First Mass

1629

Documentation

• Gilbert J. Garraghan, S.J., "Catholic First Things in the United States," Mid-America: An Historical Review, vol. 21 (1939)

Notes

Per Gilbert J. Garraghan, S.J., "Catholic First Things in the United States" (Mid-America, 1939), citing Fray Zephyrin Engelhardt's The Franciscans in Arizona (1899) and H. H. Bancroft's Arizona and New Mexico, Frs. Francisco de Porras and Andrés Gutiérrez, together with lay brother Cristóbal de la Concepción, reached the Hopi ("Moqui") towns in 1628 or 1629 and became the first resident priests in what's now Arizona, founding the mission of San Bernardino at Awatovi. They baptized around 800 Hopi within a few years. Fr. Porras was later poisoned by resentful medicine men and died reciting the psalm "In te, Domine, speravi." Engelhardt calls him "the proto-martyr of Arizona" for it. Neither source states outright that Mass was said at Awatovi, but given years of resident ministry and hundreds of baptisms there, it's a reasonable inference that Mass was among the sacraments celebrated at the mission not long after the 1628/29 arrival. This is a different claim from the site's existing Arizona entry (the 1539/40 Coronado-era entrada near Chichilticalli). Garraghan credits that earlier expedition with the first Mass said anywhere in the state, while Awatovi is the state's first fixed mission and first resident Mass. Wikipedia's article on Awatovi Ruins covers the site's later archaeology and 1700 destruction but wasn't used as a source here.