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Show AN ANCIENT CHURCH. Description of the Famous Church of San Xavier del Dac. In the study of the historic churches of America, which a- number of club j women have taken up recently, they j have found none more interesting than the Church of San Xavier del Dac, ' which is said to be one of the oldest houses of worship in the country, says the New York Tribune. According to history, it was completed In 1694 in the valley of Santa Cruz, about ten miles south of Tucson, Ariz. Service is no longer held there. The structure is of. Byzantine and Moorish architecture, j The frescoes are scenes from the life ; of Christ and the Virgin Mary- It ia i.he second building of its kind in Ari- 1 zona. Both were elected ia pursuance of a scheme to establish a circle, of missions from Loretto to Monterey. , Fathers Kino and Juan Calva Tierra I are said to have been the originators. They were present at the laying of the corner stane of the Church of San j Xavier. It took thirty years to build the church! . ; The foundation walls are of line brick, ! I covered with a smooth, thick layer f ' cement. The outside of the walls are of the same material: on the inside they are of hewn ;bblest nes, also; j smeared with thc.iemcnt and hand- j somely stuccoed. I Of a castellated style, the building is ; I surmounted by a d;me and two mina- : rets of Moslem architecture. The front j is deeoratr-1 with the coait of arms of ; the Franciscan Monks a coil of rope i and two arms. One. bared, is the arm i of Christ; the other, clothed, is that! of St. Francis of Assisi. the founder of , the order which bears Ids name. And a bust of the saint appears to the right of the coat of arms at least what then? is ieft of the bust. At each angle of the f acinar are th.. mm:iim of sri-itlinn and dragons. uiginally forty-eight, many of these figures have been taken away by si.Cu-st.ers, and these that remain are in a ad condition of ch-cay. Surrounding tht- tiled roof is u balustrade balus-trade of bi ic k and cement, looking down upon the old portico where sj many morning players were breathed. . in the form of a huge Latin cross ia the interior of the church. Four large paintings cover the immense ceiling, ' and extend from some distance down ' the arched sUU. They represent the Annunciation, the Visitation of the Vir- i gin to Elizabeth, th-.- Nativity and the i Visitation of the .Magi. The ceiling ; itself fifty feet from the ilooring is j supported by six m.-is-dve arches. The Chapel of the .Mother of Sorrow I is to the right, and there, firmly ini- 1 I bedded in the cement, is a largi cross ' j of ironwood. It is covered with in-si rip- I tions and characters, most of which ! may barely be made out. In two of j ; the angles of the main archway are two j I images, supposed to represent arch- angels. According to the traditions of j I mi; vuuii ii uic) nu'i me 101 iiim 01 n, daughters of the artist and designer of j I the decorations. Over the doorway j j leading to the vestry ia cut the name j j of the builder of the church, Pedro Bojargues. It is said that the monks hail sath-ered sath-ered a colony of workers around them, and that vineyards flour s ed and farms ' were fruitful, when, without warning. ' the missions were declared confiscated by the state. Loath to b.dieve that such ' was the case, the monk.? received the i bad news without a show of feeling. But when a courier arrived telling them i that such was the fact, and that even then an emissary of the state was on j his way to take possession of the mission mis-sion property, they began the work J which has ieTt the church a ruin, j Everything portable was taken from the walls, the altar stripped of its gold j and silver; even the heavy gold leaf was taken from the statues, paintings ; were cut out from their frames and ! rolled up, the vineyards for miles j around were uprooted, orchards were ! cut down and the garden that had j bloomed so sweetly was a. thing of the j nnst Then, the tears of the Indians, whom they had befriended and were leaving, mingled with their own. w ith all their i earthly possessions weighing down the burros, the sorrowful monies left their church and the scene of their wonder- ! ful work, and their pack train started for Guaymas. where the men of God bade forewell to this country and returned re-turned to the old world, whence they had come. Today the ruins of the struc- i ture remain as a monument to their pa- ! tient endeavors. |