Site of Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe Mission - Our Lady of Guadalupe Mission
New Braunfels, Comal County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Established on 1756 in the Guadalupe River at or near present New Braunfels as an extension of the ill-fated Mission San Francisco Xavier de Horcasitas (1746-1755). Earlier located 100 miles northeast, San Francisco Xavier had been shaken by attacks, disease, and strife between friars and soldiers, which had climaxed in the murder of a friar in 1752. Although most of the personnel and Indian converts (neophytes) fled, the mission continued until 1755. After that time it moved to the Guadalupe River to gather its scattered Mayeye Indians, who refused to enter Valero Mission (the Alamo) in San Antonio. Like the other three San Xavier missions, San Francisco Xavier was short-lived. Good features at the site included five springs, fertile fields, timber, meadows and the nearby river. Two friars ran the small mission, with a citizen guard, so as to avoid friction. Four Spanish families and 41 Indians (27 of them baptized) comprised the inhabitants of the mission as of January, 1757. Never a strong mission, Guadalupe continued only until March, 1758. At this time the church withdrew its staff because of increasingly dangerous raids by Comanches and other northern tribes.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Established in 1756 on the Guadalupe River near present New Braunfels, this short-lived Spanish mission was the last chapter of the troubled Mission San Francisco Xavier, which had been battered by attacks, disease, and a friar's murder at its earlier site. Moved here to gather its scattered Mayeye Indian converts — who had refused to enter the Alamo mission in San Antonio — it sheltered only a handful of Spanish families and a few dozen Indians. Escalating Comanche raids forced the church to withdraw its staff in 1758.
Why it matters
The mission's brief, embattled life reflects the limits of Spain's frontier system in central Texas, where disease, isolation, and Comanche power repeatedly defeated the effort to convert and hold Native communities.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
New Braunfels: County Seat of Comal County
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Spanish Franciscans founded this short-lived mission in 1757 to draw the Tonkawa, Mayeye, and allied peoples into Catholic mission life, relocating it from the failed San Xavier missions on the San Gabriel River. The effort collapsed almost immediately, and the mission was abandoned in 1758. Its brief existence reflects the strained final decades of Spain's mission system in central Texas.
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