After the Spanish conquest of Guatemala, San Lucas Tolimán was part of the Tecpán Atitlán "corregimiento" (English: Province) and when it turned into a major municipality in 1730, it became part of it as well;[4] regarding the Catholic faith, this was in charge of the franciscans, who had convents and doctrines in the area covered by the modern departments of Sacatepéquez, Chimaltenango, Sololá, Quetzaltenango, Totonicapán, Suchitepéquez and Escuintla.

The "Provincia del Santísimo Nombre de Jesús" (English:"Province of the most Holy Name of Jesus"), as the Franciscan area was then called, reached up to 24 convents.

[5] Under franciscan tenure, both in the Santiago Atitlán convent town as in the native towns in its annexed doctrines —such as San Lucas Tolimán—, there was religious teaching for 6-year-old girls and older starting at 2:00 pm and for boys of the same age starting at sunset; the class lasted for 2 hours and consisted on memorizing the church teaching and prayers and to make some exercises with the catechism and it was run by a priest or by elder natives, called "fiscales".

[7] In 1754, as part of the borbon reforms, the Franciscans where forced to, give their doctrines to the secular clergy;[8] thus, when archbishop Pedro Cortés y Larraz visited Panajachel in 1770, he described it as a member of the "Santiago Atitlan parish".

Following the death of Monsignor Schaffer at the age of 78 in St. Paul of a rare form of lymphoma, a new group called the "Friends of San Lucas" has been appointed to continue the work in the area.