Missions and Missionaries
(from missio, ěreligious mission,î from L mittere "to send; the act of sending", from Papal and Bishopric commands)
intended to spread Christianity to "heathens" in order to "civilize" them
Missions usually spaced a dayís travel apart; provided shelter and sustenance to travelling colonizers
usually with a central church building named after a particular Catholic saint, often built of heavy adobe (for insulation from the heat and for stability, but also because easier and faster to build than with quarried stone), often with one or more bell
often also contained smaller living quarters for priests and bishop, storehouses, schoolrooms, as outlying buildings of the same or lesser construction
In areas north of Mexico, arranged previously nomadic indigenous cultures into fixed pueblos (towns)