The increase in size brought the mission at Abiquiú more important and longer-term resident missionaries: Fathers José de la Prada, from 1789 to 1806, and Teodoro Alcina de la Borda, from 1806 to 1823. Both men were elected directors (_custoses_) of the Franciscan mission field in New Mexico, "The Custody of the Conversion of St. Paul." _Custoses_ Prada and Borda backed the Franciscans, who were fighting for a missionary field that they had long considered their own. Official directives (_patentes_) issued by _Custos_ Prada at Abiquiú warned all settlers against "new ideas of liberty" and asked each friar for his personal concept of governmental rights.[28] In 1802, Fray Prada also complained to the new _Custos_, Father Sanchez Vergara, about missions that had been neglected under the secular clergy.[29] In this period, Abiquiú's mission was a center of clerical reaction to the revolutionary political ideas and clerical secularization that had resulted from Mexico's recent independence from Spain. In the year 1820, the strained relations between religious authorities and the laity at Abiquiú clearly reflected the unstable conditions in New Mexico. Eventually, charges of manipulating mission funds and neglect of clerical duties were brought against Father Alcina de la Borda by the citizens of Abiquiú.[30] At the same time, Governor Melgares informed the _Alcalde Mayor_, Santiago Salazar, that these funds (_sínodos_) had been reduced and that an oath of loyalty to the Spanish crown would be required.[31] This situation produced a strong reaction in Abiquiú's next generation, which sought to preserve its traditional cultural patterns in the _penitente_ brotherhoods. The great-grandsons of Abiquiú's first settlers witnessed a significant change in organization of their mission--its secularization in 1826. For three years, Father Borda had shared his mission duties with Franciscans from San Juan and Santa Clara _pueblos_, giving way in 1823 to the last member of the Order to serve Santo Tomás, Fray Sanchez Vergara. Santo Tomás Mission received its first secular priest in 1823, Cura Leyva y Rosas, who returned to Abiquiú in 1832. Officially the mission at Abiquiú was secularized in 1826, along with those at Belén and Taos.[32] The first secular priest assigned to Santo Tomás reflected the now traditional and self-sufficient character of _Hispano_ culture at Abiquiú.[33] He was the independent-minded Don Antonio José Martínez. Born in Abiquiú, Don Antonio later became an ambitious spiritual and political leader in Taos, where he fought to preserve traditional _Hispano_ culture from Anglo-American influences.