X is for Xavier Mission

I researched the letter x, I wanted ideas to connect a picture with this letter. First I need to let you know that I love old books, I collect them because they contain so much that is lost in the world today. So I have a few old books to peruse.

In New Universities Webster Dictionary from 1940 the letter Xx has 107 entries. It's a very thorough book.

In 1974, I purchased a Webster's New World Dictionary @1971 just before I started college. I used it to spell words, to find out if I should use an adverb or an adjective, to learn how to correctly pronounce the word, to uncover the meanings and to find synonyms for writing. Xx has 30 entries in it.

The World Book Encyclopedia of 1994, Xx has 17 entries. This is the most current hard bound resource I have. I used to have an app to help me, now I mostly use Wikipedia, or the dictionary from 1971.

Anyway, I think we have slowed use of the letter x. Maybe thats because it has 6 different sounds. No wonder English is a difficult language to learn. Many words beginning with Xx in the oldest book no longer appear in newer dictionaries. Xerox was not in the old book, but X-ray was. Xebec appeared in all three books. It is a 3-masted ship used in the Mediterranean. X-chromosone was only in the 1994 book.

Also appearing in all three books was St. Francis Xavier, a Jesuit missionary. That sounded familiar to me so I dug a little more, went to Wikipedia and hit the jackpot. I've been there and have pictures of the St. Francis Xavier Mission south of Tucson,  Arizona. It was established in 1692! It is beautiful! My photos aren't great because I was using a new camera, with settings unfamiliar to me.