San Xavier del Bac Mission

Restoration

The Need

There is a saying, "I'm not getting older - I'm getting more complex" San Xavier Mission is both.  The current Mission Church, finished in 1797, is over two centuries old. Time has taken a toll on the buildings, statues, and wall paintings of this beautiful parish church, and maintenance is becoming more and more complex.

The Patronato

Patronato of San Xavier, founded in 1978, is dedicated to the preservation of Mission San Xavier del Bac.  It is a nonprofit corporation whose funds are to be used solely and exclusively for historical research, scientific, and educational purposes concerned with restoration, maintenance and preservation of Mission Xavier."

During the six year project

circa 1992-1997

Current restoration project on the exterior of the church.

In 1989 the Patronato San Xavier began raising money to restore the mission.  The interior restoration was a six-year project.  The east and west altars were restored during the first two years.  The third year the dome wall paintings were restored.  It took two years to restore the main altar (retablo mayor), which was a difficult process that involved the use of chemicals to clean and protect the gold and silver leaf coverings.  The sixth and final year of the interior work restored the choir loft, the area below the loft (sotocoro) and the sacristy.

The work on the mission exterior was to stabilize the walls and domes of the mission.  The cost of just this exceeded 1.5 million dollars.  Currently the church's exterior is being repaired and restored.  To do this, the construction crew is using a recipe used by the Tohono O'odham peoples, which when baked in the hot Arizona sun makes the church's exterior a bright white color which helps in being able to resist the harsh desert weather.

Today

When the interior conservation was completed in 1997, the Patronato recognized that upkeep would be required on a regular basis.  To that end, an endowment fund was begun, one whose annual income could be used expressly for the purpose of maintenance and upkeep of the mission.

Beginning in 2001, conservators Timothy Lewis and Matilde Rubio were hired to work on the interior of the church and to clean and make repairs on painted and sculptured art and on the walls where needed.  Lewis is one of the Tohono O'odham from the district of San Xavier who trained in conservation techniques as one of the apprentices working with professional European conservators at the mission between 1992-1997.  Under Patronato and church, he received further training in Salzburg, Austria and Rome, where he met his wife. Since 1997 they have spent most of their time in Spain where they have been employed as a team working on several high profile conservation projects.

The Mission was very fortunate that the Patronato was able to bring Tim and Matilde to San Xavier to initiate what will be a program of annual upkeep of the church's interior.  Working from scaffolding when necessary (which is most of the time), Tim and Matilde spend about two months each year making a detailed evaluation of the condition of the plaster, painting and sculpture in the church; removing dust, wasps' nests, soot (from candles), candle wax and similar surface blemishes; and starting a program of cleaning, consolidation, replacement of mortar, and retouching.  They chose to start the upkeep working the east transept because in 1992 it became the first area of the church to receive professional attention.

Lewis and Rubio dusted the area with the use of soft brushes and a special vacuum cleaner, candle wax and wasps' mud nests were removed with a scalpel; and special sponges were used to clean the flat vertical surfaces of the paintings.  Using ammonium caseinate and dehydrated mortar made especially for restoration, flaking paint layers were fixed by injection with syringes and detached mortar layers were consolidated by injection with controlled pressure.  Where necessary, mortar was replaced with a lime mortar comprised of three parts sand to one part slaked lime.  Loss of paint layers and faded retouching were retouched with watercolors in an aqua sporca color, while larger areas that needed retouching were done with a simple rigatino (fluted effect).  Lewis and Rubio carefully document every detail of their work, including the results of their examination of the entire interior.

Matilde and Tim restoring a wall painting

A Saint surrounded by scaffolding

Bringing out the beauty lost for almost 200 years.

Contributions

Anyone wishing to contribute to the preservation of this historic mission may send a tax-deductible donation to:

Patronato San Xavier

P.O. Box 522

Tucson, Arizona 85702