Where can you meet your Maker (and come back)?

Mount Baboquivari

San Xavier Le Bac Mission lies almost on the outskirts of Tuscon. Looking east from there one can see the motorway and the city beyond, looking west one sees a desert covered in cacti. Beyond the desert, in the distance, one can see a mountain ridge, whose highest peak towers above the crest like a finger sticking up. This is Baboquivari mountain, home of...

A few more words about the mission before I elaborate on that. First the temperature. This is the very south of Arizona, the area lower than the rest of the state and consequently hottest, at the end of September (when I am here) the temperature drops to about 40ºC. Of course there are more places in the state where temperature drops to 40ºC. What is remarkable here is the church: an authentic 18th century baroque church with proper baroque interior. It may look a bit provincial if compared to Rome, but when it was built this was really the very frontier of civilisation. In Mexico there are more magnificent churches but in the U.S. this is an exception. There is also another reason why this church is exceptional. Its patron is Saint Francis Xavier, a Jesuit missionary to the Far East, whose figure stands in the main altar. Local Indians come here to pray to Saint Xavier because the mission is in the grounds of Papago Indian Reservation.

(How did I write? Papago Indians? How could I do that? The name Papago is politically incorrect in the U.S. because some pen-pushers decided that in English it is derogatory and now the name "Tohono O'odham" should be used. I have to inform my readers about this in case they want to check on a map where the Papago Indian Reservation is. On newer maps they will not find it, they will find the Tohono O'odham instead. I will, however, continue to be politically incorrect and use the name Papago, especially as south of the border the name is still happily used, nobody sees anything wrong with it and the Indians there don't seem to be concerned about decisions of some Gringo pen-pushers. Back to the subject...)

The local Papago Indians come to pray at the figure of St Xavier, but not the one standing at the main altar. In the left transept there is a laying figure of the saint and it is there that the Indians come to pray. After the finished prayer they lift the laying figure by the head. St Francis Xavier was one of those saints whose body did not disintegrate, which is why he is sometimes shown as a figure laying on a pier. This is how he appears in the sanctuary in Magdalena del Kino in northern Mexico. For the Papagos, who live on both sides of the border, the Magdalena sanctuary is a holy place, their own equivalent of Lourdes. They make pilgrimages there and its main figure is replicated in many chapels in lands inhabited by the Papago.

However. However.

The first however is this: in the beginning of the 20th century there was a revolution in Mexico, the people who were in power were not friendly towards the Catholic Church and officially banned the cult of saints. In 1934 the Magdalena sanctuary was closed, all figures from its church chopped to pieces and used as fuel in a local brewery.

All of them?

Well, so THEY think. They think they chopped up the figure of St. Xavier, but the Indians know better. They Indians know that the figure at San Xavier le Bac is the one that used to be in the sanctuary in Magdalena before the Mexican revolution. The figure in Le Bac has no legs because one night it got up and walked all the way until it reached the place where it is now. The legs wore off in the process. A legend? Well, this is the way WE see it, but the Indians know better. Anyway there is also another legend, that the figure in Magdalena hid for the time of persecutions and returned to its old place afterwards. According to still another legend the figure fled to a place called San Francisquito, near the U.S. border, where it sill lies today in a chapel.

San Xavier le Bac

I have never been to the Mexican Magdalena but I did go to San Xavier le Bac (at the end of September, when the temperature mercifully drops to 40ºC) and I saw the figure of St Francis there. I noticed there were two kinds of people visiting the place. Guide books say that this is an authentic 18th century baroque church, something very unusual in the U.S., so some people there are tourists with cameras (like myself), taking a lot of pictures. Some of them are Catholics and genuflect when they enter the church. Most talk in English but there also some who speak Spanish or French. The guide books don't mention the horizontal figure of St. Francis in the transept, so the tourists are not aware of its importance. But there are also other visitors for whom the figure in the transept is the most important one in the church. Visually these people are not very different from other visitors, they dress just like other Americans, although they have Indian features and sometimes talk in a language i don't recognise. They genuflect as they enter and then immediately go to the left transept to pray by the horizontal figure of St Francis. After the prayer they all lift the figure by the head. Whole families come, little children are lifted up so they, too, can lift the head of the saint.

I asked some Indians why they do this. One young man in a shop explained: only if you come with a pure heart you can lift his head. If you can't do this, your prayers will not be heard. Another Indian, a hitchhiker whom we gave a lift as we drove through the reservation, said: You mean the one in San Xavier le Bac? This is Francisco Kino, who was a missionary there.

Wait, wait.

Francisco Kino? Is there a saint of that name? As far as I know Francisco Kino, a Jesuit and a missionary in northern Mexico, has not been canonised.

Perhaps the secret is hidden in the meaning of the word "canonisation". To be "canonised" means to be included in a canon, which means that the Church authorities accept that somebody actually is a saint. Nobody becomes a saint as a result of canonisation. In the middle ages people decided that somebody was a saint and made pilgrimages to his tomb without interference from the Church. Sometimes it happened that the Church could not accept a saint, which is why the whole idea of "canonisation" started. For example in mediaeval France there was a cult of St Guinefort, but the Church could not accept him as a saint because Guinefort was a dog. According to the doctrine of the Church a dog has no soul and cannot go to heaven (that is - be a saint). Anyway the Church does not make anybody a saint, only accepts that a dead person is in heaven already. For a canonisation procedure one has to prove there was a miracle which was a result of a prayer to that person. Only a saint, who already is in heaven, is in direct contact with God and can ask Him for favours. Consequently one not only can but should pray to people who died but have not been canonised. This is exactly what the Papago Indians do when they pray to Francisco Kino.

Indians praying by the lying figure of St Francis

Eusebio Francisco Kino was a Jesuit priest who in the 17th century travelled in the region called then Pimeria Alta, spreading the Gospel among Indians. He travelled around the region and set up missions, one of which was Magdalena, another San Xavier le Bac. He died in 1711 in Magdalena and he is buried there. In the main altar of the church in Magdalena there is a reclining figure of a saint whose name is also Francisco. Is it surprising that some people get confused a bit? After all St Francis Xavier was a distant figure who never came to Mexico, let alone Pimeria Alta, whereas Francisco Kino travelled in Sonora and met many people. He also must have made a huge impression on them if as a result of those meetings they became Christians. It is only natural that the Indians consider him a saint. To add some more confusion: the great fiesta in Magdalena falls on the day of St Francis, but... the one of Assisi.

Pimeria Alta was a part of the country ignored by the Spanish authorities in Mexico. There were no legends of fabulous treasures hidden there, there were even no villages with solid houses as in Rio Grande valley. Pimeria Alta was a desert inhabited by Indians who lived in simple huts. If they lived in huts, they must have been primitive. This judgement based on superficial appearances was (as is often the case) misleading. The local Indians, called Pima and Papago, lived off agriculture. One needs some solid knowledge to live off agriculture in a desert. From times immemorial they cultivated their maize watering their fields carefully. Nevertheless they were semi-nomadic, coming down from the mountains only when temperature dropped to about 40ºC, spending hotter months in higher regions. The Papago did not enter the popular Wild West literature because they were at odds with the brave Apaches, who (as a young man in a souvenir shop told me) came to their villages to kill men and steal women. Fighting the common enemy the Papago served as scouts for the U.S. troops chasing Geronimo. They managed to negotiate a big reservation for the tribe and in this reservation they build chapels of their saint Francisco and light candles there. Thousands of candles; when you enter one of these chapels you feel like stepping into an oven even though the temperature outdoors is 40ºC. What is more important - Baboquivari mountain is also on the grounds of the reservation. It is important because the person who lives there is no other than...

No guide books mention it at all but I asked the Indians I met and the answer was always the same: the person who lives on the mountain is I'toi, the Creator of the world. He lives in a cave close to the summit and the Indians bring Him flowers and offerings. Some people can meet Him, He appears as a very old hunchback. Could I go to that cave? Yes, I could, but I would need a permit from the reservation authorities. Unfortunately we would have to wait two weeks for this permit. We had a flight in a week so it could not be done. still I can say that I have seen a mountain on which the Creator lives in a cave. I even took a picture of the mountain. I didn't go to the cave only because I had no time to wait for the permit.

This is an interesting idea, though. It could be a perfect tourist attraction. Walk to the cave where your Maker lives - this would be something! The reservation authorities could earn money selling permits and the local Indians could also sell their handicrafts, or perhaps T-shirts with an appropriate design.

The only problem could be with actually meeting your Maker in person (and come back). They say that to meet Him one needs to have a pure heart. This is something one cannot buy from any authorities.

Papago Indian Reservation

You will find this text, 
and many more on the subject, 
in my book "DO THEY STILL LIVE IN WIGWAMS?":