Adriana Bañuelos Ruiz wanted a place to feel unity and love with God and the Virgin Mary when she first moved to the U.S. It wasn’t until she moved from Denver to Tulsa four years later that she found her place.
Bañuelos Ruiz has been a member of St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church since the early 2000s. It’s a privilege to serve the church, she said.
“It’s a blessing for the city to have this sanctuary and the chapel, and to have so much sisterhood and unity as a Catholic community,” she said in Spanish.
Bañuelos Ruiz is part of a growing congregation at St. Francis Xavier, which is celebrating a century since its founding. Bishop Francis Kelley established St. Francis Xavier as Tulsa’s fifth parish in 1926, according to historical records kept by the Diocese of Tulsa and Eastern Oklahoma.
The church, located at 2434 East Admiral Blvd., will officially mark its centennial with a celebration and mass starting at 6 p.m. Friday and a concert at 8 p.m. Saturday.
Rev. Elmer Rodriguez, who has been at St. Francis Xavier since 2022, said the centennial celebrations honor the community that started it all.
“We are celebrating 100 years of mass, baptisms, confessions. That is to say, a life of sacraments,” Rodriguez said. “We are celebrating the community. The people.”
How the church became Tulsa’s first Hispanic parish
The original congregation started gathering inside their homes until they constructed a temporary temple. The first mass was hosted where Circle Cinema stands today in the Kendall Whittier neighborhood, Rodriguez said.
The congregation eventually built an eight-classroom school at East First Street and South Atlanta Avenue, Rodriguez said. It was their home for 11 years, before the permanent church, the same building that stands today, was built in 1937.
There was a membership dip in the 1970s as Tulsa’s geography changed, which resulted in Our Lady of Guadalupe being established in east Tulsa to serve Mexican coal miners. That church closed in 1992 and St. Francis absorbed congregants. Since then, it has accommodated a growing Hispanic congregation with increased masses in Spanish, according to the Diocese of Tulsa and Eastern Oklahoma.
It has been the Hispanic community that has kept the place afloat and growing, Rodriguez said. It’s also considered Tulsa’s first Hispanic parish, he said.
“This was the only one they knew where they could baptize their children in their language or get married in their language,” he said.
Former Pastors Timothy Davison and Father José María Briones helped grow the number of attendees from the Hispanic community, Rodriguez said. The dedication of St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church as a Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in 2004 also helped, he said.
Rodriguez recalls Davison learning Spanish to connect with parishioners. It was easier for him to learn Spanish than to ask church members to learn English, Rodriguez recalls Davison telling him.
“Celebrating mass in the language of those who are arriving is saying, ‘You’re welcomed here,’” Rodriguez said. “It’s saying, ‘We can speak to you about God in your language.’”
Congregation grows in numbers — and spirit
On Easter Sunday, churchgoers poured out of St. Francis Xavier to listen to the words of God. Folks clapped on the stairs in front of the church even though they couldn’t see the pastor leading the mass. It’s not standing room-only every day, but the congregation keeps growing.
Bañuelos Ruiz, who attended the Sunday mass, said the church already had a thriving Hispanic community when she joined two decades ago.
“It’s a blessing and privilege to see how our community has grown, not only in numbers, but also spiritually,” she said in Spanish.
Flor Mendez joined the parish 13 years ago after moving to Tulsa from South Carolina. One of her sons already attended services there and she felt welcomed by churchgoers.
Mendez said she’s felt most connected with Rodriguez since he arrived at the church nearly four years ago.
“He understands us very well and he scolds us and he tells us our truths, but he’s an excellent person and, above all, an excellent human,” she said.
She recently took on another role at the church — selling items at its shop, including rosaries and sacred images of saints. She spends anywhere between 10 to 12 hours there every Sunday.
Everything she sells goes back into St. Francis Xavier to help maintain it, including painting the walls and potentially getting new furniture, she said.
“I told the priest that, ‘I will donate my Sundays. I won’t be bored. I like being here,’” she said.
This article was produced as part of a partnership between the Tulsa Flyer and La Semana, a Tulsa-based bilingual Spanish-English newspaper serving Latino communities in Oklahoma.
News decisions at the Tulsa Flyer are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
