At the heart of San Antonio are the Spanish Colonial Missions, which run along the Missions Trail on the San Antonio River. They date back to the 1700s.
And at the heart of those Missions are the bells. For three centuries, they have tolled to mark major events in the lives of individuals and the community as a whole.
Las Misiones, a non-profit affiliate of the San Antonio Catholic Archdiocese, works to preserve the missions.
Rebecca Simmons, the executive director of Las Misiones, explained how the bells were used in the past and how they're used today.
She said before watches and clocks, the bells just marked important times of the day for the communities that grew up around each mission, led by friars and master builders and built by indigenous people.
“[The bells were] not so much keyed to a specific time [but more] as 'it’s lunch time. It’s time for Mass.' And it would have been in a certain part of the morning. But they were not so tied to their watches or clocks because there were none," Simmons said.
The bells could also sound the alarm if one of the missions came under attack from some of the indigenous people upset with their presence.
Residents of the other missions could come to their aid in such cases. The missions were all spaced about two-and-a-half to three miles apart from one another so they could provide mutual aid to one another.
Simmons said the bells are more active than ever today.
“You know, the mission bells today are used often at Mass times, so for instance, to call people to Mass," she said. "That’s a very traditional use of the bells, and they have been used that way for centuries. They can also be used for funerals, often during celebrations. Normally, in a liturgical setting."
Simmons recalled some other recent moments the bells have served — one for fun and another in remembrance.
"When school kids come through Mission Concepcion, I do let them ring the bell every once in a while," she said. "And then finally, a more modern approach is in memory of the people who we lost to COVID-19. Mission Concepcion rings the bell every Thursday morning [at] 9:20 to commemorate that.”
The three bells at Mission Espada feature a higher pitch that go perfectly with the tiny church. Just up the trail lies Mission San Juan. Its three bells include a slight clang but still charm the ears and match the most rustic setting around any of the missions.
And then a little more up the trail there is perhaps the grandest bell of them all at Mission Concepcion. Its one bell emits solid rings that match the majestic church inside.
The Rosenberg Library in Galveston explained that it is the home of one of two of Concepcion's original bells, which were taken away by Texians to be melted into rifle balls during the Texas Revolution. That proved too difficult, and one of the bells was abandoned.
The Rosenberg Museum said the other was stored in a barn that was set afire by Santa Anna's Mexican army crossing Texas. The bell fell into private hands after the Civil War and was donated to the Galveston and then to Texas historical societies. State historical officials donated the bell to the Rosenberg Museum in 1931.
Anna Nau, a senior architect for Ford, Powell, and Carson, spent 17 years working on behalf of Los Misiones to maintain the missions and their bells. “Some are made of steel, and some are made out of iron and generally we clean the metal if we need to, if there is a lot of rust," she said. "We do have a specialist bell repair contractor who’s taken a look at it, but we also need to make sure that the attachments and the anchorage that hold the bells to those wood posts within the bell arches are in good shape.”
Nau said only one of the bells at all of the Missions may be original. It’s located at Mission San Juan. Like all the original bells, it was likely cast in Mexico and hauled up to the missions by ox cart. Only Concepcion, San Juan, and Espada have real bells. Mission San Jose uses an electronic bell. The Alamo has no bells. All the real bells are rung the old-fashioned way — by tugging on ropes.
The existing bells, outside of the possibly original one at Mission San Juan, date back to the 1800s or early 1900s and were installed as part of repairs or restorations. Nau said most of the original bells were lost to the ages somehow, like the Concepcion bells during the Texas Revolution.
Nau said at times, the missions were even treated as supply yards for other local building efforts and items and possibly bells were removed.
And then there was the Civil War.
“There are lots of stories about during the Civil War period — people taking whatever metal they could find to turn it into weapons or reusing the metal — and that’s really all we know," she said.
The parishioners of the mission churches love their bells.
Carlos Marquez, a parishioner and deacon at Mission San Juan, said that the "whole object of using those bells is ... a call to attention ... that people [are] welcome inside the church. And here on Sunday when they ring the bells, it's just beautiful."
He also learned the techniques used by previous bell ringers at San Juan. "The Franciscans, they have a certain way," he said. "I think that they use the big bell first. They ring it twice and then the small bell once."
Ethel Rios is a parishioner and bookkeeper at Mission Concepcion, considered the oldest unrestored church in the nation since it never fell into ruin.
"The bells mean so much to us, especially here in the community," she said. "People want to know what's going on and I get all kinds of phone calls with the bells ringing and it’s not Sunday, or it’s not a wedding, or it’s not something going on."
Rios said parishioners at Concepcion had a hard time parting with their bell when it was taken away during the pandemic to be recast as part of restoration work. "I'm getting emotional just thinking about them because the bell is so important," she said. "We're so glad that we have it now. That we have it back, and we get to share it with tourists."
Retired priest David Garcia, who delivered sermons for 45 years within churches in the local Catholic archdiocese, including at Concepcion, hoped the bells summon something deep in those that hear them.
"When you hear a bell ringing, especially a church bell ... it’s a call to you to maybe pray. Give thanks to God," he said.
"Look at what you have and how much, how many blessings you have and then to ... share some of those blessings with other people. And I think that's the beautiful thing. San Antonio has always had this spirit of trying to help each other out, and I think that's also what the bells symbolize."
To keep the bells ringing for centuries to come will take money. Simmons gives an example.
“The bell that is in the north tower of Mission Concepcion was recent actually recast, and we sent it out of state to go have that done. And the cost of that was — by the time you got through with the rehanging of it and all the work incorporated with that — was about a $100,000 or more just to have that done.”
Simmons said anyone, including the 600,000 locals who identify as Catholics inside the San Antonio Archdiocese, are welcome to make donations to support restoration work on the missions and their bells.
“The organization that actually preserves the mission churches is Las Misiones ... and, boy, they are in need and will always support any sort of donation made," she said. "If you come to Mission Concepcion or the other parishes, there is a donation box there, and that assists the parish at least in also preserving the smaller items that are there in the mission churches."
It may surprise many San Antonians that due to the separation of church and state, the missions themselves receive no direct local, state, or federal government funding for their upkeep, making public donations all the more important.
The National Park Service does spend money to maintain the park facilities around the missions, literally up to their front doors, but that’s where the maintenance stops.
Those front doors on the missions have been open now for three centuries of Masses, weddings, baptisms, funerals, visits by dignitaries, the end of wars, and other occasions, and most all marked by the sound of the mission bells ringing.
