About San Lorenzo Mission · Abo, New Mexico
San Lorenzo is a small Catholic mission church in the historic village of Abo, Torrance County, New Mexico, administered as a mission of St. Alice Catholic Church in nearby Mountainair. Within the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Santa Fe, it sits in the rural Salinas district and is one of five regular mission churches (alongside Punta de Agua, Manzano, Torreon, and Willard) served by the St. Alice parish cluster. The community gathers for Mass on Tuesdays on a rotating basis, and the church sits beside an active churchyard cemetery southeast of US Highway 60.
- Patron
- St. Lawrence (San Lorenzo)
- Diocese
- Archdiocese of Santa Fe
Why belong here
San Lorenzo is a rural mission parish where the small, faithful Catholic families of the historic village of Abo and the surrounding Manzano/Salinas countryside continue to gather for Mass in the centuries-old tradition of the New Mexican missions. It is part of a lively cluster of five mission communities — Punta de Agua, Abo, Torreon, Willard, and Manzano — all served by St. Alice Catholic Church in Mountainair, so parishioners enjoy a close-knit village faith supported by a wider family of mission chapels in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe.
Mass times at San Lorenzo Mission
Weekly Mass schedule
Confession times
- Before Mass at the mission (by appointment at the parish office).
Overview
San Lorenzo Mission is the Catholic chapel of the village of Abo, a small rural community in Torrance County, New Mexico. It is administered as a mission of St. Alice Catholic Church in Mountainair within the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, and together with the missions at Punta de Agua, Manzano, Torreon, and Willard it forms one of the widest-reaching mission clusters in central New Mexico.
History and Community
The Abo area is best known historically for the neighboring ruins of Mission San Gregorio de Abó (established c. 1621 by Fray Francisco Fonte, abandoned by the 1670s), now a National Historic Landmark within Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument. After the colonial era, descendants of the region's Hispanic settlers built and maintained small adobe chapels throughout the Manzano/Salinas valleys. San Lorenzo became the parish church of the village of Abo and continues today as an active mission. Its walled churchyard is used as a cemetery by local families, with about 150 small crosses and an estimated 450 burials.
- Located in the shadow of the 17th-century Mission San Gregorio de Abó ruins.
- An active churchyard cemetery sits adjacent to the mission.
- Part of the historic Hispano Catholic village tradition of central New Mexico.
Parish Cluster — St. Alice Catholic Church and Missions
San Lorenzo is administered by St. Alice Catholic Church in Mountainair (301 South Roosevelt Avenue, P.O. Box 206, Mountainair, NM 87036). The parish is one of the historic rural parish clusters of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, sharing one pastor and office staff across five mission chapels: San Lorenzo (Abo), St. Vincent de Paul (Punta de Agua), Nuestra Señora de Dolores (Manzano), St. Anthony (Torreon), and Our Lady of Sorrows (Willard).
- Parish office phone: (505) 847-2291.
- Parish email: [email protected].
- Emergency sacramental line: 505-226-2786.
Devotions and Special Days
First Friday devotions and First Saturday rosary and Mass are celebrated at St. Alice in Mountainair and observed across the mission cluster. Mission chapels such as San Lorenzo typically host patron-feast and Holy Week observances in cooperation with the cluster schedule.
- First Friday: confessions at 11:45 AM, Holy Mass at 12:00 PM at St. Alice.
- First Saturday: rosary at 8:30 AM and Mass at 9:00 AM at St. Alice.
- Feast of San Lorenzo (St. Lawrence): August 10.
Visiting San Lorenzo Mission
The village of Abo sits about 7 miles southwest of Mountainair off US Highway 60, in the shadow of the Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument. The church and its fenced cemetery are well maintained but easy to miss from the highway — visitors should turn north off US 60 onto Barranca Road, which curves back south under the highway and railroad, reaching the gated cemetery entrance about 500 feet from the underpass on the southwest corner of the property.
- Address: Abo, New Mexico 87036.
- Approach via US Highway 60, then north onto Barranca Road.
- Located across the highway from the Abo village and the historic Mission San Gregorio ruins.