San
Diego del Pitiquito was founded in 1694 by Kino
who frequently visited the village of Pitiqui, named after a famous chieftain,
Pite of Pitic, who fought the Spanish. It remained a visita of Caborca
throughout the Jesuit and into the Franciscan period until 1778.
The first church was under construction in 1706 but was gone by 1730.
The next church appeared in 1760 shortly after the Pima rebellion.
Apparently not much happened over the next 38 years because Father Juan Marcelo Diaz who was stationed at Caborca remarked in 1768 that “it was so poorly furnished that had to take everything with him in order to celebrate Mass.”
Father Antonio de los Reyes on 6 July 1772 submitted a report on the condition of the missions in the Upper and Lower Pimeria Alta. This was his report on San Diego del Pitiquito as translated by Father Kieran McCarty.
The outlying station of San Diego at Pitiqui lies two leagues to the east of Caborca. They have no church and no house for the Missionary. According to the Census Book, which I have here before me, there are seventy-five married couples, eight widowers, eleven widows, the number of souls in all three hundred sixty."This situation was remedied beginning in the late 1770s when Father José Matías Moreno started to raise the lime-mortared brick church whose remodelled form one sees at Pitiquito today. Moreno was baptizing Indians at Pitiquito by March of 1776, and he probably started construction then or very soon afterward. It was his successor, Father Pedro Font, who was baptizing people at Pitiquito by January of 1780, who brought the building to its initial state of completion before his death a little less than two years later.
"It appears that many additions and alterations have been made at Pitiquito, both inside and out since 1781. Records describing these have yet to come to light." (The Pimeria Alta, The Southwestern Mission Research Society)
The Murals
In
1966, a small girl got bored and, losing attention, checked out the church
until she saw and stared at a huge skeleton. Her mother followed
her gaze and screamed when she saw an apparition of the devil - a huge
skeleton. If that wasn’t enough, the words “MANE THECEL PHARES” appeared.
From the book of Daniel (5:25-28) this was interpreted to mean that King
Belshazzar had been found wanting and God was about to divide up his kingdom
and give it to the Medes and Persians. The parishioners thought the
world was coming to an end.
Later investigations revealed that the paintings were whitewashed over many years back (no locals remember hearing about them). Cleaning women uncovered them when the chemicals from strong detergents interacted with the lime plaster to show the art. Since then, various other pictures have been revealed, this time by conservation experts. These are considered to be folk art from the late 19th century.
The remnants of picture frames probably date from the time the church was finished and probably depicted the Stations of the Cross. They are on the original layer of walls and were concealed under other coats of plaster and white wash. These may be the only remaining mission art painted by the hand of an O'odham. One of the picture frames has serpents forming the sides with the upper side capped with triangles and heads of figures wearing ceremonial headdresses.