About Santa Ana Mission · Santa Ana Pueblo, New Mexico
Santa Ana Mission (formally the Church of Santa Ana) is a historic mission church serving the Keresan-speaking Tamayame people of Santa Ana Pueblo in north-central New Mexico, in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. It is one of five mission chapels that together make up the San Diego Mission Parish, headquartered at Jemez Pueblo, and it stands in the shadow of the old pueblo village where Spanish Franciscans first built a church for the community in the late 1600s. Today Mass is celebrated on alternating Sundays at 8:00 a.m., and the mission continues to anchor the spiritual life of the Pueblo alongside the annual St. Anne Feast Day on July 26.
- Established
- 1696
- Patron
- St. Anne (Santa Ana)
- Rector
- Rev. June Ramos (parish administrator of San Diego Mission and its missions, effective July 1, 2025)
- Diocese
- Archdiocese of Santa Fe
Why belong here
Santa Ana Mission is the spiritual heart of the Tamayame community at Santa Ana Pueblo, where the Catholic faith of more than three centuries is woven together with Keresan tradition. Worshippers gather for Sunday Mass at 8:00 a.m. (alternating with Our Lady of the Assumption at Zia Pueblo), and the wider San Diego Mission Parish also serves four sister chapels at Ponderosa, San Ysidro, Cañon and Zia. The mission is tied closely to the life of the Pueblo — its patroness, St. Anne, is honored every July 26 with the annual pueblo feast day, and the historic adobe church itself, built in 1750, is a registered historic landmark still standing above the old village.
Mass times at Santa Ana Mission
Weekly Mass schedule
Confession times
- Available at the parent parish, San Diego Mission, Jemez Pueblo — Saturday 8:00–9:00 a.m. or by appointment
About Santa Ana Mission
Santa Ana Mission (officially the Church of Santa Ana) is one of five mission chapels that make up San Diego Mission Parish in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. It serves the Keresan-speaking Tamayame people of Santa Ana Pueblo in Sandoval County, New Mexico, where Mass is celebrated on alternating Sundays at 8:00 a.m. The mission sits in the shadow of the historic old pueblo village, where the present adobe church still rises in silhouette above the low stone and earth houses — substantially the same walls that Franciscan missionaries and the people of Santa Ana laid up together in the 1750s.
- Jurisdiction: Archdiocese of Santa Fe
- Type: Mission church (chapel)
- Parent parish: San Diego Mission, Jemez Pueblo
- Patron: St. Anne (Santa Ana); feast day July 26
History of the Mission
The Catholic mission at Santa Ana began with the Spanish reconquest of 1692–93. Diego de Vargas persuaded the people of Santa Ana to leave their mesa-top village and rebuild beside the Jemez River, where there was at least some irrigable land. A small adobe church was up by August 1696, and over the next half-century Franciscans and the pueblo community together expanded both convento and church — culminating in 1750, when Fray Juan Sanz de Lezaun rallied the whole pueblo and built the present church in under two and a half months. The mission has been in continuous use ever since.
- 1693 — Diego de Vargas induces Santa Ana to settle at the present pueblo site beside the Jemez River
- 1696 — Fray Francisco de Vargas oversees construction of the first small church (four varas × seventeen)
- 1717 — Fray Pedro Montaño completes an expanded convento with cloister and eight cells
- 1730s — Fray Diego Arias de Espinosa begins a major new church, which stalls in 1748 when vigas are borrowed
- 1750 — Fray Juan Sanz de Lezaun mobilizes the pueblo and finishes the present church in under 2½ months
- 1808 — Father Pereyro describes the church as 'decent and adorned'
- 1874 — Bishop Lamy finds it 'well preserved'
- 1881 — Lt. Bourke records cracks in the walls
- 1903 — Agreement with Archbishop Peter Bourgade keeps the old church as the principal chapel while many families live at Ranchos/Ranchitos
- c.1916 — Santa Ana people re-roof the church themselves with mountain-cut vigas and a foot of dirt
- 1927 — Committee for the Preservation and Restoration of the New Mexican Mission Churches funds a new roof; cost $1,399.62
Architecture of the 1750 Church
The current adobe mission is, in essence, the building Father Sanz de Lezaun completed in 1750. Its facade was described as 'unique in all the colony': a wooden-balconied principal front sixteen varas wide — twice the width of the nave inside — with three main buttresses, a mirador above the baptistery on the south, and a covered passageway linking the sacristy on the north. The six-bay face (three below, three above) is crowned by an arched bell gable that opens onto two tower belfries. Inside, the main altar reredos still centers on a large old oil painting of St. Anne, attributed to a follower of the great Laguna santero. The structure is documented in the Historic American Buildings Survey as HABS NM-125.
- Adobe mission walls; core structure completed 1750
- Six-bay principal facade with three main buttresses and wooden balcony
- Mirador (lookout) above the baptistery on the south
- Covered passageway from convento to sacristy on the north
- Arched bell gable and two tower belfries over the main doors
- Main altar reredos centered on an oil painting of St. Anne
- Documented by HABS NM-125 (Library of Congress)
San Diego Mission Parish — Cluster of Five Native American Chapels
Santa Ana Mission does not stand alone. It is one of five mission chapels served by San Diego Mission Parish, headquartered at 475 Mission Road in Jemez Pueblo. Together these five chapels form a single pastoral unit reaching across the Jemez River corridor and into neighboring Keresan and Towa-speaking communities.
- San Diego Mission — 475 Mission Rd., Jemez Pueblo (parish church, est. 1905)
- Church of Santa Ana — Santa Ana Pueblo
- Our Lady of the Assumption — Zia Pueblo
- Our Lady of Guadalupe — Cañon de Jemez
- Santo Toribio — Ponderosa
- San Ysidro — San Ysidro (Jemez Valley)
Feast Days and Pueblo Life
Catholic feast days at Santa Ana Pueblo are interwoven with traditional Keresan observances. The mission's patroness, St. Anne, is honored at the pueblo's annual feast day on July 26, when the community gathers at the old village for traditional dances. The Pueblo of Jemez likewise celebrates its patron, San Diego (St. Didacus of Alcalá), and San Diego Mission Parish observes All Saints and All Souls Days (Nov. 1–2) with traditional dances by the children of the pueblo.
- St. Anne Feast Day — July 26 (patroness of the mission)
- St. Peter / St. Paul Feast Day — June 29
- Christmas Day Celebration — Buffalo Dance and other dances
- All Saints / All Souls Days — Nov. 1–2 (parish-wide observance with traditional dances)
Staff and Clergy
The mission is staffed through the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. As of mid-2025, Rev. June Ramos serves as parish administrator of San Diego Mission and its five missions, including Santa Ana, having been appointed effective July 1, 2025 from Our Lady of Sorrows in Bernalillo. She succeeded Rev. Jason Pettigrew, who was reassigned to St. Anthony in Questa effective July 28, 2025.
- Rev. June Ramos — Parish administrator, San Diego Mission & missions (effective July 1, 2025)
- Rev. Jason Pettigrew — Immediate past pastor of San Diego Mission & missions (through July 28, 2025)
- San Diego Mission Parish office — 475 Mission Rd., Jemez Pueblo, NM 87024
Records and Archives
Sacramental records (baptisms, first communions, confirmations, marriages, burials) for Santa Ana Mission are preserved at the Archdiocese of Santa Fe archives and are catalogued by Marquette University's Raynor Memorial Libraries as part of its Guide to Catholic Records About Native Americans in the United States. The records begin in the 1850s and continue to the present, written in Latin through the 1930s.
- Marquette Guide entry: St. Anne / Santa Ana Mission — records 1856–present
- Held in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe Archives
- Latin script through the 1930s
Pastors & rectors through the years
- Rev. Jason Pettigrewthrough July 28, 2025
Pastor of San Diego Mission, Jemez Pueblo (and its missions including Santa Ana) until reassignment to St. Anthony in Questa
- Rev. June Ramoseffective July 1, 2025
Appointed parish administrator of San Diego Mission in Jemez Pueblo and its missions