Unorthodoxy appeared early in the religious history of AbiquiÚ. By 1744, settlers had installed Santa Rosa de Lima as their patroness in a little riverside plaza near modern AbiquiÚ. After a decade, several colonists from Santa Rosa were moved to the hilltop plaza of AbiquiÚ, where the mission of Santo TomÁs Apostol had been established. In his 1776 visit to AbiquiÚ, DomÍnguez noted, however, a continuing allegiance to the earlier patroness: "... settlers use the name of Santa Rosa, as the lost mission was called in the old days. Therefore, they celebrate the feast of this female saint [August 30th] and not of that masculine saint [St. Thomas the Apostle, December 21]."[19] Loyalty to Saint Rose survived this official protest, and village festivals have persisted in honoring Santa Rosa to this day. It is, therefore, not surprising to find her image in the earlier east morada of AbiquiÚ.

A disturbing influence in the religious life of AbiquiÚ were semi-Christianized servants (genÍzaros), who had been ransomed from the Indians by Spaniards.[20] Often used to establish frontier settlements, genÍzaros came to be a threat to the cultural stability of AbiquiÚ. For example, in 1762, two genÍzaros accused of witchcraft were taken to Santa Cruz for judicial action. After the trial, Governor CachupÍn sent a detachment from Santa Fe to AbiquiÚ to destroy an inscribed stone said to be a relic of black magic.[21] Similar incidents with genÍzaros during the next generation prolonged the unstable religious pattern at AbiquiÚ. In 1766, an Indian girl accused a genÍzaro couple of killing the resident priest, Fray Felix OrdoÑez y Machado, by witchcraft.[22] And again in 1782 and 1786, charges of apostasy were entered against AbiquiÚ genÍzaros.[23]

Another disturbing element in the religious history of AbiquiÚ was the disinterest of her settlers in the building and furnishing of Santo TomÁs Mission. Although the structure was completed in the first generation of settlement at AbiquiÚ, 1755 to 1776, DomÍnguez could report only two contributions from colonists, both loans: "In this room [sacristy] there is an ordinary table with a drawer and key ... a loan from a settler called Juan Pablo Martin ... the chalice is in three pieces, and one of them, for it is a loan by the settlers, is used for a little shrine they have."[24] All mission equipment was supplied by royal funds (sÍnodos) except some religious articles provided by the resident missionary, Fray FernÁndez, who finished the structure raised half way by his predecessor, Fray Juan JosÉ Toledo. Both Franciscans found settlers busy with everyday problems of survival and resentful when called on to labor for the mission. The settlers not only failed to supply any objects, but when they were required to work at the mission, all tools and equipment had to be supplied to them.[25]

Despite these detrimental influences, the mission at AbiquiÚ continued to grow. Between 1760 and 1793, the population increased from 733 to 1,363, making AbiquiÚ the third largest settlement in colonial New Mexico north of Paso del Norte [Ciudad Juarez].[26] (Only Santa Cruz with 1,650 and Santa Fe with 2,419 persons were larger.) In 1795, the pueblo had maintained its size at 1,558, with Indians representing less than 10 percent of the population.[27]

The increase in size brought the mission at AbiquiÚ more important and longer-term resident missionaries: Fathers JosÉ de la Prada, from 1789 to 1806, and Teodoro Alcina de la Borda, from 1806 to 1823. Both men were elected directors (custoses) of the Franciscan mission field in New Mexico, "The Custody of the Conversion of St. Paul." Custoses Prada and Borda backed the Franciscans, who were fighting for a missionary field that they had long considered their own. Official directives (patentes) issued by Custos Prada at AbiquiÚ warned all settlers against "new ideas of liberty" and asked each friar for his personal concept of governmental rights.[28] In 1802, Fray Prada also complained to the new Custos, Father Sanchez Vergara, about missions that had been neglected under the secular clergy.[29] In this period, AbiquiÚ's mission was a center of clerical reaction to the revolutionary political ideas and clerical secularization that had resulted from Mexico's recent independence from Spain.

In the year 1820, the strained relations between religious authorities and the laity at AbiquiÚ clearly reflected the unstable conditions in New Mexico. Eventually, charges of manipulating mission funds and neglect of clerical duties were brought against Father Alcina de la Borda by the citizens of AbiquiÚ.[30] At the same time, Governor Melgares informed the Alcalde Mayor, Santiago Salazar, that these funds (sÍnodos) had been reduced and that an oath of loyalty to the Spanish crown would be required.[31] This situation produced a strong reaction in AbiquiÚ's next generation, which sought to preserve its traditional cultural patterns in the penitente brotherhoods.

The great-grandsons of AbiquiÚ's first settlers witnessed a significant change in organization of their mission—its secularization in 1826. For three years, Father Borda had shared his mission duties with Franciscans from San Juan and Santa Clara pueblos, giving way in 1823 to the last member of the Order to serve Santo TomÁs, Fray Sanchez Vergara. Santo TomÁs Mission received its first secular priest in 1823, Cura Leyva y Rosas, who returned to AbiquiÚ in 1832. Officially the mission at AbiquiÚ was secularized in 1826, along with those at BelÉn and Taos.[32]

The first secular priest assigned to Santo TomÁs reflected the now traditional and self-sufficient character of Hispano culture at AbiquiÚ.[33] He was the independent-minded Don Antonio JosÉ MartÍnez. Born in AbiquiÚ, Don Antonio later became an ambitious spiritual and political leader in Taos, where he fought to preserve traditional Hispano culture from Anglo-American influences.

The mission served by Father MartÍnez in Taos bore resemblance to that at AbiquiÚ. Both missions rested on much earlier Indian settlements, but the Taos pueblo was still active. Furthermore, Taos and AbiquiÚ were buffer settlements on the frontier, where Indian raids as well as trade occurred. In 1827 a census by P. B. Pino listed nearly 3,600 persons at Taos and a similar count at AbiquiÚ; only Santa Fe with 5,700 and Santa Cruz with 6,500 were larger villages.

At this time, an independent element appeared in the religious activities of the Santa Cruz region. In 1831, Vicar Rascon gave permission to sixty members of the Third Order of St. Francis at Santa Cruz to hold Lenten exercises in Taos, provided that no "abuses" arose to be corrected on his next visit.[34] Apparently this warning proved inadequate, for in 1833 Archbishop ZubirÍa concluded his visitation at Santa Cruz by ordering that "pastors of this villa ... must never in the future permit such reunions of Penitentes under any pretext whatsoever."[35] We have noted, however, that two generations earlier Fray DomÍnguez had commended similar observances at Santa Cruz and AbiquiÚ, and it was not until the visitation of Fray NiÑo de Guevara, 1817-1820, that Church officials found it necessary to condemn penitential activity in New Mexico.[36]

In little more than two generations, from 1776 to 1833, the Franciscan missions were disrupted by secularization and excessive acts of penance. In the second half of the 19th century, the new, non-Spanish Archbishops, Lamy and Salpointe, saw a relation between the Franciscan Third Order and the brotherhood of penitentes. When J. B. Lamy began signing rule books (arreglos) for the penitente chapters of New Mexico,[37] he hoped to reintegrate them into accepted Church practice as members of the Third Order. And at the end of the century, J. B. Salpointe expressed his belief that the penitente brotherhood had been an outgrowth of the Franciscan tertiaries.[38]

AbiquiÚ shared in events that marked the religious history of New Mexico in the last three quarters of the 19th century. We have noted the secularization of Santo TomÁs Mission in 1826; by 1856 the village had its penitente rule book duly signed by Archbishop Lamy. Entitled Arreglo de la Santa Hermandad de la Sangre de Nuestro SeÑor Jesucristo, a copy was signed by AbiquiÚ's priest, Don Pedro Bernal, on April 6, 1867.[39] While officialdom worked out new religious and political relations, villagers struggled to preserve a more familiar tradition.

Occupation of New Mexico in 1846 by United States troops tended to solidify traditional Hispano life in AbiquiÚ. In that year, Navajo harassments caused an encampment of 180 men under Major Gilpin to be stationed at AbiquiÚ.[40] Eventually, the Indian raids slackened, and a trading post for the Utes was set up at AbiquiÚ in 1853.[41] Neither the U.S. Army nor Indian trading posts, however, became integrated into AbiquiÚ's Hispano way of life, and these extracultural influences soon moved on, leaving only a few commercial artifacts.

With a new generation of inhabitants occupying AbiquiÚ between 1864 and 1886, the village on the Rio Chama lost its primary function as a buffer settlement against nomadic Indians and settled down into a well-established cultural pattern, which in part was preserved by the penitentes. Kit Carson had rounded up the Navajos at Bosque Redondo, and two decades later, by 1883, the Utes had been moved north. In preparation, the Indian trading post at AbiquiÚ was closed in 1872 and moved to the new seat of Rio Arriba County, Tierra Amarilla,[42] 65 kilometers northward. Within two generations, AbiquiÚ's population had fallen to fewer than 800 from a high of nearly 3,600 in 1827.[43] As a result, many Hispanos at AbiquiÚ withdrew into the penitente organization, which promised to preserve and even intensify their traditional ways of life and beliefs. These attitudes were materialized in the building of the penitente moradas.