Mission San Juan Capistrano ( es, Misión San Juan Capistrano) is a
Spanish mission in
San Juan Capistrano
San Juan Capistrano (Spanish for " St. John of Capistrano") is a city in Orange County, California, located along the Orange Coast. The population was 34,593 at the 2010 census.
San Juan Capistrano was founded by the Spanish in 1776, when St ...
,
Orange County
Orange County most commonly refers to:
*Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area
Orange County may also refer to:
U.S. counties
*Orange County, Florida, containing Orlando
*Orange County, Indiana
*Orange County, New ...
,
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
. Founded November 1, 1776 in colonial ''
Las Californias
The Californias (Spanish: ''Las Californias''), occasionally known as The Three Californias or Two Californias, are a region of North America spanning the United States and Mexico, consisting of the U.S. state of California and the Mexican sta ...
'' by Spanish Catholic missionaries of the
Franciscan
The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...
Order, it was named for
Saint John of Capistrano. The
Spanish Colonial Baroque style church was located in the
Alta California
Alta California ('Upper California'), also known as ('New California') among other names, was a province of New Spain, formally established in 1804. Along with the Baja California peninsula, it had previously comprised the province of , but ...
province of the
Viceroyalty of New Spain
New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( es, Virreinato de Nueva España, ), or Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain during the Spanish colonization of the Amer ...
. The Mission was founded less than 60 yards from the village of
Acjacheme.
The Mission was secularized by the
Mexican government
The Federal government of Mexico (alternately known as the Government of the Republic or ' or ') is the national government of the United Mexican States, the central government established by its constitution to share sovereignty over the republi ...
in 1833, and returned to the
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
by the United States government in 1865. The Mission was damaged over the years by a number of natural disasters, but restoration and renovation efforts date from around 1910. It functions today as a museum.
Introduction
The mission was founded in 1776, by the Spanish Catholics of the
Franciscan
The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...
Order. Named for
Saint John of Capistrano, a 14th-century
theologian
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
and "warrior priest" who resided in the
Abruzzo
Abruzzo (, , ; nap, label=Neapolitan language, Abruzzese Neapolitan, Abbrùzze , ''Abbrìzze'' or ''Abbrèzze'' ; nap, label=Sabino dialect, Aquilano, Abbrùzzu; #History, historically Abruzzi) is a Regions of Italy, region of Southern Italy wi ...
region of
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
, San Juan Capistrano has the distinction of being home to the oldest building in California still in use, a chapel built in 1782. "Father Serra's Church", also known as "Serra's Chapel", is the only extant structure where it has been documented that
Junipero Serra celebrated
Mass
Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...
. The mission is one of the best known in
Alta California
Alta California ('Upper California'), also known as ('New California') among other names, was a province of New Spain, formally established in 1804. Along with the Baja California peninsula, it had previously comprised the province of , but ...
, and one of the few to have actually been founded twice – the others being
Mission San Gabriel Arcángel and
Mission La Purísima Concepción
Mission (from Latin ''missio'' "the act of sending out") may refer to:
Organised activities Religion
*Christian mission, an organized effort to spread Christianity
*Mission (LDS Church), an administrative area of The Church of Jesus Christ of ...
. The site was originally consecrated on October 30, 1775, by
Fermín Lasuén Fermín or Fermin may refer to:
* Fermin
Fermin (also Firmin, from Latin ''Firminus''; Spanish ''Fermín'') was a legendary holy man and martyr, traditionally venerated as the co-patron saint of Navarre, Spain. His death may be associated with e ...
, but was quickly abandoned due to unrest among the indigenous population in San Diego.
The success of the settlement's population is evident in its historical records. Prior to the arrival of the missionaries, some 550 indigenous
Acjachemen people lived in this area of their homeland. By 1790, the number of
Indian reductions
Reductions ( es, reducciones, also called ; , pl. ) were settlements created by Spanish rulers and Roman Catholic missionaries in Spanish America and the Spanish East Indies (the Philippines). In Portuguese-speaking Latin America, such re ...
had grown to 700
Mission Indians
Mission Indians are the indigenous peoples of California who lived in Southern California and were forcibly relocated from their traditional dwellings, villages, and homelands to live and work at 15 Franciscan missions in Southern California and ...
, and just six years later nearly 1,000 "neophytes" (recent converts) lived in or around the Mission compound.
Baptism
Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost ...
s in that year alone numbered 1,649 out of the none total 4,639 people converted between 1776 and 1847.
More than 69 former inhabitants, mostly ''
Juaneño
The Acjachemen (, alternate spelling: Acagchemem) are an Indigenous people of California. They historically lived south of what is known as Aliso Creek and north of the Las Pulgas Canyon in what are now the southern areas of Orange County and ...
'' Indians, have marked graves in the Mission's cemetery (''campo santo''). The remains of (later
Monsignor
Monsignor (; it, monsignore ) is an honorific form of address or title for certain male clergy members, usually members of the Roman Catholic Church. Monsignor is the apocopic form of the Italian ''monsignore'', meaning "my lord". "Monsignor" ca ...
)
St. John O'Sullivan, who recognized the property's historic value and working tirelessly to conserve and rebuild its structures, are buried at the entrance to the cemetery on west side of the property, and a statue raised in his honor stands at the head of the crypt. The surviving chapel also serves as the final resting place of three priests who passed on while serving at the Mission:
José Barona
Father José Barona, O.F.M. was Catholic a priest of the Franciscan Order, and a Spanish missionary in California during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Born in July, 1764 at Villa-Nueva del Conde, in the archdiocese of Burgos, Old Castile ...
,
Vicente Fustér
Father Vicente Fustér, O.F.M. was Catholic a priest of the Franciscan Order, and a Spanish missionary in California during the 18th century. A member of the Franciscan Province of Cantabria, Spain, he was one of twenty Franciscans who set out from ...
, and
Vicente Pascual Oliva
Father Vicente Pascual Oliva, O.F.M. (born 18th century, died January 2, 1848) was a Catholic priest of the Franciscan Order, and a Spanish missionary in California during the 19th century.
Life
Oliva was born in Martín del Río in the ancient ...
are all entombed beneath the sanctuary floor.
The ''Criolla'' or "Mission grape," was first planted at San Juan Capistrano in 1779, and in 1783 the first wine produced in Alta California was from the Mission's winery.
The Mission entered a long period of gradual decline after Mexican government
secularization
In sociology, secularization (or secularisation) is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious values and secular institutions. The ''secularization thesis'' expresses the ...
in 1833. After 1850 U.S. statehood, numerous efforts were made over the latter 19th century to restore the Mission to its former state, but none achieved much success until the arrival of O'Sullivan in 1910. Restoration efforts continue, and the chapel called "Father Serra Church" is still used for religious services.
Over 500,000 visitors, including 80,000 school children, come to the Mission each year. And while the ruins of "The Great Stone Church" (which was all but leveled by an 1812 earthquake) are a renowned architectural wonder, the Mission is perhaps best known for the annual "Return of the Swallows" which is traditionally observed every March 19 (''Saint Joseph's Day''). Mission San Juan Capistrano has served as a favorite subject for many notable artists, and has been immortalized in literature and on film numerous times, perhaps more than any other mission.
In 1984, a modern church complex was constructed just north and west of the Mission compound and is now known as
Mission Basilica San Juan Capistrano
Mission Basilica San Juan Capistrano is a Catholic parish in the Diocese of Orange in California. The parish church is located just northwest of Mission San Juan Capistrano in the city of San Juan Capistrano, California, United States. Complete ...
. Today, the mission compound serves as a museum, with the Serra Chapel within the compound serving as a chapel for the mission parish.
History
Indigenous peoples
![Wikiup](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/Wikiup.jpg)
The natives often ate acorns that they turned into soups, cakes and bread.
The former Spanish settlement at
Sajavit lies within that area occupied during the late Paleoindian period and continuing on into the present day by the Native American society commonly known as the ''
Juaneño
The Acjachemen (, alternate spelling: Acagchemem) are an Indigenous people of California. They historically lived south of what is known as Aliso Creek and north of the Las Pulgas Canyon in what are now the southern areas of Orange County and ...
''; the name denotes those people who were ministered by the priests at Mission San Juan Capistrano. Many contemporary ''Juaneño'', who identify themselves as descendants of the indigenous society living in the local San Juan and
San Mateo Creek drainage areas, have adopted the indigenous term ''
Acjachemen''. Their language was related to the
''Luiseño'' language spoken by the nearby ''
Luiseño
The Luiseño or Payómkawichum are an indigenous people of California who, at the time of the first contacts with the Spanish in the 16th century, inhabited the coastal area of southern California, ranging from the present-day southern part of ...
'' tribe.
The ''Acjachemen'' territory extended from
Las Pulgas Creek in northern
San Diego County
San Diego County (), officially the County of San Diego, is a county in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,298,634, making it California's second-most populous county and the f ...
up into the
San Joaquin Hills
The San Joaquin Hills are a low mountain range of the Peninsular Ranges System, located in coastal Orange County, California.
They extend in a northwest–southeast direction, starting in the northwest in Newport Beach at the southern edge of t ...
along
Orange County's central coast, and inland from the Pacific Ocean up into the
Santa Ana Mountains
The Santa Ana Mountains are a short peninsular mountain range along the coast of Southern California in the United States. They extend for approximately southeast of the Los Angeles Basin largely along the border between Orange and Riverside c ...
. The bulk of the population occupied the outlets of two large creeks,
San Juan Creek
San Juan Creek, also called the San Juan River, is a long stream in Orange and Riverside Counties, draining a watershed of .7.5 Minute Quadrangle Map, U.S. Geological Survey, San Juan Capistrano, 1968, photorevised 1981 Its mainstem begins i ...
(and its major tributary,
Trabuco Creek
Arroyo Trabuco (known also as Trabuco Creek) is a -long stream in coastal southern California in the United States. Rising in a rugged canyon in the Santa Ana Mountains of Orange County, the creek flows west and southwest before emptying into San ...
) and San Mateo Creek (combined with
Arroyo San Onofre, which drained into the ocean at the same point). The highest concentration of villages was along the lower San Juan, where Mission San Juan Capistrano was ultimately situated and is preserved today. The ''Acjachemen'' resided in permanent, well-defined villages and seasonal camps. Village populations ranged from between 35 and 300 inhabitants, consisting of a single lineage in the smaller villages, and of a dominant clan joined with other families in the larger settlements.
Each clan had its own resource territory and was "politically" independent; ties to other villages were maintained through economic, religious, and social networks in the immediate region. The elite class (composed chiefly families, lineage heads, and other ceremonial specialists), a middle class (established and successful families), and people of disconnected or wandering families and captives of war comprised the three hierarchical social classes. Native leadership consisted of the ''Nota'', or clan chief, who conducted community rites and regulated ceremonial life in conjunction with the council of elders (''Puuplem''), which was made up of lineage heads and ceremonial specialists in their own right. This body decided upon matters of the community, which were then carried out by the ''Nota'' and his underlings. While the placement of residential huts in a village was not regulated, the ceremonial enclosure (''Vanquech'') and the chief's home were most often centrally located.
Much has been discovered about the native inhabitants in recent centuries, thanks in part to the efforts of the Spanish explorer
Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, who documented his observations of life in the coastal villages he encountered along the Southern California coast in October 1542. Fray
Gerónimo Boscana
Gerónimo Boscana (Jerónimo Boscana) was an early 19th-century Franciscan missionary in Spanish Las Californias and Mexican Alta California. He is noted for producing the most detailed ethnographic picture of a Native Californian culture to com ...
, a Franciscan scholar who was stationed at San Juan Capistrano for more than a decade beginning in 1812, compiled what is widely considered to be the most comprehensive study of prehistoric religious practices in the San Juan Capistrano valley. Religious knowledge was secret, and the prevalent religion, called ''
Chinigchinich'', placed village chiefs in the position of religious leaders, an arrangement that gave the chiefs broad power over their people. Boscana divided the ''Acjachemen'' into two classes: the "''Playanos''" (who lived along the coast) and the "''Serranos''" (who inhabited the mountains, some three to four leagues from the Mission). The religious beliefs of the two groups as related to creation differed quite profoundly. The ''Playanos'' held that an all-powerful and unseen being called "''Nocuma''" brought about the earth and the sea, together with all of the trees, plants, and animals of sky, land, and water contained therein. The ''Serranos'', on the other hand, believed in two separate but related existences: the "existence above" and the "existence below." These states of being were "altogether explicable and indefinite" (like brother and sister), and it was the fruits of the union of these two entities that created "...the rocks and sands of the earth; then trees, shrubbery, herbs and grass; then animals". In 1908, noted
cultural anthropologist
Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans. It is in contrast to social anthropology, which perceives cultural variation as a subset of a posited anthropological constant. The portman ...
Alfred L. Kroeber
Alfred Louis Kroeber (June 11, 1876 – October 5, 1960) was an American cultural anthropologist. He received his PhD under Franz Boas at Columbia University in 1901, the first doctorate in anthropology awarded by Columbia. He was also the first ...
published the following observations with regard to the Juaneño religious observances:
We know that they adore a large bird similar to a kite, which they raise with the greatest of care from the time it is young, and they hold to many errors regarding it.[Kroeber 1908, p. 11. According to Kroeber, the large bird was either the ]eagle
Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, j ...
or condor
Condor is the common name for two species of New World vultures, each in a monotypic genus. The name derives from the Quechua ''kuntur''. They are the largest flying land birds in the Western Hemisphere.
They are:
* The Andean condor (''Vu ...
, as was the case with the ''Luiseño
The Luiseño or Payómkawichum are an indigenous people of California who, at the time of the first contacts with the Spanish in the 16th century, inhabited the coastal area of southern California, ranging from the present-day southern part of ...
'' and ''Diegueño
The Kumeyaay, also known as Tipai-Ipai or by their historical Spanish name Diegueño, is a tribe of Indigenous peoples of the Americas who live at the northern border of Baja California in Mexico and the southern border of California in the Unit ...
'' peoples.
When a new moon shows itself they make a great outcry, which manifests their interest ("negosijo"). If there is an eclipse of the sun or of the moon, they shout with still louder outcries, beating the ground, skins, or mats with sticks, which shows their concerns and uneasiness.[Kroeber 1908, p. 11. The "outcry" at the appearance of a new moon is more fully described by Boscana.]
Mission Period (1776–1833)
Juan Crespí
Joan Crespí or Juan Crespí (1 March 1721 – 1 January 1782) was a Franciscan missionary and explorer of Las Californias.
Biography
A native of Majorca, Crespí entered the Franciscan order at the age of seventeen. He came to New Spain ...
, as a member of the 1769 Spanish
Portolà expedition, authored the first written account of interaction between Europeans and the indigenous population in the region that today makes up
Orange County
Orange County most commonly refers to:
*Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area
Orange County may also refer to:
U.S. counties
*Orange County, Florida, containing Orlando
*Orange County, Indiana
*Orange County, New ...
. The expedition arrived at the site from the northeast, traveling down
San Juan Creek
San Juan Creek, also called the San Juan River, is a long stream in Orange and Riverside Counties, draining a watershed of .7.5 Minute Quadrangle Map, U.S. Geological Survey, San Juan Capistrano, 1968, photorevised 1981 Its mainstem begins i ...
, and camped near the future mission site on July 23. At the time, Crespi named the campsite after
Santa Maria Magdalena (though it would also come to be called the ''Arroyo de la Quema'' and ''Cañada del Incendio'', "Wildfire Hollow").
In early 1775, Don
Antonio María de Bucareli y Ursúa
Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular mal ...
,
Viceroy
A viceroy () is an official who reigns over a polity in the name of and as the representative of the monarch of the territory. The term derives from the Latin prefix ''vice-'', meaning "in the place of" and the French word ''roy'', meaning "k ...
of
New Spain
New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( es, Virreinato de Nueva España, ), or Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain during the Spanish colonization of the Am ...
, authorized the establishment of a mission at a logical halfway point between
Mission San Diego de Alcalá
Mission Basilica San Diego de Alcalá ( es, Misión San Diego de Alcalá) was the second Franciscan founded mission in The Californias (after San Fernando de Velicata), a province of New Spain. Located in present-day San Diego, California, it ...
and
Mission San Gabriel Arcángel. By that time, the site was already known by the name of its patron
saint
In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of Q-D-Š, holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and Christian denomination, denominat ...
, "San Juan Capistrano".
At the proposed site, located approximately 26 ''leguas'' (
Spanish Leagues) north of
San Diego
San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...
, 18 leagues south of
San Gabriel, and half a league from the Pacific Ocean, an ''enramada'' (
arbor) was constructed, two bronze bells were hung from the branch of a nearby tree, and a wooden
cross
A cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two intersecting lines or bars, usually perpendicular to each other. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally. A cross of oblique lines, in the shape of the Latin letter X, is termed a sa ...
was erected. The grounds were consecrated by Fermín Lasuén of
Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo
Mission San Carlos Borromeo del Río Carmelo, or Misión de San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo, first built in 1797, is one of the most authentically restored Catholic mission churches in California. Located at the mouth of Carmel Valley, Californi ...
on October 30, 1775 (the last day of the octave after the feast of San Juan Capistrano), near an
Indian
Indian or Indians may refer to:
Peoples South Asia
* Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor
** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country
* South Asia ...
settlement named "Sajavit"; thus, La Misión de San Juan Capistrano de Sajavit was founded.
Assisting clergy Gregório Amúrrio of
Mission San Luis Obispo
Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa ( es, Misión San Luis Obispo de Tolosa) is a Spanish mission founded September 1, 1772 by Father Junípero Serra in San Luis Obispo, California. Named after Saint Louis of Anjou, the bishop of Toulouse, the ...
arrived from San Gabriel eight days later with a supply of goods and cattle. Unfortunately, word arrived from
San Diego
San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...
at the same time that a group of natives attacked the mission and brutally murdered one of the missionaries (
Luís Jayme).
[Wright, p. 37; Yenne, p. 72] Since it was feared at the time that any hostile action by the natives against the few burgeoning outposts might break Spain's tenuous hold on
Alta California
Alta California ('Upper California'), also known as ('New California') among other names, was a province of New Spain, formally established in 1804. Along with the Baja California peninsula, it had previously comprised the province of , but ...
, the priests quickly buried the San Juan Capistrano Mission bells. Lieutenant José Francisco Ortega, military leader of the expedition, led all but a small contingent of Spanish soldiers back to
El Presidio de San Diego to help quell the uprising; the priests, along with the few remaining soldiers as an escort, gathered up their belongings and fled to the safety of the Presido, where they were given further details of the disaster.
[Engelhardt 1901, p. 6]
![1916 Rexford Newcomb plan view -- Mission San Juan Capistrano](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/1916_Rexford_Newcomb_plan_view_--_Mission_San_Juan_Capistrano.jpg)
One year later Serra himself, along with Amúrrio and
Pablo de Mugártegui, took up work on the Mission at San Juan Capistrano; the contingent, accompanied by eleven soldiers, arrived on October 30 or 31, 1776. Upon their return to the site today known as "''Mission Vieja''," the party excavated the bells and constructed a new arbor; the original wooden cross was, to their surprise, still standing.
[Saunders and Chase, p. 22] Serra celebrated
High Mass in thanksgiving on November 1, 1776—celebrated ever since as the official founding date. Due to an inadequate water supply the Mission site was subsequently relocated approximately three miles to the west less than 60 yards from the village of ''
Acágcheme''.
The new venue was strategically placed above two nearby streams, the
Trabuco and the
San Juan. Mission San Gabriel provided cattle and neophyte labor to assist in the development of new the Mission. Amúrrio performed the Mission's first baptism on December 19 of that year (a total of 4,639 souls were converted at the Mission between 1776 and 1847.
[Engelhardt 1922, p. 183]) The first Indian marriage was blessed by Mugártegui on the feast of the "Espousals of the Blessed Virgin Mary," January 23, 1777. Mugártegui also presided over the first burial ceremony on July 13 (the first burial on Mission grounds would not take place until March 9, 1781).
[Engelhardt 1922, p. 195] The Registers of Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials are all intact and preserved at the Mission, as is the Confirmation Register (San Juan Capistrano is one of the few Missions to have retained this document). Serra visited the Mission for the first time since its founding and administered the Sacrament of Confirmation on October 22. In 1778, the first
adobe
Adobe ( ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for ''mudbrick''. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is used to refer to any kind of e ...
''capilla'' (chapel) was blessed. It was replaced by a larger, long house of worship in 1782, which is regarded as the oldest standing building in California. Known proudly as the "Serra Chapel," it also has the distinction of being the only remaining church in which Serra is known to have officiated ("
Mission Dolores Dolores, Spanish for "pain; grief", most commonly refers to:
* Our Lady of Sorrows or La Virgen María de los Dolores
* Dolores (given name)
Dolores may also refer to:
Film
* ''Dolores'' (2017 film), an American documentary by Peter Bratt
* ' ...
" was still under construction at the time of Serra's visit there). Serra presided over the confirmations of 213 people on October 12 and 13, 1783; divine services are held there to this day. By the time of the chapel's completion, living quarters, kitchens (''pozolera''), workshops, storerooms, soldiers' barracks (''cuartels''), and a number of other ancillary buildings had also been erected, effectively forming the main ''cuadrángulo'' (quadrangle).
![1916 Rexford Newcomb sketch -- Mission San Juan Capistrano](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/52/1916_Rexford_Newcomb_sketch_--_Mission_San_Juan_Capistrano.jpg)
California's first vineyard was located on the Mission grounds, with the planting of the "
Mission
Mission (from Latin ''missio'' "the act of sending out") may refer to:
Organised activities Religion
*Christian mission, an organized effort to spread Christianity
*Mission (LDS Church), an administrative area of The Church of Jesus Christ of ...
" or "Criollo" grape in 1779, one grown extensively throughout Spanish America at the time but with "an uncertain European origin." It was the only grape grown in the Mission system throughout the mid-19th century. The first winery in Alta California was built in San Juan Capistrano in 1783; both red and white wines (sweet and dry),
brandy, and a port-like
fortified wine
Fortified wine is a wine to which a distilled spirit, usually brandy, has been added. In the course of some centuries, winemakers have developed many different styles of fortified wine, including port, sherry, madeira, Marsala, Commanda ...
called
Angelica
''Angelica'' is a genus of about 60 species of tall biennial and perennial herbs in the family Apiaceae, native to temperate and subarctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere, reaching as far north as Iceland, Lapland, and Greenland. They gr ...
were all produced from the Mission grape. In 1791, the Mission's two original bells were removed from the tree branch on which they had been hanging for the previous fifteen years and placed within a permanent mounting. Over the next two decades the Mission prospered, and in 1794 over seventy adobe structures were built in order to provide permanent housing for the Mission Indians, some of which comprise the oldest residential neighborhood in California. It was decided that a larger, European-style church was required to accommodate the growing population. Hoping to construct an edifice of truly magnificent proportions, the priests retained the services of ''maestro albañil'' (master stonemason) Isídro Aguilár of
Culiacán
Culiacán, officially Culiacán Rosales, is a city in northwestern Mexico, the capital and largest city of both the Culiacán Municipality and the state of Sinaloa. The city was founded on 29 September 1531, by the Spanish conquerors Lázar ...
. Aguílar took charge of the church's construction and set about incorporating numerous design features not found at any other California Mission, including the use of a
dome
A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...
d roof structure made of
stone
In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...
as opposed to the typical flat wood roof. His elegant roof design called for six
vaulted
In architecture, a vault (French ''voûte'', from Italian ''volta'') is a self-supporting arched form, usually of stone or brick, serving to cover a space with a ceiling or roof. As in building an arch, a temporary support is needed while ring ...
domes (''bovedas'') to be built.
The Great Stone Church
Work was begun on "The Great Stone Church" (the only chapel building in Alta California not constructed out of adobe) on February 2, 1797. It was laid out in the shape of a cross, measuring long by wide with high walls, and included a tall ''campanile'' (bell tower) located adjacent to the main entrance. Local legend has it that the tower could be seen for or more, and that the bells could be heard from even farther away. The
sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks.
Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...
building sat on a
foundation
Foundation may refer to:
* Foundation (nonprofit), a type of charitable organization
** Foundation (United States law), a type of charitable organization in the U.S.
** Private foundation, a charitable organization that, while serving a good cause ...
seven feet thick. Construction efforts required the participation of the entire
neophyte
A neophyte is a recent initiate or convert to a subject or belief.
Neophyte may also refer to:
Science
* Neophyte (botany), a plant species recently introduced to an area
As a proper noun Arts and entertainment
* Neophyte, a character class ...
population. Stones were quarried from gullies and creek beds up to away and transported in carts (''carretas'') drawn by
oxen
An ox ( : oxen, ), also known as a bullock (in BrE
British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Oxford Dictionaries, "English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". More narrowly, it can refer spec ...
, carried by hand, and even dragged to the building site.
Limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
was crushed into a powder on the Mission grounds to create a
mortar that was more erosion-resistant than the actual stones.
On the afternoon of November 22, 1800, tremors from the
6.5-magnitude San Diego earthquake cracked the walls of the rising edifice, necessitating that repair work be performed. Unfortunately, Señor Aguilár died six years into the project; his work was carried on by the priests and their charges, who made their best attempts to emulate the existing construction. Lacking the skills of a master mason, however, led to irregular walls and necessitated the addition of a seventh roof dome. The church was finally completed in 1806, and blessed by Fray Estévan Tapís on the evening of September 7; a two-day-long ''
fiesta'' followed.
The sanctuary floors were paved with diamond-shaped
tile
Tiles are usually thin, square or rectangular coverings manufactured from hard-wearing material such as ceramic, stone, metal, baked clay, or even glass. They are generally fixed in place in an array to cover roofs, floors, walls, edges, or o ...
s, and brick-lined
niches displayed the statues of various saints. It was by all accounts the most magnificent in all of California and a three-day feast was held in celebration of this monumental achievement.
On the morning of December 8, 1812, the "Feast Day of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin", a series of large earthquakes shook Southern California during the first Sunday service.
The 7.5-magnitude
San Juan Capistrano earthquake racked the doors to the church, pinning them shut. When the ground finally stopped shaking, the bulk of the
nave
The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...
had come crashing down, and the bell tower was obliterated. Forty native worshipers who were attending Mass and two boys who had been ringing the bells in the tower were buried under the rubble and lost their lives, and were subsequently interred in the Mission cemetery. This was the second major setback the outpost had suffered, and followed severe storms and flooding that had damaged Mission buildings and ruined crops earlier in the year.
![San Juan Capistrano 1880 painting](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/San_Juan_Capistrano_1880_painting.jpg)
The priests immediately resumed holding services in Serra's Church. Within a year a brick ''campanario'' ("bell wall") had been erected between the ruins of the stone church and the Mission's first chapel to support the four bells salvaged from the rubble of the campanile. As the
transept
A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building wi ...
,
sanctuary
A sanctuary, in its original meaning, is a sacred place, such as a shrine. By the use of such places as a haven, by extension the term has come to be used for any place of safety. This secondary use can be categorized into human sanctuary, a sa ...
(''re-do's''), and ''sacristia'' (
sacristy) were all left standing, an attempt was made to rebuild the stone church in 1815 which failed due to a lack of construction expertise (the latter is the only element that is completely intact today). Consequently, all of the construction work undertaken at the Mission grounds thereafter was of a strictly utilitarian nature. José Barona and Boscana oversaw the construction of a small infirmary (hospital) building (located just outside the northwestern corner of the quadrangle) in 1814, "for the convenience of the sick." It is here that ''Juaneño''
medicine men
A medicine man is a traditional healer and spiritual leader among the indigenous people of the Americas.
Medicine Man or The Medicine Man may also refer to:
Films
* ''The Medicine Man'' (1917 film), an American silent film directed by Clifford S ...
used traditional methods to heal the sick and injured.
Archaeological
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
excavations in 1937 and 1979 unearthed what are believed to be the building's foundations.
The Day That Pirates "Sacked" The Mission
On December 14, 1818, the French
privateer
A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...
Hipólito Bouchard
Hippolyte or Hipólito Bouchard (15 January 1780 – 4 January 1837) was a French-born Argentine sailor and corsair who fought for Argentina, Chile, and Peru.
During his first campaign as an Argentine corsair he attacked the Spanish colonies ...
, sailing under the flag of the "United Provinces of Rio de la Plata" (
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
), brought his ships ''La Argentina'' and ''Santa Rosa'' to within sight of the Mission; aware that Bouchard (today known as "California's only
pirate
Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...
") had recently conducted raids on the settlements at
Monterey
Monterey (; es, Monterrey; Ohlone: ) is a city located in Monterey County on the southern edge of Monterey Bay on the U.S. state of California's Central Coast. Founded on June 3, 1770, it functioned as the capital of Alta California under bot ...
and
Santa Barbara, Comandante Ruíz had sent forth a party of thirty men (under the leadership of a young Spanish lieutenant named Santiago Argüello) to protect the Mission at first news of the approach on the 13th. Two members of Bouchard's contingent made contact with the garrison soldiers and made their demand for provisions, which was rebuffed with added threats: Lieutenant Argüello replied that if the ships did not sail away the garrison would gladly provide "an immediate supply of shot and shell". In response, "''Pirata Buchar''" (as he was referred to by the
Californios) ordered an assault on the Mission, sending some 140 men and two or three ''violentos'' (light
howitzer
A howitzer () is a long- ranged weapon, falling between a cannon (also known as an artillery gun in the United States), which fires shells at flat trajectories, and a mortar, which fires at high angles of ascent and descent. Howitzers, like ot ...
cannon) to take the needed supplies by force. The Mission guards engaged the attackers but were overwhelmed; the marauders looted the Mission warehouses and left minor damage to several Mission buildings in their wake, and reportedly set fire to a few of the outlying straw houses. Reinforcements from Santa Barbara and Los Angeles, led by Comandante Guerra from
El Presidio Real de Santa Bárbara, arrived the next day to no avail as the ships had already set sail.
Though the mission was spared, all ammunition, supplies and valuables in the area were taken. Regarded today as one of the more colorful events in the Mission's history, an annual celebration is held to memorialize "The Day that Pirates Sacked the Mission."
Mexican independence
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
gained its independence from Spain in 1821. The 1820s and 30s saw a gradual decline in the Mission's status. Disease thinned out the once ample cattle
herd
A herd is a social group of certain animals of the same species, either wild or domestic. The form of collective animal behavior associated with this is called ''herding''. These animals are known as gregarious animals.
The term ''herd'' is ...
s, and a sudden infestation of
mustard weed made it increasingly difficult to
cultivate crops. Floods and droughts took their toll as well. But the biggest threat to the Mission's stability came from the presence of Spanish settlers who sought to take over Capistrano's fertile lands. Over time the disillusioned Indian population gradually left the Mission, and without regular maintenance its physical deterioration continued at an accelerated rate. Nevertheless, there was sufficient activity along
El Camino Real to justify the construction of the
Las Flores Asistencia in 1823. This facility, situated halfway between San Juan Capistrano and the Mission at
San Luis Rey, was intended to act primarily as a rest stop for traveling clergy. Around 1820 an ''estancia'' (station) was established a few miles north on the banks of the
Santa Ana River
The Santa Ana River is the largest river entirely within Southern California in the United States. It rises in the San Bernardino Mountains and flows for most of its length through San Bernardino and Riverside Counties, before cutting through ...
to accommodate the Mission's sizeable cattle herd. The adobe structure built to house the Majordomo (domestic staff), mayordomo and ''vaqueros'' (cowboys) who tended the Mission herds is known today as the Diego Sepúlveda Adobe. Upon his death in 1825, José Antonio Yorba, Don José Antonio Yorba I (a prominent Spanish land owner and member of the Portolà Expedition), was buried in the Mission's cemetery in an unmarked grave; a cenotaph was later placed in Yorba's honor.
José María de Echeandía, the first native Mexican to be elected Governor of Alta California, issued his "Proclamation of Emancipation" (or "''Prevenciónes de Emancipacion''") on July 25, 1826. All Indians within the military districts of San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Monterey who were found qualified were freed from missionary rule and made eligible to become Mexican citizens; those who wished to remain under mission tutelage were exempted from most forms of corporal punishment. Catholic historian Zephyrin Engelhardt referred to Echeandía as "...an avowed enemy of the religious orders." Despite the fact that Echeandía's emancipation plan was met with little encouragement from the neophytes who populated the southern missions, he was nonetheless determined to test the scheme on a large scale at Mission San Juan Capistrano. To that end, he appointed a board of ''comisianados'' (commissioners) to oversee the emancipation of the Indians. In response to the proclamation, Barona refused to take the oath of allegiance to what he saw as the "bogus republic of Mexico" despite the fact that he, along with all but two of the other Spanish missionaries, had previously sworn to the Mexican War of Independence, Independence of Mexico. The Mexican government passed legislation on December 20, 1827, that mandated the expulsion of all Spaniards younger than sixty years of age from Mexican territories; Governor Echeandía nevertheless intervened on Barona's behalf in order to prevent his deportation once the law of took effect in California.
Even before Mexico had gained its independence, the Mission had begun its decline. Although Governor José Figueroa (who took office in 1833) initially attempted to keep the mission system intact, the Congress of Mexico, Mexican Congress passed Mexican secularization act of 1833, ''An Act for the Secularization of the Missions of California'' on August 17, 1833. The Act also provided for the colonization of both Alta and Baja California, the expenses of this latter move to be borne by the proceeds gained from the sale of the mission property to private interests. Mission San Juan Capistrano was the very first to feel the effects of this legislation the following year when, on August 9, 1834, Governor Figueroa issued his "Decree of Confiscation."
[Engelhardt 1922, p. 114]
Rancho Period (1834–1849)
On November 22, 1834, commissioner Juan José Rocha formally acknowledged receipt of the Decree of Confiscation. The final inventory for Mission San Juan Capistrano was compiled by José Maria de Zalvidea and four of the commissioners, and included:
![San Juan Capistrano 1850 by HMT Powell](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/San_Juan_Capistrano_1850_by_HMT_Powell.jpg)
* buildings ($7,298);
* chapel ($1,250);
* furnishings, tools, and implements ($14,768);
* contents of chapel and sacristy ($15,568);
* ranchos of Rancho San Mateo, San Mateo and Rancho Mission Viejo, Mission Viejo ($12,019); and
* library holdings ($490)
for a total valuation of $54,456. Mission credits totaled $13,123 while debts equaled a mere $1,410. The Mission library included three volumes of Fray Juan de Torquemada, Juan de Torquemada and twelve volumes of the ''Año Cristiano''. The names of 2,000 neophytes were carried on the Mission rolls. Mission agricultural holdings for that year consisted of:
* 8,000 head of cattle;
* 4,000 sheep;
* 80 pigs;
* 50 horses;
* 9 mules;
* 150 ''fanegas'' of maize;
* 20 ''fanegas'' of beans; and
* 50 barrels of wine and brandy.
Thereafter, the Franciscans all but abandoned the Mission, taking with them most everything of value, after which the locals plundered many of the Mission buildings for construction materials. According to Bancroft, "The population of San Juan Capistrano in 1834 had decreased to 861 souls, and in 1840 it was probably less than 500 with less than 100 at the pueblo proper; while in its crops San Juan (Capistrano) showed a larger deterioration than any other (missionary) establishment."
By 1835, little of the Mission's assets remained, though the manufacture of hides and tallow continued in full swing as described in Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Richard Henry Dana's classic novel ''Two Years Before the Mast''. The Mission was declared to be "in a ruinous state" and the Indian ''pueblo'' dissolved in 1841. San Juan Capistrano was officially designated by Governor Juan B. Alvarado as a secular Mexican town on July 29, at which time those few who still resided at the Mission were granted sections of land to use as their own. Following this change in status, the area around the Mission began to decay rapidly; Santiago Argüello (then prefect of the southern District of Los Angeles) complained to the Commandant of the Presidio of Santa Barbara, Don José de la Guerra y Noriega, that "...the unfortunate missions of San Gabriel and San Juan Capistrano [have] been converted into brothels of the majordomo, mayordomos.
Four years later, the Mission property was auctioned off under questionable circumstances for $710 worth of tallow and hides (equivalent to $15,000 in 2004 dollars) to English people, Englishman John (Don Juan) Forster (Governor Pío Pico's brother-in-law, whose family would take up residence in the friars' quarters for the next twenty years) and his partner James McKinley. More families would subsequently take up residence in other portions of the Mission buildings. José María Zalvidea left San Juan Capistrano on or about November 25, 1842, when Mission San Luis Rey de Francia's Ibarra died, leaving the Mission without a resident priest for the first time (Zalvidea had been the Mission's sole priest ever since the death of Josef Barona in 1831.) The first secular priest to take charge of the mission, Reverend José Maria Rosáles, arrived on October 8, 1843;
Vicente Pascual Oliva
Father Vicente Pascual Oliva, O.F.M. (born 18th century, died January 2, 1848) was a Catholic priest of the Franciscan Order, and a Spanish missionary in California during the 19th century.
Life
Oliva was born in Martín del Río in the ancient ...
, the last resident missionary, died on January 2, 1848.
California statehood (1850–1900)
![Mission San Juan Capistrano2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/Mission_San_Juan_Capistrano2.jpg)
Because virtually all of the artwork at the missions served either a devotional or didactic purpose, there was no underlying reason for the mission residents to record their surroundings graphically; visitors, however, found them to be objects of curiosity. During the 1850s a number of artists found gainful employment as draftsmen attached to expeditions sent to map the Pacific coastline and the border between California and Mexico (as well as plot practical railroad routes); many of the drawings were reproduced as lithographs in the expedition reports. The oldest surviving sketch of the Mission, dating back to 1850 and now in the collection of the Bancroft Library, shows that the domes above the stone church's
transept
A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building wi ...
, along with the main dome and cupola (lantern house) located above the sanctuary#Sanctuary as a sacred place, sanctuary, survived the 1812 'quake.
[Krell, p. 157] The earliest known photograph of San Juan Capistrano was taken by German-born artist Edward Vischer in 1860. Even before that time, however, the ruins at San Juan Capistrano and its stone church had been romanticized by landscape painters, writers, and historians. The ruins have been compared to those of Greece and Rome, and have at various times been referred to as the "Alhambra of America," the "American Acropolis," and the "Melrose Abbey of the West." Also in 1860, an abortive attempt at restoring the stone church was the cause of its additional disintegration, forcing the domes over the transept and sanctuary to collapse.
![Dining room at San Juan Capistrano, CA DSCN0054](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/Dining_room_at_San_Juan_Capistrano%2C_CA_DSCN0054.JPG)
A smallpox epidemic swept through the area in 1862, nearly wiping out the remaining ''Juaneño Indians''. Abraham Lincoln, President Abraham Lincoln signed a proclamation on March 18, 1865, that restored ownership of the Mission proper to the Roman Catholic Church. The document remains on display in the Mission's barracks ''cum'' museum.
[Engelhardt 1922, p. 169] Ownership of was conveyed to the Church, for all practical intents being the exact area of land occupied by the original Mission buildings, cemeteries, and gardens. The Mission's sole resident from April 1866, to April 1886, was its pastor, José Mut. Mut made certain changes in order to accommodate his own needs, but little was accomplished to prevent further deterioration of the Mission buildings. Around 1873, some forty ''Juaneño'' were still associated with the Mission; however, many of those of mixed Spanish/Mexican and ''Juaneño'' heritage were not taken into consideration, and several native villages still existed in the interior valleys. During this same era, the Mission priests established a circuit-riding ministry to these interior villages to the south, and on the other side of the Palomar Mountain Range. A wave of migration by the ''Juaneño'' out of San Juan occurred in 1880–1900 as towns in northern Orange County started to form and needed laborers.
![SJC plaza circa 1896](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/43/SJC_plaza_circa_1896.jpg)
The 1880s also saw the appearance of a number of articles on the missions in national publications and the first books on the subject; as a result, a large number of artists did one or more mission paintings, though few attempted series.
By 1891 a roof collapse required that the Serra Chapel be abandoned completely. Modifications were made to the original
adobe
Adobe ( ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for ''mudbrick''. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is used to refer to any kind of e ...
church (including the addition of a cross-topped ''espadaña'' at the south end, a feature that has been retained in the present iteration of the Mission compound) in order to render it suitable for use as a parish church. In 1894, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway constructed a new depot in the emerging "Mission Revival Style architecture, Mission Revival Style" mere blocks from the Mission. It is rumored that the stonework, bricks, and roof tiles were salvaged from the decaying buildings. The following year, a group calling itself the "Landmarks Club of Southern California" (under the direction of acclaimed American journalist, historian, and photographer Charles Fletcher Lummis) made the first real efforts in over fifty years at preserving the Mission and restoring it to its original state.
Over 400 tons of debris was cleared away, holes in the walls were patched, and new Shake (roof), shake Thuja plicata, cedar roofs were placed over a few of the derelict buildings; nearly a mile of walkways were repaved with asphalt and gravel as well.
20th century and beyond (since 1901)
![Portrait of Jose de Gracia Cruz, a San Juan Capistrano Mission Indian bell ringer, ca](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/Portrait_of_Jose_de_Gracia_Cruz%2C_a_San_Juan_Capistrano_Mission_Indian_bell_ringer%2C_ca._June_1909.jpg)
After Mut's departure in 1886 the parish found itself without a permanent pastor, and the Mission languished during this period. St. John O'Sullivan arrived in San Juan Capistrano in 1910 to recuperate from a recent stroke, and to seek relief from chronic tuberculosis. He became fascinated by the scope of the Mission and soon set to work on rebuilding it a section at a time. O'Sullivan's first task was to repair the roof of the Serra Chapel (which was being employed as a granary and storeroom) using California sycamore, sycamore logs to match those that were used in the original work; in the process, the roof of the apse was raised to allow for the inclusion of a window so that natural light could be brought into the space. Other refurbishments were made as time and funds permitted. Arthur B. Benton, a Los Angeles architect, strengthened the chapel walls through the addition of heavy masonry buttresses. The centerpiece of the chapel is its spectacular ''retablo'' which serves as the backdrop for the altar. A masterpiece of Baroque art, the altarpiece was hand-carved of 396 individual pieces of cherry wood and overlaid in gold leaf in Barcelona and is estimated to be 400 years old. It was originally imported from Barcelona in 1806 for the Los Angeles cathedral but was never used. It was later donated by Archbishop John Joseph Cantwell of Los Angeles and installed sometime between 1922 and 1924 (the north end of the building had to be enlarged to accommodate this piece due to its height).
[Yenne, p. 75] Although the ''retablo'' had been relayered over the centuries, most of the original gilding remains underneath the modern materials (extensive restoration was begun in June 2006).
The first of many Hollywood productions to use San Juan Capistrano as a backdrop was D.W. Griffith's 1910 Western (genre), western film ''The Two Brothers (film), The Two Brothers'' (the first film ever shot in
Orange County
Orange County most commonly refers to:
*Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area
Orange County may also refer to:
U.S. counties
*Orange County, Florida, containing Orlando
*Orange County, Indiana
*Orange County, New ...
).
On January 7, 1911, the film's leading lady, silent film star Mary Pickford, secretly wed fellow actor Owen Moore in the Mission chapel.
[Stern and Miller, p. 63] Artist Charles Percy Austin often stayed in San Juan Capistrano and donated several of his works, the most notable being his memorialization of Pickford's wedding ceremony, appropriately entitled ''Mary Pickford's Wedding'', which he painted after O'Sullivan performed the marriage rites.
Noted portraitist Joseph Kleitsch also resided at the Mission for a time, and painted a portrait of O'Sullivan in 1924 (among other works).
[Stern and Miller, p. 78] The third and final act of John Steven McGroarty's ''The Mission Play'' (1911) is set "...amid the broken and deserted walls of Mission San Juan Capistrano (the Mission of the Swallow), in 1847."
["''The Mission Play''"]
Severe flooding destroyed a portion of the Mission's front arcade in 1915, and heavy storms a year later washed away one end of the barracks building (which O'Sullivan rebuilt in 1917), incorporating minor modifications such as an ornamental archway in order to make the edifice more closely resemble a church. The Mission grounds were enclosed with a wood picket fence, and beginning on May 9, 1916, a ten-Cent (currency), cent admission fee was charged to help defray preservation costs. In 1918, the Mission was given parish, parochial status, with O'Sullivan serving as its first modern pastor. It was on April 21 of that year that th
San Jacinto Earthquakecaused moderate structural damage to some of the buildings. In 1919, author Johnston McCulley created the character "Zorro" and chose Mission San Juan Capistrano as the setting for the first novella, ''The Curse of Capistrano''. In 1920, the "Sacred Garden" was created in the courtyard adjacent to the stone church, and in 1925 the full restoration of the Serra Chapel was completed. O'Sullivan died in 1933 and was interred in the Mission cemetery (''campo santo'') amongst more than 2,000 former inhabitants (mostly ''Juaneño'' Indians), who are buried in unmarked graves.
["Historic San Juan Mission"] O'Sullivan's tomb lies at the foot of a Celtic cross that O'Sullivan himself erected as a memorial to the Mission's builders.
After O'Sullivan's death, Arthur J. Hutchinson (another pastor with a love of California history) assumed leadership of the Mission, and played a central role in raising needed funds to continue the Mission's preservation work. Pastor Hutchinson made key archaeology, archeological discoveries on the Mission grounds during his tenure (he died on July 27, 1951), after which time his work was continued by the next two pastors, Monsignors Vincent Lloyd-Russell and Paul M. Martin. In 1937, representatives of the U.S. National Park Service's Historic American Buildings Survey, as a part of the Historic Sites Act, Historic Sites Act of 1935, surveyed and photographed the grounds and structures extensively. Their efforts laid the groundwork for future excavation and reconstruction of the west wing industrial complex. Monsignor Martin began a comprehensive preservation effort following the 1987 Whittier Narrows earthquake.
![San Cap SW04](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/San_Cap_SW04.jpg)
The prestigious World Monuments Fund placed "The Great Stone Church" on its ''List of 100 Most Endangered Sites'' in 2002. The most recent series of seismic retrofits at the Mission were completed at a cost of $7.5 million in 2004. About half a million visitors, including 80,000 school children, come to the Mission each year.
[Stern and Miller, p. 70]
A number of events are held at the mission today. The main fundraising event, Battle of the Mariachis, has been held since 2004 and started as a way to honor its heritage.
Image:Serra Chapel 02.jpg, The "Golden Altar", an early Baroque-style ''retablo'' (altarpiece) situated at the north-end sanctuary of "Father Serra's Church".
Image:St. John O'Sullivan San Juan Capistrano.jpg, St. John O'Sullivan spends time in Mission San Juan Capistrano's "Sacred Garden".
Image:Mary Pickford's Wedding.jpg, ''Mary Pickford's Wedding'' by American artist Charles Percy Austin. Oil painting, Oil on canvas.
Image:Statue of Junípero Serra.jpg, Statue of Junípero Serra in the Mission.
Other historic designations
* California Historical Landmark #227 – Diego Sepúlveda Adobe ''Estancia''
* ASM International Historical Landmark (1988) – "Metalworking Furnaces"
* World Monuments Fund ''List of 100 Most Endangered Sites'' (2002); "The Great Stone Church"
* Orange County Historic Civil Engineering Landmark (1992)
Mission industries
The goal of the missions was, above all, to become self-sufficient in relatively short order. Farming, therefore, was the most important industry of any mission. Barley, maize, and wheat were the principal crops grown at San Juan Capistrano; cattle, horses, mules, sheep, and goats were all raised by the hundreds as well. In 1790, the Mission's herd included 7,000 sheep and goats, 2,500 cattle, and 200 mules and horses. Olives were grown, cured, and pressed under large stone wheels to extract their Vegetable oil, oil, both for use at the Mission and to trade for other goods. Grapes were also grown and fermentation (food), fermented into wine for sacramental use and again, for trading. The specific variety, called the ''Criolla'' or "Mission (grape), Mission grape", was first planted at the Mission in 1779; in 1783, the first wine produced in Alta California emerged from San Juan Capistrano's winery. Until about 1850, Mission grapes represented the entirety of viticulture in the state. Cereal grains were dried and ground by stone into flour. The Mission's kitchens and bakery, bakeries prepared and served thousands of meals each day. Candles, soap, Grease (lubricant), grease, and ointments were all made from tallow (kitchen rendering, rendered animal fat) in large Barrel, vats located just outside the west wing. Also situated in this general area were vats for dyeing wool and Tanning (leather), tanning leather, and primitive looms for weavings. Large ''bodegas'' (warehouses) provided long-term storage for preserved foodstuffs and other treated materials.
Three long ''zanjas'' (Aqueduct (bridge), aqueducts) ran through the central courtyard and deposited the water they collected into large cisterns in the industrial area, where it was filtered for drinking and cooking, or dispensed for use in cleaning. The Mission had to fabricate all of its construction materials as well. Workers in the ''carpintería'' (carpentry shop) used crude methods to shape beams, lintels, and other structural elements; more skilled artisans carved doors, furniture, and wooden implements. For certain applications bricks (''ladrillos'') were fired in ovens (kilns) to strengthen them and make them more resistant to the elements; when ''tejas'' (roof tiles) eventually replaced the conventional ''jacal'' roofing (densely packed reeds) they were placed in the kilns to harden them as well. Glazed ceramic pots, dishes, and canisters were also made in the Mission's kilns.
Prior to the establishment of the missions, the native peoples' way of life involved the utilization bone, seashells, stone, and wood for building, tool making, weapons, and so forth. The missionaries decided that the Indians, who regarded labor as degrading to the masculine sex, had to be taught industry in order to learn how to support their social and economic goals. The result was the establishment of a great manual training school that comprised agriculture, the mechanical arts, and the raising and care of livestock. Everything consumed and otherwise utilized by the natives was produced at the missions under the supervision of the priests; thus, the neophytes not only supported themselves, but after 1811 sustained the entire military and civil government of California. The foundry at Mission San Juan Capistrano was the first to introduce the Indians to the Iron Age. The blacksmith used the Mission's Catalan forge, Catalan furnaces (California's first) to smelting, smelt and fashion Iron (material), iron into everything from basic tools and hardware (such as Nail (fastener), nails) to crosses, gates, hinges, even cannon for Mission defense. Iron was one commodity in particular that the Mission relied solely on trade to acquire, as the missionaries had neither the know-how nor the technology to mining, mine and process metal ores.
Mission bells
![Mission San Juan Capistrano 4-5-05 100 6548](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/Mission_San_Juan_Capistrano_4-5-05_100_6548.jpg)
Bells were vitally important to daily life at any mission. The bells were rung at mealtimes, to call the Mission residents to work and to religious services, during births and funerals, to signal the approach of a ship or returning missionary, and at other times; novices were instructed in the intricate rituals associated with the ringing the mission bells. The original bells were hung from a large nearby tree for some fifteen years, until the chapel bell tower was completed in 1791. What ultimately became of the original bells is not known. New bells were cast in Chile for inclusion in the belfry of "The Great Stone Church." All four of Mission San Juan Capistrano's bells are named and all bear inscriptions as follows (from the largest to the smallest; inscriptions are translated from Latin):
* "Praised by Jesus, San Vicente. In honor of the Reverend Fathers, Ministers (of the Mission) Fray Vicente Fustér, and Fray Juan Santiago, 1796."
* "Hail Mary most pure. Ruelas made me, and I am called San Juan, 1796."
* "Hail Mary most pure, San Antonio, 1804."
* "Hail Mary most pure, San Rafael, 1804."
In the aftermath of the 1812 earthquake, the two largest bells cracked and split open. Due to this damage neither produced clear tones. Regardless, they were hung in the campanario that went up the following year. During the Mission's heyday, a lone bell also hung at the west end of the front corridor, next to an entrance gate which has long since eroded away. One of O' Sullivan's companions during his tenure at San Juan Capistrano was José de Gracia Cruz, better known as Acú, who related many stories and legends of the Mission. A descendant of the ''Juaneño'' Indians, he served as the Mission's bell ringer until his death in 1924.
On March 22, 1969, Richard Nixon, President Richard M. Nixon and First Lady Pat Nixon visited the Mission and rang the Bell of San Rafael. A bronze plaque commemorating the event is set in the bell wall. In celebration of the Mission Basilica San Juan Capistrano, new Mission church being elevated to minor basilica status in 2000, exact duplicates of the damaged bells were cast by Petit & Fritsen, Royal Bellfoundry Petit & Fritsen b.v. of Aarle-Rixtel, the Netherlands utilizing molds made from the originals. The replacement bells were placed in the bell wall and the old ones put on display within the footprint of the destroyed Mission ''campanile'' ("bell tower").
Folklore
Legends
The tragedy of "The Great Stone Church" gave rise to its well loved legend, that of a young native girl named Magdalena who was killed in the collapse. Magdalena lived on the Mission grounds and had fallen in love with an artist named Teófilo. However, the pair was deemed too young to marry by their elders and were forced to carry on their relationship in secret. On that terrible December morning, the repentant Magdalena walked ahead of the procession of worshipers carrying a penitent's candle just as the earthquake struck. Teófilo rushed into the church as the walls and roof tumbled to the ground in a vain attempt to save his lover. When the rubble was cleared the pair was found among the dead, locked in a final embrace. It is said that on moonlit nights one can sometimes make out the face of a young girl, seemingly illuminated by candlelight, high up in the ruins. Other, less-pervasive legends include that of a faceless monk who haunted the corridors of the original quadrangle, and of a headless soldier who was often seen standing guard near the front entrance.
Return of the swallows
The American cliff swallow (''Petrochelidon pyrrhonota'') is a Bird migration, migratory bird that spends its winters in Goya, Argentina, but makes the trek north to the warmer climes of the American Southwest in springtime. According to legend, the birds, who have visited the San Juan Capistrano area every summer for centuries, first took refuge at the Mission when an irate innkeeper began destroying their mud nests (the birds also frequent the
Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo
Mission San Carlos Borromeo del Río Carmelo, or Misión de San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo, first built in 1797, is one of the most authentically restored Catholic mission churches in California. Located at the mouth of Carmel Valley, Californi ...
). The Mission's location near two rivers made it an ideal location for the swallows to nest, as there was a constant supply of the insects on which they feed, and the young birds are well-protected inside the ruins of the old stone church.
A 1915 article in ''Overland Monthly'' magazine made note of the birds' annual habit of nesting beneath the Mission's eaves and archways from spring through fall, and made the swallows the "signature icon" of the Mission; O'Sullivan utilized interest in the phenomenon to generate public interest in restoration efforts during his two decades in residence. One of bell ringer Acú's most colorful tales was that the swallows (or ''las golondrinas'', as he called them) flew over the Atlantic Ocean to Jerusalem each winter, carrying small twigs on which they could rest atop the water along the way. On March 13, 1939, a popular radio program was broadcast live from the Mission grounds, announcing the swallows' arrival. Composer Leon René was so inspired by the event that he penned the song "When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano" in tribute.
[Leffingwell, p. 39] During its initial release the song spent several weeks atop the ''Your Hit Parade'' charts. The song has been recorded by such musicians as The Ink Spots, Fred Waring, Guy Lombardo, Glenn Miller, The Five Satins and Pat Boone. A glassed-off room in the Mission has been designated in René's honor and displays the upright piano on which he composed the tune, the reception desk from his office and several copies of the song's sheet music and other pieces of furniture, all donated by René's family.
Each year the ''Fiesta de las Golondrinas'' is held in the City of San Juan Capistrano. Presented by the San Juan Capistrano Fiesta Association, the ''Fiesta de las Golondrinas'' is a week-long celebration of this auspicious event culminated by the Swallows Day Parade and Mercado, street fair. Tradition has it that the main Flock (birds), flock arrives on March 19 (Saint Joseph's Day), and flies south on Giovanni da Capistrano, Saint John's Day, October 23.
In recent years, the swallows have failed to return in large flocks to the Mission. Few birds were counted in the 1990s and 2000s. The reduction has been connected to increased development of the area, including many more choices of nesting place and fewer insects to eat.
California pepper tree
The largest California pepper tree (''Schinus molle'') in the United States resided at Mission San Juan Capistrano until 2005, when it was felled due to disease. The tall specimen, planted in the 1870s, was typical of the early California landscape; it was also listed in the National Register of Big Trees. The oldest pepper tree in California resides in the courtyard of Mission San Luis Rey de Francia.
Gallery
Image:SJC restored property.png, The "Alemany Plat" prepared by the U.S. General Land Office, Land Surveyor's Office to define the property restored to the Catholic Church by the Public Land Commission, later confirmed by presidential proclamation on March 18, 1865.
File:2019 Fr. Serra Church, Mission San Juan Capistrano.jpg, Father Serra Church at the mission (2019)
File:San Cap SW01.jpg, Entrance - Father Serra's Church
File:San Cap SW03.jpg, Left wall detail - Father Serra's Church
File:Mission San Juan Capistrano pepper tree postcard 1920.jpg, A postcard image of San Juan Capistrano's once-prized California pepper tree, formerly a focal point of the Mission gardens.
Image:MSJC by John Gutzon-Borglum.jpg, An 1894 painting by Frederick Behre features a wildly improbable steeple over the entrance of San Juan Capistrano's "Great Stone Church" (it was incorrectly believed to portray the way the church looked before the 1812 earthquake; archaeological excavations in 1938 revealed that the steeple placement as shown in the painting was impossible).[Stern and Miller, p. 92] The landscape in the background of this painting was later modified by Gutzon Borglum, John Gutzon Borglum. Watercolor and gouache.
Image:San Juan Capistrano circa 1910 William Amos Haines.jpg, An overall view of the "Mission of the Swallow" around the time of St. John O'Sullivan's arrival in 1910. The Mission's once-renowned California pepper tree can be seen just to the left of the adobe church's ''espadaña''.
Image:Fray Engelhardt SJC 1915.jpg, Clerical historian Zephyrin Engelhardt, O.F.M. visited Mission San Juan Capistrano numerous times, beginning in 1915.
Image:Mission San Juan Capistrano circa 1921.jpg, This 1921 view of the Mission San Juan Capistrano complex documents the restoration work that was already well underway by that time. The perimeter garden wall (including the ornate entranceway) and adjacent outbuilding are 1917 additions.
File:Mission san juan capistrano03.jpg, A Islamic architecture, Moorish-style fountain inside Mission San Juan Capistrano's central courtyard, built in the 1920s through the efforts of St. John O'Sullivan.
Image:Rose of the Golden West.jpg, Mary Astor and Gilbert Roland starred in George Fitzmaurice's 1927 motion picture ''Rose of the Golden West'', shot on location on the Mission grounds.[Hallan-Gibson, p. 73] The film's penultimate scene (shown here) is set amidst the ruins of "The Great Stone Church."
Image:HABS Mission San Juan Capistrano plot plan.png, A plot plan and perspective view of Mission San Juan Capistrano as prepared by the Historic American Buildings Survey in 1937.
See also
* Spanish missions in California
* List of Spanish missions in California
* Diego Sepúlveda Adobe (the Costa Mesa Estancia or the Santa Ana Estancia)
* Las Flores Estancia
* ''Putiidhem''
* USNS Mission Capistrano (T-AO-112), USNS Mission ''Capistrano'' (T-AO-112) – a USNS Mission Buenaventura (T-AO-111), ''Mission Buenaventura''–class Oiler (ship), fleet oiler built during World War II
* Oldest churches in the United States
* List of the oldest buildings in the United States
References
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External links
Official Mission San Juan Capistrano websiteOfficial parish websiteOrtega's Capistrano Trading PostElevation & Site Layout sketches of the Mission properListing, drawings, and historic photographs— ''at the Historic American Buildings Survey—HABS.''
Daily Life at Mission San Juan CapistranoIndians of the Mission* [http://www.sacred-texts.com/nam/ca/bosc/index.htm "Chinigchinich; a Historical Account of the Origin, Customs, and Traditions of the Indians at the Missionary Establishment of St. Juan Capistrano, Alta California Called The Acjachemen Nation" by Friar Gerónimo Boscana (1846)]
Swallows Parade, San Juan Capistrano Fiesta Association*
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Spanish missions in California, San Juan Capistrano
San Juan Capistrano, California
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Churches in Orange County, California
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Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange
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Properties of religious function on the National Register of Historic Places in California
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History of Orange County, California
Piracy in the United States
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Junípero Serra