About St. Anthony of Padua (Historic Church) · Pecos, New Mexico
St. Anthony of Padua (Historic Church), known locally as San Antonio de Pecos, is a Roman Catholic parish in the small mountain village of Pecos, San Miguel County, New Mexico, part of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Santa Fe. The present cruciform granite-and-sandstone church was built by the parishioners between 1903 and 1906 to a design attributed to French-born Fathers Maxime Mayeux and Edward Paulhan, and is considered one of the finest surviving examples of Bishop Jean Baptiste Lamy's French-inspired Gothic architecture in New Mexico. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, the parish also serves five historic mission chapels — Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe (Glorieta), La Sagrada Familia (Rowe), Nuestra Señora de la Luz (Canoñcito), Santo Niño (Colonias), and Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe (El Macho) — continuing an unbroken Catholic worship tradition in the Pecos River valley that reaches back to the original 17th-century Franciscan missions at Pecos Pueblo.
- Established
- 1906
- Patron
- St. Anthony of Padua
- Diocese
- Metropolitan Archdiocese of Santa Fe
Why belong here
St. Anthony of Padua is the spiritual heart of the Pecos valley and the hub for an extended family of historic mission chapels in Glorieta, Rowe, Canoñcito, Las Colonias, and El Macho — so joining here means joining a centuries-old community that still walks together to the Pecos National Historical Park ruins every August 2 for the Fiesta of Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles. The parish offers a full schedule of weekend and weekday Masses, regular Saturday confessions, a Sunday Holy Hour with adoration, rosary and Benediction, and bilingual Catholic life rooted in one of New Mexico's most architecturally significant 20th-century churches.
Mass times at St. Anthony of Padua (Historic Church)
Weekly Mass schedule
Confession times
- Saturday 7:30 AM – 8:00 AM (or by appointment)
- Saturday 4:30 PM – 5:20 PM (or by appointment)
Adoration times
- Sunday 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM (Holy Hour with Rosary and Benediction)
History of St. Anthony of Padua / San Antonio de Pecos
The Catholic story of Pecos stretches back to the 17th-century Franciscan missions at the great Pueblo of Pecos to the south. The larger mission church was destroyed in the Pueblo Revolt of 1680; a smaller replacement church, whose stabilized walls still stand, was built after Don Diego de Vargas's reconquest of 1692–93. The separate Hispanic village north of the pueblo appears in church records around 1825; after the catastrophic decline of the Pecos Indians and their 1838 emigration to Jemez Pueblo, the area's Catholics were served first from San Miguel del Vado and then from Santa Fe. The present granite-and-sandstone cruciform church was built by the parishioners themselves between 1903 and 1906 under the direction of Father Maxime Mayeux and his successor Father Edward Paulhan — French-born priests of the Bishop Lamy era whose design gives the building its Gothic character.
- 1610s–1680: Original Franciscan mission churches serve Pecos Pueblo; larger church destroyed in the 1680 Pueblo Revolt.
- 1692–93: Don Diego de Vargas reconquers New Mexico; smaller mission church is rebuilt at Pecos.
- 1825: Separate Hispanic village of Pecos appears in church records north of the pueblo.
- 1838: Last seventeen Pecos Indians depart for Jemez Pueblo, entrusting the painting of Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles to their Spanish neighbors.
- 1850: New Mexico becomes a U.S. Territory; Bishop Jean Baptiste Lamy begins his church-building program.
- 1903–1906: Present San Antonio de Padua Church built by parishioners under Fathers Mayeux and Paulhan.
- 1971: Added to the New Mexico State Register of Cultural Properties (NMSRCP #304).
- 1978: Added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP #78001826).
Architecture and the Walled Churchyard
St. Anthony of Padua is built in a cruciform plan with a pitched roof, walls of locally quarried granite and red sandstone, and a standing-seam sheet-metal roof that repeats the bracketed cornice found on the tower. The main entrance sits at the base of a square tower crowned by a shingled belfry; the heavy double wooden doors open under an arched stained-glass transom, with arched louvered windows on each exposed side of the tower and a round window above the entry. A tall cross rises above the western gable, and the walled churchyard also contains the historic campo santo (cemetery), the parish hall, and the rectory.
- Plan: cruciform, pitched roof, built 1903–1906.
- Materials: locally quarried granite walls with red sandstone around the doorway, quoins, and window arches.
- Entry tower: square plan, bracketed cornice, shingled belfry with church bells, three arched louvered windows, round window over the doorway, tall cross at apex.
- Approach: double flight of cement steps rising to a landing in front of the doorway; large wooden cross at left, nicho with image of Our Lady of Fatima at right.
- Rear: large cross rising above the peak of the western gable.
- Churchyard: low, broken-coursed stone wall of the same native stone encloses the campo santo, parish hall, and rectory.
The Fiesta of Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles de Porciúncula
Each August 2 — or on the following Sunday — the parishioners of St. Anthony / San Antonio de Pecos walk in procession from their church to the ruins of the old Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles de Porciuncula de los Pecos Mission, now preserved within Pecos National Historical Park, to celebrate the Porciúncula. The custom dates to 1838, when the departing Pecos Indians gave the eighteenth-century painting of Our Lady of the Angels to their Spanish neighbors and asked only that her feast day be kept each year. Since at least 1970, descendants of Pecos Pueblo at Jemez Pueblo have continued to take part in the celebration — a remarkable living link between the historic parish, the vanished pueblo, and the missionary past.
- Tradition dates to 1838, when the last Pecos Indians entrusted the painting of Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles to their Spanish neighbors.
- Held annually on August 2 (or the following Sunday) with a procession from St. Anthony's to the mission ruins in Pecos National Historical Park.
- Since 1970, descendants of Pecos Pueblo now living at Jemez Pueblo have participated in the celebration.
Mission Chapels of the Pecos Parish
St. Anthony of Padua serves as the hub parish for an extended family of historic mission chapels spread across the upper Pecos River valley. Two of these — Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe in Glorieta and La Sagrada Familia in Rowe — host Mass on alternating Sundays. Three others — Nuestra Señora de la Luz (Canoñcito), Santo Niño (Las Colonias), and Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe (El Macho, under repairs) — are listed as partially active missions.
- Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, Cll Lomita, Glorieta — Mass every other Sunday at 9:30 AM, alternating with Sagrada Familia.
- La Sagrada Familia, Sagrada Familia Ln & Co Rd B62 (Ilfeld Frontage Rd.), Rowe — Mass every other Sunday at 10:00 AM, alternating with N.S. de Guadalupe, Glorieta.
- Nuestra Señora de la Luz, Canoñcito — partially active mission.
- Santo Niño, Las Colonias (Colonias) — partially active mission.
- Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, El Macho — partially active, under repairs (as of March 2024).
San Miguel County and the Pecos Valley Setting
Pecos is a small historic village in San Miguel County in northern New Mexico, set at the lower end of a long canyon through which the Rio Pecos flows southward out of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains toward the plains of eastern New Mexico and western Texas. Once a traditionally Hispanic farming, ranching, and timber community, the village today serves as a tourist gateway to the mountain scenery and trout streams of the Pecos Wilderness and to the ruins of Pecos Pueblo and its adjoining Spanish mission churches, now preserved as Pecos National Historical Park.
- County: San Miguel, New Mexico.
- Geography: lower end of the Pecos River canyon, below the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and Pecos Wilderness.
- Nearby: Pecos National Historical Park, including the stabilized ruins of the 17th–18th-century mission churches.
- Cultural heritage: historically Hispanic Catholic community, with documented Genizaro, Mestizo, and Jemez ancestry among its parishioners.
Pastors & rectors through the years
- Father Maxime Mayeux
French-born priest of the Lamy era who, with his successor, is credited with the architectural design of the present church. Directed the parishioners in constructing the building 1903–1906.
- Father Edward Paulhan
French-born successor to Fr. Mayeux; co-attributed with the church's architectural design.