The Franciscan order calls its priests to live a simple life, with a detachment from material possessions. Yet starting around 1783, and over the next 24 years, Franciscan friars would oversee the raising and decorating of a church that was anything but simple, that celebrated their faith in ornate, material splendor. They began during a period of active mission building in northern New Spain, and it was Spanish builders who brought their construction techniques and architectural ideals to San Xavier. “If we think of architecture as a built expression of a given culture or set of beliefs, then the mission is a perfect manifestation of Spanish Catholicism in the late 18th century,”

That painstaking work includes cleaning statues and paintings by carefully removing decades of soot and grime. “Imagine the impact of 150 years of wax candles,”