Patronato’s Christmas at San Xavier
returns to the Mission for 2023

Patronato’s beloved concert series that, for many, defines the beginning of the holiday season in Southern Arizona returns December 6-7, 2023.

All concert performances are SOLD OUT!

Thank you for supporting conservation and preservation at San Xavier del Bac. 

Patronato’s Virtual Concert

THANK YOU TO OUR 2023 SPONSORS

OUR LEAD SPONSOR

Desert Diamond

OUR CORPORATE SUPPORTERS

BJ Drilling

OUR FAMILY SUPPORTERS

Pat and Chuck Pettis

The Bill Horst Family

Laura and Arch Brown

The Ginny L. Clements Charitable Trust and Tom Rogers

Mary and Fred Frelinghuysen

Barbara and Hank Peck

Kenneth J. and Margaret F. McNealy

Becky and Bill LaMear

Don Bennett Moon Foundation

Vera and Richard DeJong

In-kind Gifts

General Sponsors and In-kind Gifts Long Realty Cares Foundation and Snell & Wilmer
Merrill

Highlights from our Virtual Concert in 2021

Our Mission

Patronato San Xavier funds and directs ethical conservation, conducts scientific research, and conveys the significance of Mission San Xavier del Bac, a National Historic Landmark in the community of Wa:k, part of the Tohono O’odham Nation.

Docent Tours

Free Docent tours return to the Mission!

COVID closed the Patronato San Xavier’s popular docent lead tours almost three years ago but starting this month, they are back. Because sections of the mission remain closed, the thirty minute tours share information outside the church about the people who populated the borderlands area, the arrival of Father Kino and the building of the present church.
Tour times vary by season. To see current times for Public Tours, click on the “Learn More” button below. 

Special Group Tours and School Tours remain temporarily suspended.

Iconic Facade

The Next Priority Project

With the conservation of the art work in the highest sections of the Mission (the dome and the octagonal drum) completing this month, we are now narrowing focus to the next major project, the iconic facade. Already a number of research phase are underway that will inform the protocols to be used. These will be tested on a sample panel of the facade in the fall. The scope of the project is being expanded; the estipite columns are now likely to be replaced crafting ones that more closely align with the photographic evidence fro the 1870’s. The current balcony will also be replaced with a replica again that will draw on the earliest photographic evidence. We now feel that both the cost estimates and the timing of this major project will need to change and will be contingent on the discoveries that become apparent as research study reveals additional information.

Our thanks to Robert Shea for this incredible shot of the blood moon over Mission San Xavier del Bac on January 31, 2018.

In The News

Close look at Mission San Xavier’s intricate entrance reveals surprises

By Henry Brean | Arizona Daily Star
Art conservators found something staring back at them when they climbed the scaffolding last month to study the façade of Southern Arizona’s most famous church. As it turns out, the doomsday mouse at San Xavier del Bac has round, metal nails for eyes. That was news to Tim Lewis and Matilde Rubio, who have worked on artwork at the mission for decades.

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