Mission churches around Socorro NM
/We signed up for a tour of mission churches while we were in Socorro, New Mexico for Festival of the Cranes. These are small historic Catholic churches that served small communities. The first one was the church in San Antonio NM which we had driven by on our way to Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge; its foundation is so unstable that it cannot be visited or restored. At some point it will be demolished. Fortunately, the others were in better shape and arrangements had been made for the caretakers to be there to open the building and talk about it. Vandalism has caused the security precautions of locking the buildings otherwise…unlike earlier in their history when they were open to all. None of them offer mass more than once a month…and only one had bathrooms.
The first one we were able to go inside was the San Jose Mission. The community has recently completed a renovation…putting tile on the floor and repairing the walls. There was an old organ with foot pedals; the caretaker said it had not been played anytime recently; a historian that was with our group was familiar with the type of instrument and was able to demonstrate that it was still functional…probably worth refurbishing and playing!
The second mission, La Sagrada Familia, was recently rebuilt. It was being renovated when one of the walls collapsed – making the project a rebuild rather than a renovation. They reused as much as they could from the original building – balcony railing, beams, wood doors, some of the windows. The new building is not as long or tall as the previous one.
The third mission we visited was San Lorenzo. It has a bell near the parking lot. The light through the stain glass windows were making patterns on the window ledges.
All the mission churches were built by the communities they served and often the original artwork was carved my regional artists that specialized in religious art. Many of those original carvings are gone either replaced when high quality plaster sculptures were available or lost to vandalism. The mission churches were originally staffed with priests…open to the community all the time – before it was feasible for people to travel to a larger church for services. There are cemeteries associated with the mission churches as well.
The tour was a good way to experience a slice of history of the area…and learn about the challenge to preserve these places…keep them relevant to the communities now.
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