travel, trek elsewhere
discovering, exploring
home can suprise you
senryu by M. Nakazato LaFreniere
I’ve been to Japan, Malaysia, Hong Kong and France. So strange that it didn’t occur to me until last year to start exploring Tucson. Home is the place you take for granted but it becomes a lot cooler when you start acting like a tourist and checking things out.
I can’t believe I never visited San Xavier Mission del Bac until this year. The place just blows my mind. They have an effigy in a coffin that they call Saint Francis Xavier but he used to be Christ hanging on a cross at another mission further south. Back in the day, when the Apaches attacked that mission, the priests and parishioners escaped to Tucson with the cross, dragging it across the desert. I have this image of them carrying it on their backs while hurrying away from a burning mission.
By the time they arrived in Tucson, the statue had lost it’s legs so they placed it in a glass coffin. Over time, they put clothes on the Christ, and then some time after that they started calling it Saint Francis. But it’s still there. This statue that dates back to the wild wild west, that survived a missions’ destruction and was preserved despite the loss of limbs. People pin their prayers to this bit of history, hoping things will change for the better. He still is very much a living part of mission life.
References:
Mission San Xavier del Bac, Tucson, AZ
Mission San Xavier del Bac: 11 things to know
January 21, 2017, Tucson.com
photograph by M. LaFreniere, all rights reserved
RDP #55 – TRAVEL
Ragtag Daily Prompt
Wednesdays from Curious Cat
on Ragtag Community
The Ragtag Daily Prompt now has it’s own blog site called the “Ragtag Community“. Each day of the week a prompt is presented by a different person. Today’s is “travel” by Curious Cat. Come and participate by posting writing or images evoked by the word and add your pingback or link to the comments there. Hope to see you.