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A Gift of Angels
The Art of Mission San Xavier del Bac
Bernard L. Fontana; Photographs by Edward McCain
376 pp. / 12.0 x 14.0 / 2010
Cloth (978-0-8165-2840-0)
  - Southwest Center Series

One Signed Copy of "A Gift of Angels"

It rises suddenly out of the Sonoran Desert landscape, towering over the tallest tree or cactus, a commanding building with a sensuous dome, elliptical vaults, and sturdy bell towers. There is nothing else like it around, nor does it seem there should be. This incongruity of setting is what strikes first-time visitors to Mission San Xavier del Bac. This great church is of another place and another time, while its beauty is universal and timeless.

Mission San Xavier del Bac is a two-century-old Spanish church in southern Arizona located just a few miles from downtown Tucson, a metropolis of more than half a million people in the American Southwest. A National Historic Landmark since 1963, the mission’s graceful baroque art and architecture have drawn visitors from all over the world.

Now Bernard Fontana—the leading expert on San Xavier—and award-winning photographer Edward McCain team up to bring us a comprehensive view of the mission as we’ve never seen it before. With 200 stunning full-color photographs and incisive text illuminating the religious, historical, and motivational context of these images, A Gift of Angels is a must-have for tourists, scholars, and other visitors to San Xavier.

From its glorious architecture all the way down to the finest details of its art, Mission San Xavier del Bac is indeed a gift of angels.


A symphony of words and images and a fitting homage to the early Southwest’s greatest architectural monument. This book is a stunning achievement.

—John P. Schaefer, former president of the University of Arizona and co-founder of the University of Arizona’s Center for Creative Photography

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