An abandoned and cancelled side door, in sad contrast with the once rich San Francisco Convent, finished in 1567 and probably the first of a total of fourteen built by 1596, in what was then called "a vigorous Catholic mendicant orders campaign to win the hearts and souls of the native people of Zacatecas". With the aid of rich Spanish silver miners, Franciscans, Jesuits, Augustines, Dominicans and Mercedaries began the construction of large convents and churches, with the purpose of preparing clergymen that would evangelize northern New Spain.