About San Antonio Mission · Abeytas, New Mexico
San Antonio Mission (San Antonio de Padua Church) is a small historic adobe Catholic mission in the village of Abeytas, New Mexico, in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. Originally built by the Abeytas family in 1874, it is one of five mission chapels served by Our Lady of Sorrows Parish in nearby La Joya, whose pastor and central parish office coordinate worship and pastoral care across all five missions. The chapel itself is cared for by volunteer mayordomos from the local community, and today draws roughly 50 people to its Sunday morning Mass.
- Established
- 1874
- Patron
- St. Anthony of Padua (San Antonio de Padua)
- Rector
- Rev. Felipe Valadez (pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows Parish, La Joya, which oversees San Antonio Mission and four other missions)
- Diocese
- Archdiocese of Santa Fe
Why belong here
San Antonio Mission offers the intimacy of a centuries-old adobe chapel at the heart of tiny Abeytas, with Sunday Mass celebrated each week at 8:30 a.m. and Confession heard before Mass. As one of five mission chapels under Our Lady of Sorrows Parish, it is supported by a wider Catholic community of roughly 250 families, by the pastoral care of Our Lady of Sorrows, and by the devoted volunteer mayordomos — including families now in their seventh generation — who keep the building alive. Visitors are welcomed into a living New Mexican Catholic tradition where ranching and farming heritage, santero-style devotional art, and tight-knit Hispanic village life still meet at the altar.
Mass times at San Antonio Mission
Weekly Mass schedule
Confession times
- Sunday 8:00 AM – 8:20 AM (before Mass)
San Antonio Mission (San Antonio de Padua), Abeytas
San Antonio Mission is a small adobe Catholic chapel serving the village of Abeytas in Valencia County, central New Mexico. It is one of five mission churches of Our Lady of Sorrows Parish in nearby La Joya, in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, and is dedicated to St. Anthony of Padua (San Antonio de Padua). The mission is the spiritual center of a tiny community whose population today is only about 56 residents, but whose Catholic life stretches back to the 1870s.
- Patron: St. Anthony of Padua (San Antonio de Padua)
- Feast Day: June 13
- Address: 11 Calle De San Antonio, Abeytas, NM 87006
- Sunday Mass: 8:30 AM
- Confession: Sundays 8:00 – 8:20 AM
History & 2015 Restoration
The church was built in 1874 by the Abeytas family that gave the village its name. For more than a century it served the small ranching and farming community, sustained by the rotating mayordomía tradition of lay caretakers. By 2011 the walls were visibly cracking from roofline to ground; the cause was a leaking corrugated tin roof trapping moisture inside adobe and 'terreon' walls. After years of fundraising, with a $38,000 Catholic Extension matching grant and hundreds of hours of donated labor from men at the New Mexico Men's Recovery Academy, the chapel was fully restored in 2015 — new roof, repaired adobe, new heating and cooling, new wood floor, fresh stucco and paint, and a new altar donated by parishioner Lorrie Sandoval. It was rededicated August 22, 2015, in a ceremony attended by about 300 people.
- Built 1874 by the Abeytas family
- Structural crisis identified 2011
- Major restoration February – August 2015
- Rededicated August 22, 2015 (Archbishop John C. Wester)
- Restoration cost approximately $72,000
The Mayordomos: Lay Stewards of the Mission
Long before the 2015 crisis, the chapel had been kept alive by the mayordomos — a centuries-old New Mexican tradition in which lay families rotate responsibility for the church's upkeep, fundraising, and decoration. Mayordomos Al Sandoval and Esmerlindo Barela were central to the 2015 restoration; Sandoval, an engineer, organized the labor partnership with the Men's Recovery Academy and documented the project. Lorrie Sandoval, also a mayordomo, designed and donated the new altar. Their families, like the chapel itself, go back generations in Abeytas.
- Mayordomos assist the pastor with upkeep and fundraising
- Al Sandoval — engineer, volunteer project lead (2015 restoration)
- Esmerlindo Barela — fellow engineer and parishioner
- Lorrie Sandoval — seventh-generation Abeytas resident, donor of the new altar
Restoration & the Men's Recovery Academy
With parish finances stretched thin — the combined annual budget of Our Lady of Sorrows and its five missions was about $120,000 — Abeytas turned to a creative partnership. Each Saturday from February to August 2015, ten men from the New Mexico Men's Recovery Academy (located 25 miles north of town) traveled to Abeytas to put in community-service hours on the church. Sandoval transported and fed the crews; parish women cooked for them. In restoring the chapel, several of the men spoke of rebuilding themselves in the process: 'This church is falling down, just like us. When you believe in us and let us build the church, you build us up, too.'
- Recovery Academy men worked every Saturday, Feb–Aug 2015
- Community-service requirement doubled as physical restoration
- Catholic Extension provided $38,000 matching grant
Our Lady of Sorrows Parish: The Mission's Home
San Antonio Mission is one of five mission chapels served by Our Lady of Sorrows Parish in La Joya, NM. Together they make up a single Catholic community of about 250 families spread across the Rio Grande Valley south of La Joya. The parish is staffed by a pastor assisted by mayordomos at each mission. Sunday Mass rotates across the missions: on any given Sunday the faithful may worship at Our Lady of Sorrows in La Joya, San Antonio in Abeytas or Sabinal, San Juan in Veguita, San Isidro in Las Nutrias, or San José in Contreras.
- Parent parish: Our Lady of Sorrows, 19 Calle de La Iglesia, La Joya, NM 87028
- Phone: (505) 864-4461
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: olslajoyanm.org
- Other missions: San José (Contreras), San Isidro (Las Nutrias), San Antonio (Sabinal), San Juan (Veguita)
- About 250 families served parish-wide
Feast Day & Patron
The mission is named for St. Anthony of Padua (San Antonio de Padua), a 13th-century Franciscan preacher and Doctor of the Church, widely venerated as the patron of lost articles and lost people. His feast day, June 13, is the most common saint-derived place name across New Mexico and is traditionally marked at the mission with Mass and, in some years, a procession — a custom shared with the other San Antonio de Padua chapels around the state.
- Patron: St. Anthony of Padua
- Feast day: June 13
- Name of village and mission: Abeytas (after the founding family) and San Antonio
Visiting & Contact
The mission chapel sits at 11 Calle De San Antonio in the village of Abeytas. Because it is a small chapel rather than a parish office, all sacramental records, marriage preparation, funerals, and parish administration are handled through the central parish office in La Joya (19 Calle de La Iglesia, La Joya, NM 87028). Visitors are warmly welcomed to Sunday Mass; the building itself, freshly restored, is itself the main attraction.
- Address: 11 Calle De San Antonio, Abeytas, NM 87006
- Parish Office: 19 Calle de La Iglesia, La Joya, NM 87028
- Phone: (505) 864-4461
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: http://olslajoyanm.org/
Pastors & rectors through the years
- Rev. Denis Kaggwac. 2013 – mid-2015
Pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows and its missions; recognized the urgency of the San Antonio de Padua structural crisis and began fundraising; returned to the Diocese of Kiyinda-Mityana, Uganda in June 2015.
- Rev. Felipe ValadezJune 2015 – present
Appointed pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows in La Joya and its missions effective June 1, 2015, previously parochial vicar at Our Lady of Belen.