The End of Tucson and the San Xavier del Bac Mission. And a little bit of Appleton

There is an old SJ mission (old as in 1630s) south of Tucson. It is still an active church, so we decided to pay a visit.

On the way, we noticed these pretty purple Prickly Pear cactuses. They had one there, so I got a nice photo.

 

Oddly enough, St Francis is the patron saint of this church, though it is named after Saint Xavier.

Why St Xavier is wearing a Russian hat, I was not able to figure out.

But we do know that when the Jesuits were kicked out of New Spain in 1767 the Franciscans took over this mission.


Doreen theorized that the local artisans saw etchings of European Cathedrals, and tried to recreate them.

Since it was an active church, Doreen wanted to light a candle and hope for a miracle. We bought a nice big candle at the gift shop, and I told the checkout person that we were hoping for a miracle. "What kind?" she asked. "She's deaf in one ear, and she wants the hearing back". "Ah. So a head miracle" "Yes." She opened up her box of Milagros and said, "Here's a head. I don't have a pin, but I can tape it to the candle" Which we did.

We lit the candle, Doreen said an Our Father, I said an Our Father and two Hail Marys, we genuflected, and were off.

(NB to family, Doreen doesn't know the Hail Mary, so one of you will have to say the Rosary for her at my wake)



A little while later while hiking about the city, we ran into a woman with a LUW baseball cap. In small letters it said "Badger State"

We started chatting, and I asked her where she was from. I asked where, and she said, "Oh, a little south of Green Bay". "Appleton?" I asked... "Yes!" She replied. She had been the secretary to the head of the Appleton School Board. She knew Tim Hannah, and of course West. I told her a niece has her kids in the public schools there. She was pleased.

The LUW is (was?) a "Lighten Up Wisconsin" campaign to try and get people to loose weight.

She said it wasn't working.

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