Cripta del Padre Eusebio Kino

A crypt in the center of the mission town of Magdalena de Kino, Sonora, México contains the bones of the town’s namesake. Father Eusebio Francisco Kino, a Jesuit missionary, traveled through what is now the Southwestern United States and Northwestern Mexico, eventually establishing 24 missions in total to form the ‘Rutas de Las Misiones.’

Simultaneously a geographer and cartographer, Father Kino is perhaps most famously known for disproving (to the Europeans) the previous notion that Baja California is an island, rather than a peninsula. The Tohono O’odham—whose lands Father Kino and his fellow Jesuit missionaries occupied—knew this of course, so he does not deserve much credit for this “discovery.”

In total, Father Kino interacted with 16 indigenous tribes, and established Magdalena de Kino’s mission, where he eventually died at age 65. Known as “Santa María Magdalena de Buquivaba” until 1966, the town underwent a renaming process to celebrate the life of Father Kino. His bones were encased within a glass mausoleum, which was declared a Mexican National Monument. In 2020, Pope Francis advanced the beautification process for Father Kino, declaring him as “Venerable,” a further step towards become a Saint in the Catholic Church.