Notes:
Invitation to a special event at San Xavier Mission sent to various prominent persons of Tucson and vicinity:
You are cordially invited to attend the solemn services on the occasion of the transfer of the mortal remains of two Franciscans who built San Xavier Mission:
Padre Balthasar Carrillo, O.F.M.
(Died 1795)
Padre Narcisso Cutierrez, O.F.M.
(Died 1821)
from Tumacacori to San Xavier Mission
The Most Reverend Daniel J. Gercke, D.D., officiating
10 A.M., February 21, 1935
San Xavier Mission
Tumacácori National Monument Custodian Louis R. Caywood wrote the following report about the proceedings:
On the morning of February 21, 1935, at 8:00 a.m. at the Mission of San José de Tumacácori mass was said by Rev. Francis Bree over the mortal remains of two pioneer Franciscan priests who long ago trod the desert valleys of this region working among the Indians. Following this brief mass the remains of Padre Baltazar Carillo and Padre Narciso Gutiérrez were escorted by three National Park Service men over the long 40-mile trek from San José de Tumacácori to San Xavier del Bac near Tucson, Arizona. Many times had these padres made the long trip by foot or horseback but that day they were taken over the same route to their last resting place.
The arrival at San Xavier might well bring to mind the arrival of these same priests in early days. Indians were stationed on the hill to the right of the Mission and upon sight of the procession were seen running down the hill to tell others of the arrival.
But this time hundreds of people including high prelates of the Catholic Church, Franciscan brothers, nuns of two Catholic sisterhoods (St. Josephs and Immaculate Heart), and many townspeople were here to welcome back these old Padres to the Mission which was once theirs. Two prelates of the church – Most Rev. Daniel J. Gercke, D.D., Bishop of Tucson, and Most Rev. Edmund Gibbons, D.D., Bishop of Albany, N.Y. – joined with modern Franciscans in honoring the two pioneers.
The National Park Service men, Walter G. Attwell, Associate Engineer, Gene H. Gordon, Assistant Engineer, and Louis R. Caywood, Park Ranger, assisted by Mayor Henry O. Jaasted of Tucson escorted the bodies to the gates of the Mission where they were replaced by the Franciscan brothers, - the action significant of the transfer from the custody of the Federal Government back to that of the order in whose service the pioneers had labored. The bodies were placed before the Sanctuary where the services took place.
As the bodies passed down the Nave to the Altar a Franciscan choir sang the age-old Gregorian chant of the mass and burial service, a composition that has been used in the Church for more than 800 year. On the plain black casket resting outside the sanctuary rail were placed the symbols of priesthood – the golden chalice, the stole and missal. The casket was flanked on either side by burning tapers. Three veteran Franciscan missionaries of Arizona assisted at the solemn requiem mass which lasted almost an hour.
Father Pudlowski preached the sermon which paid high tribute to these early Franciscan missionaries. Mention, of course, was made of the Jesuits who preceded and in reality laid the foundation for the Franciscans. The Jesuits had been expelled after their long and arduous labors by Charles III of Spain in 1767. The Franciscans took over the work started by the earlier order. They went into the field in order to save the missions from the complete disintegration which threatened them.
Padre Baltazar and Padre Narciso were not among the pioneers but followed in about five years, and labored in the field for almost a quarter of a century. From 1780 until 1794 Padre Baltazar Carillo was superior at San Xavier. In 1795 he died and Padre Narciso Gutiérrez took his place until 1799. The first gave 24 years of service and the second 20-odd. Father Pudlowski, on behalf of the order, thanked Bishop Gercke and Bishop Gibbons and the representatives of the Federal Government for enabling the Franciscans to bring the bodies of their pioneers back to their home mission.
Bishop Gercke, in his sermon, paid high tribute to the early padres, after speaking of their lives and work among the Indians, he said: “Today they have come back home to rest under the shadow of this mission they built and loved so well.
“The history of the missionary work of the Franciscans brings us back over a period of nearly 400 years, for only 47 years after Columbus set foot in America, Padre Marcus de Niza came to what is now Arizona.”
Following the sermon and mass, Bishop Gercke donned black vestments and, wearing the mitre of the hierarchy, descended from the sanctuary to bless the bodies of the pioneers with incense and holy water.
Finally, a procession was formed at the Altar headed by a Franciscan cross-bearer, followed by the Franciscans, bishops, priests, Park Service men and nuns who all escorted the bodies to the Mortuary Chapel just outside the Mission. There the grave in the floor was blessed before the remains of the Franciscan pioneers were laid to rest in heir final resting place.
We, of the Park Service, who took part in the Procession from Tumacácori to San Xavier and the services following were much impressed by the sincerity and deep regard which the brothers showed during the elaborate requiem mass.
Archaeologist Paul Beaubien had the following to say about the excavation of the two Padres’ bones:
On December 15, 1934, I arrived at Tumacácori National Monument, Arizona, to take charge of an FERA project instituted to uncover certain ruined buildings adjacent to the present mission. The walls and special features such as benches, furnaces, etc., were to be mapped by National Park Service engineers, after which the soil was to be replaced as found. Such maps would be of significance in the formulation of possible future landscaping or partial restoration plans. Moreover, it was hoped that some of the blurred chapters of Tumacácori’s history would become more legible….Because the present mission is the central structure from which all others must be located, it seems advisable to begin a description of the excavation there. At the outset, no work inside was contemplated but a series of unforeseen factors developed which led to some investigation. First, the Franciscan Order wished to have the bodies of two priests exhumed from the sanctuary for removal to San Xavier…. The two fathers to be removed were Fathers Balthazar Carrillo and Narciso Gutierrez. In 1784, Carrillo was in charge at Guevavi, and moved with the mission to Tumacácori. He died in 1795. Gutierrez, who succeeded him, died December 13, 1821. Mr. Frank Pinkley has a copy of a burial record which states the bodies of the two priests were taken from an old church and buried in a new, December 13, 1822.
On December 31, 1934, a party from the headquarters of the Southwestern Monuments, with Father Vincent of San Xavier, arrived to move the bodies again. On their arrival, I sent for one of the FERA laborers, Augustine Cardial, who has witnessed some of the vandalism at the Monument. According to Cardial, a party, headed by the superintendent of a mine in Mexico, had dug a treasure hunting hole, fifteen feet deep, where Carrillo and Gutierrez were said to have been buried. The party had found the bones of two adults. When refilling all the bones were tossed back into the hole, except one skull kept for a souvenir. Cardial’s story was supported by all evidence unearthed.
In Father Vincent’s presence, a six-foot hole was dug and no bones were found, but another try was made a few days later. At a depth of seven and a half feet, the jumbled parts of two adult skeletons were found, associated with pieces of plaster, bricks, and other debris typical of treasure hunting holes. I removed the four femurs, three of which were the only long bones unbroken, the fragments of one skull, and about half the smaller bones. Then having something else to do, I let two laborers remove the other bones. No pieces of coffin or cloth were found. Of course, the treasure hunters would have taken any beads, crucifix, or coffin ornaments.
The bones were darker in color and much more fragile than any others found in the church. Also large mastoidian processes on the one skull indicated it was a male. I sincerely believe they were the bones of the two Fathers thrown back in a treasure hunting hole.
The bones were reburied at San Xavier, February, 1935. |
