About San Isidro · Dell City, Texas
San Isidro Mission is a small Catholic mission chapel serving the rural farming community of Dell City in far-west Hudspeth County, Texas, under the Diocese of El Paso. Founded in 1914, it is classified among the diocese's West Texas Missions and listed in the Diocesan Centennial pilgrimage passport alongside historic parishes of the region. With no resident pastor of its own, it is one of the remote missions of the Vicariate of West Texas, where sacramental life is sustained through clergy who travel to minister to scattered ranching and farming families on the high desert. The mission is dedicated to San Isidro Labrador (St. Isidore the Laborer), patron of farmers and rural communities — a fitting patron for an agricultural settlement like Dell City.
- Established
- 1914
- Patron
- San Isidro Labrador (St. Isidore the Laborer)
- Diocese
- Diocese of El Paso
Why belong here
San Isidro Mission offers the small but enduring Catholic farming community of Dell City a regular place to worship and a link to the wider Diocese of El Paso. The mission supports adults seeking to complete their sacraments through the RICA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) process, and parishioners are connected to the broader diocesan family of West Texas missions. For anyone traveling through the Guadalupe Mountains region or living in this remote stretch of the Trans-Pecos, San Isidro is the spiritual home of an old and resilient rural congregation.
About San Isidro Mission
San Isidro Mission is the Catholic mission chapel serving the rural community of Dell City, Texas, in the high desert of Hudspeth County near the Guadalupe Mountains. Founded in 1914, it is administered by the Diocese of El Paso as part of the Vicariate of West Texas Missions. The mission takes its name from San Isidro Labrador (St. Isidore the Laborer), patron saint of farmers — a fitting patron for a settlement built on dryland farming.
- Founded: 1914
- Type: Catholic mission (chapel)
- Diocese: El Paso
- Vicariate: West Texas Missions
- Patron: San Isidro Labrador (St. Isidore the Laborer)
- Feast day: May 15
History
San Isidro Mission dates to 1914, when Catholic settlers in the Dell City area established a chapel of their own. Throughout the twentieth century it was sustained as one of the small West Texas missions of the Diocese of El Paso, far from any major parish town. In the 1940s–50s Monsignor Henry D. Buchanan — a beloved El Paso pastor later honored as a Domestic Prelate by Pope Pius XII — personally helped build and support San Isidro in Dell City as part of his wider mission to plant churches across the diocese. The mission remains a quiet but persistent Catholic presence in a sparsely populated agricultural community.
- 1914 — Mission founded.
- Mid-20th century — Monsignor Henry D. Buchanan (ordained 1921, first native El Pasoan to become a priest) helped build San Isidro Mission, roughly ninety miles from his El Paso parish of St. Joseph's.
- 1949 — Monsignor Buchanan raised to Domestic Prelate by Pope Pius XII.
- Today — Listed in the Diocese of El Paso's Centennial Pilgrimage Passport among the historic West Texas missions.
Faith Formation & Sacramental Preparation
As a small rural mission, San Isidro's faith formation is coordinated through the Diocese of El Paso. The mission welcomes adults who have not yet received the sacraments of initiation and walks them through the RICA — the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults — a process that prepares catechumens for Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist, and welcomes already-baptized Christians into full communion with the Catholic Church.
- RICA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) for adults preparing to complete the sacraments of initiation.
Contact & Location
San Isidro Mission is located on Westside Road in Dell City, in the remote far-western tip of Texas, east of the Guadalupe Mountains and north of the border with Mexico. Mail is delivered to a P.O. Box in Dell City. As the mission has no dedicated website, the Diocese of El Paso parishes page is the best online reference for its listing.
- Street address: 6148 Westside Road, Dell City, TX 79837
- Mailing address: P.O. Box 65, Dell City, TX 79837
- Phone: (915) 964-2601
- Diocese: Diocese of El Paso (499 St. Matthews St, El Paso, TX 79907)
West Texas Missions of the Diocese of El Paso
San Isidro is one of a constellation of small Catholic missions strung across the wide-open ranching and farming country of far West Texas. The Diocese of El Paso groups these communities in the Vicariate of West Texas Missions; many of the missions are officially attached to a larger parish such as Santa Teresa de Jesús (Presidio), Our Lady of Peace (Alpine/Candelaria), Santa Rosa de Lima (Pecos), or St. Mary (Marfa). San Isidro is listed directly as a diocesan mission.
- San Isidro Mission — Dell City (founded 1914)
- Santa Rosa de Lima — Pecos (founded 1889)
- Santa Teresa — Fort Hancock (founded 1890)
- Our Lady of Peace — Alpine (established 1902)
- St. Thomas — Kermit (established 1950)
- Many other missions in Sierra Blanca, Valentine, Balmorhea, Saragosa, Barstow, Shafter, Ruidosa, Marathon, Fort Davis, and Redford.