Please Help Repair Our Mission Church Los Valdeses

Thank you for taking the time to read our plea!

St. Francis of Assisi Mission Church, with a legacy spanning 143 years, nestled in Seven Mile Plaza, also known as Los Valdeses, located in the beautiful San Luis Valley in Colorado finds itself in need of urgent repairs. Regrettably, our aging shingle roof and adobe walls, marked by substantial cracks and visible deterioration from decades of exposure, have compelled us to temporarily close our doors until these issues are addressed. We are reaching out to you to ask, from the bottom of our hearts, to consider contributing to the restoration and preservation of our beautiful church. Any amount, great or small, would be deeply appreciated, and we hope to one day soon reopen the doors so that everyone will be able to visit and see it in all its beauty.

Our ancestors passed through the doors of this church for masses, baptisms, holy communions, and funerals. We would cherish the opportunity to uphold this tradition and worship within these hallowed walls once again as they did generations before us.

In 1870, a man by the name of Juan Pio Valdez along with his wife Maria Nestora travelled to and settled in the San Luis Valley. In 1881, they bought land where Seven Mile Plaza or Plaza of Los Valdeses now sits. That same year, Juan and Maria donated the land for a church, a cemetery which is still used today, and a school which no longer stands.

We were told that when the church doors first opened, the parishioners were asked to bring a wooden log with them to mass to put in the little wood stove to keep everyone warm. They couldn’t afford pews at that time so they were happy with wooden benches. One of the most important changes to the church was in the 1940s: a new main altar was delivered from Spain (the priest who was serving the mission was from Spain). But the new altar was too tall for the existing roof and ceiling in the apse, a new roofline behind the apse was needed.

Juan Pio and Maria are both buried near the altar in the floor of the St Francis of Assisi Church. This was a privilege granted by the bishop because of the gift of land for the church, cemetery, and school.