Sedona

On our way back north from Tucson, we overnighted in red-rock country near Oak Creek and Sedona, Arizona. I had originally planned on fishing Oak Creek, but we arrived in snow and I called that off. Like an osprey or kingfisher, I prefer to immerse myself in the water where I seek my prey—no waders for me—but like those birds, I'm sensible about time and place.

[Looking down into Oak Creek Canyon from northern end.]

Most of the rock formations around Sedona have names. The first two pictured here are Bell Rock and Courthouse Rock, but we weren't around long enough to learn any more of them. 

The red rocks, alluring to hikers and other desert enthusiasts, also attracted the attention of local rancher and sculptor Marguerite Brunswig Stauder, who commissioned the Chapel of the Holy Cross. In a letter on display at the chapel, she wrote, "Though Catholic in faith, as a work of art the chapel has a universal appeal. Its doors will ever be open to one and all, regardless of creed." A hospitable gesture, much appreciated by this wandering pagan.

After our visit to the chapel, it was time to hit the road again, across and then along Oak Creek, back north toward Dinétah. 

[Still snowy on the high ground at the north end of the canyon.]

Mission

Mission San Xavier del Bac, generally called simply "the Mission" by Tucson residents, was established by Fr. Eusebio Kino in 1692. (I've mentioned Father Eusebio on this blog before: it was he who named the mountain range northeast of Tucson after St. Catherine of Alexandria; over time, the name "Santa Catarina" morphed into the present "Santa Catalina".) The mission's aim was to convert and minister to the Tohono O'odham.

[There may be symbolism here beyond what was intended...]

Kino was a Jesuit, and the Society of Jesus ran the mission for about seventy-five years, but in 1767 King Charles III of Spain expelled the Jesuits from his New World colonies and installed Franciscan priests at San Xavier. Three years later, the original church was destroyed in an Apache raid on the Tohono O'odham. 

The San Xavier community received some protection from the Apache following the 1775 establishment of a Spanish fort, the Presidio San Agustín del Tucsón, about seven miles away, and a new church building was constructed between 1783 and 1797. The city of Tucson grew up around the presidio, which was eventually razed, leaving the "new" Mission the oldest surviving European structure in Arizona. It remains an active church, with brown-robed Franciscans still ministering to the Tohono O'odham. (Most O'odham are at least nominally Catholic, and many devout.)

[Okay, so pretty grand for a parish church.]

The Mission is currently undergoing renovations, with scaffolding covering much of the Moorish-influenced Spanish Colonial exterior that has given it the nickname "the White Dove of the Desert". Even so, the atmosphere was peaceful, and we found several actual doves and a Gila woodpecker nesting on the grounds of the church and the adjacent chapel and school. Otherwise, Jessa contented herself with photographing architectural details in lieu of the usual postcard shot of the front of the church.

Mountain retreat

Jessa and I like a nice roadside chapel every now and again, and found this one while cruising through the Rocky Mountains in Colorado on a snowy day: the St. Catherine of Siena Chapel on the Rock, built in the 1930s.

You know who else likes a nice roadside chapel? Apparently, Pope John Paul II, who visited here in 1993.

St. Catherine of Siena.

The rock.

La petite chapelle sur le bayou

On the grounds of St. Genevieve's Catholic Church in Slidell, framed and shaded by live oaks draped in Spanish moss, is a small brick building, the Chapel of the Sacred Heart.

"Come to me all you who labor and are burdened and I will refresh you."

While not ourselves Catholic, we do find this a restful, restorative place to visit—though perhaps that has more to do in our case with the live oaks, the Spanish moss, and the location on the banks of Liberty Bayou.