon Of the upper Rio Grandc is
beautifully told by Mr.. Lummis in
his story of the Spanish exploration
of New Mexico and Arizona.
He tells Of the hardships and self
sacrifice of the missionaries who came
after FIR. Morcos of Mia, who in 1888
discovered New Mexico. Some Of the
missions built among the Pueblo In
dians of New Mexico and Arizona cited
in Mr.. Lummis' narrative are: San
Gabriel de los Espanoles. Chimita: the
old mission now forming part Of the
Cathedral of Santa Fe. built by FIR.
Alonzo de Benavides, 1927: the mis-
sions in the pueblos of Galisto, Pews,
the two pueblos of Jemez. 100 miles
west of Santa Fe, Taos, Sandia, San
Filipe, Santo Domingo, San Yldefonso
and Santa Clara. These last named