Missionary Tale

I enjoyed Susan Spano’s article on her tour of Father Eusebio Kino’s missions in Arizona and Mexico (“To the Sonoran Desert, on a Mission,” Sept. 24). I had never heard of Father Kino until I attended the University of Arizona in Tucson.

There was no mention in the article of the folk tradition of placing small gold or silver objects depicting a body part needing healing or other requests on statues of saints, like the St. Francis Xavier statue at the San Xavier mission in Tucson.

MARY K. HANSEN

Pasadena