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In the second half of the 19th century, the government of the Province of Buenos Aires carried out an expropriation of the lay patronage of San Isidro that transferred to the Catholic Church the temple, images and other goods and to the municipality the buildings adjacent to the temple, the lands of the Saint and the cemetery. The history of this patronage, which lasted until the end of the 19th century, offers a rich overview of the foundation’s administration, and the changes over time in the relationships between the patron families and the civil and ecclesiastical authorities. Argentine secularization led to the expropriation of property subject to lay patronages and denied the patrons the mechanisms of intervention that they had previously enjoyed. It thus put an end to an ancient system that saw the intertwining of the spiritual and the temporal, the sacred and the profane, as well as the simultaneous pursuit of salvation and social prominence, and the plurality of rights over a same property. This example and others like it should make us suspicious of interpretations that claim the universality of an expropriation process that systematically benefited the State to the sole detriment of the Church.