[2] It consists of the parish church of San Juan Bautista, a freestanding chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes, and ten associated missions.

[3][4][5] The current church, the parish's fifth[6] or sixth,[7][Note 1] was built in 1913 and is listed as a contributing property on the National Register of Historic Places.

Consequently, the National Park Service notes that the brick church "belies a long history of interaction between the Spanish and Pueblo Indians in New Mexico".

[9] Strictly speaking, however, the architecture of the church is the result of French cultural influence in the Diocese of Santa Fe beginning in the mid-nineteenth century.

[7] In 2013, the church received a new entry way, featuring a relief of the Baptism of Jesus, in honor of the parish's 415th anniversary.

[10] The church hosts Holy Hour, and has several choirs, which sing in the Tewa language, in Spanish, and Gregorian chant.

Built in the neo-Gothic style out of lava rock by architects Antoine and Projectus Mouly, the shrine was dedicated in 1890.

[9] On August 23, 1598, the Spanish began to build a church at San Gabriel de Yungue-Ouinge, and the first Mass was celebrated there on September 8, 1598.

Under the leadership of Popé, a resident of San Juan Pueblo (Ohkay Owingeh), this native uprising drove the Spanish out of New Mexico for 12 years.

[7][9][10] The interior was furnished by an altarpiece, paid for by Governor Tomás Vélez Cachupín, that was painted red, blue, and yellow (the colors of the Spanish Crown).

[7] By this point, San Juan Pueblo (Ohkay Owingeh) was Mexican territory, Mexico having achieved independence from Spain in 1821.

After the Mexican-American War and Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, control of the area passed to the United States.

[7][10] Popularly known as Padre Camilo, he was born in Lyon, France and was one of numerous French clergy to arrive in the Diocese of Santa Fe under the influence of Bishop Jean-Baptiste Lamy.

Seux erected in the church yard a life-sized statute of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, a copy of that at Lourdes in France, which was blessed on April 9 of that year by Archbishop Jean Baptiste Salpointe.

Seux financed the construction of a neo-Gothic chapel, dedicated as a shrine to Our Lady of Lourdes, across from the adobe church.

Seux, receiving a plaster coating, inscribed with lines to simulate masonry, new windows and millwork, and a new roofline with a belfry and spire.

[9][7] San Juan Bautista became something of a showcase within the diocese, and it received a visit by James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore, in October 1895.

"[14] In San Juan Bautista and other parishes, the French clergy wished to exchange "the look of the 'primitive' church for that of a 'contemporary' (i.e., 'polite') institution.