Mission San Jose
Mission San Jose y San Miguel de Aguayo
San Antonio Missions National Park
Known as the “Queen of the Missions”, this is the largest of the missions and was almost fully restored to its original design in the 1930s by the WPA (Works Projects Administration). Spanish missions were not churches, but communities, with the church the focus. Mission San Jose shows the visitor how all the missions might have looked over 250 years ago.
Founded in 1720, the mission was named for Saint Joseph and the Marques de San Miguel de Aguayo, the governor of the Province of Coahuila and Texas at the time. It was built on the banks of the San Antonio river several miles to the south of the earlier mission, San Antonio de Valero (the Alamo).
Its founder was the famed Father Antonio Margil de Jesus, a very prominent Franciscan missionary in early Texas.
Mission San Jose is an active parish. Visitors are welcome to attend mass on Sundays.