San Antonio Missions National Historical Park

Seeking Fortune, Finding Catholic Faith

The chain of missions established along the San Antonio River in the 18th century is a reminder of one of Spain’s most successful attempts to extend its dominion northward from New Spain (present-day New Mexico). Collectively they form the largest concentration of Catholic missions in North America.

Tales of riches spurred early Spanish explorers northward across the Rio Grande. By the 17th century Spaniards penetrated areas to the east, encountering the Tejas Indians for whom Texas is named. As dreams of wealth faded, the Spanish concentrated their efforts more fully on the spreading of the Catholic faith – the basis of Spanish colonial society – among frontier Indians. Financially supported by the Crown, Franciscan missions served both Church and State. As an arm of the church, the mission was the vanguard of the spiritual conversion of the Indians to that Catholic faith. As an agent of the state, the mission helped push the empire northward. For the Indians the missions offered sanctuary from their enemies.

Spanish Colonies

Threatened by French encroachments from Louisiana, Spain stepped up its colonization in 1690, establishing six missions in East Texas. Needing a way station between these and other Franciscan missions in New Spain, the friars transferred a failed mission on the Rio Grande to the San Antonio River in 1718. It was renamed mission San Antonion de Valero, later called the Alamo.

Water, timber, and game in this rich valley had long attracted Spanish explorers. Noting the large population of Coahuiltecan (kwa-weel-teken) Indians nearby, Fray Antonio Margil de Jesus established a second mission, San Jose, in 1720. As the East Texas missions failed due to disease, drought, and shifting relations with France, three were moved to the San Antonio River valley in 1731. These five missions, a presidio (fort), and a settlement were the seeds for one of the most successful Spanish communities in Texas.

The San Antonio missions flourished between 1747 and 1775, despite periodic incursions by Apache and Comanche Indians. Military support was always inadequate; the Spanish trained the Christianized mission Indians to defend their communities. After 70 years the need for the missions diminished due to the effects of European diseases, acculturation, and intermarriage. By 1824 the San Antonio missions were secularized – their lands redistributed among their inhabitants and the churches transferred to the secular clergy.

The Spanish missions helped form the foundation for the city of San Antonio. The modern San Antonio community early recognized their significance, and since the 1920s has worked to preserve them. Today these missions represent an almost unbroken connection with the past. Carrying the legacy of generations of American Indians and Hispanics, they live as active parishes.

American Indians: The Coahuiltecans

The American Indians who lived in the San Antonio missions came from a number of hunting and gathering bands known collectively as Coahuiltecans (kwa-weel-tekens). Ranging throughout today’s south Texas and northeastern Mexico, they moved with the seasons, searching for food. Distinct dialects and religious practices were found among these bands, but they shared broad characteristics.

Extended families came together in larger bands when food was abundant. The men hunted an occasional bison, deer, or rabbit or trapped fish and snakes. But fruits, nuts, beans, roots, and seeds gathered by the women and children provided the bulk of their diet. Dressed in skins and woven sandals, they used bows and arrows, fishing nets, digging sticks, and grinding stones to obtain and prepare food. When time permitted they fashioned brush huts and wove sleeping mats. They produced simple pottery and were fine basket makers, using them to store and transport. They practiced rites of passage and seasonal ceremonies common to many hunter-gatherer cultures.

Even before their ancient living habits were altered by mission life, the Coahuiltecens were being pressed by nomadic tribes encroaching from the north. A greater threat, however, was the introduction of European diseases by the Spanish, which eventually decimated their numbers. Struggling under such hardships, the Coahuiltecans proved to be relatively willing recruits for the missionaries. In exchange for labor and conversion to Catholicism, Indians received food and refuge in the missions.

The Franciscan Missions Serving Cross and Crown

Spanish colonialism, like that of other nations at the time, was exploitative. Yet the Franciscans who directed the missions did so with a gentle hand. An order of friars whose members took vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, the Franciscans pledged to serve as protectors of the Indians. They also assisted the Crown as explorers, cartographers, diplomats, scientific observers, and chroniclers. But their primary task in the New World was to aid in extending Spanish culture to whatever lands the Crown claimed.

The mission system sought to bring Indians into Spanish society by concentrating scattered tribes into church-centered communities. Under the direction of the Franciscans, Indians built these communities, eventually erecting stone structures and developing stable economies. The missions functioned primarily as religious centers and training grounds for the rudiments of Spanish citizenship. Indians were taught obedience to the Crown along with the vocational skills needed for economic self-sufficiency.

Enclosed within massive stone walls, each compound offered its residents security from enemies. With the assistance of several soldiers from the nearby presidio (fort), the San Antonio missions also served to defend the King’s dominions. The soldiers taught the Indians to use European arms. Nearly every armed patrol in Spanish Texas that set out in pursuit of Apache and Comanche Indians included mission Indian auxiliaries.

Mission Life

The Indian neophytes’ days were highly structured. At sunrise, bells called them to morning Mass, singing, prayers, and religious instruction. They then returned to their quarters for the morning meal, usually a corn dish. Most men and boys headed for the fields, orchards, gardens, or quarries. Others stayed behind to forge iron, weave cloth, or build structures. A few tended livestock at the distant ranches. The women and girls learned to cook, sew, and spin; tend gardens; and make soap, pottery, and candles. Fishing and arrow making were the responsibility of the older residents. The neophytes practiced their catechism, usually in Spanish. The day ended with prayers and a little free time. Church feast days provided a welcome break in the routine.

The essence of the mission system was discipline – religious, social, and moral. Though some Coahuiltecans fled the missions to return to their old life, most accepted Catholicism and became active participants in Spanish society.