Mission Santa María de los Ángeles was the last of the missions established by the

Jesuits , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders = ...

Baja California Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...

, Mexico, in 1767. The mission was named after Saint Maria of the Angels.

History

The site chosen was the

Cochimí The Cochimí were the indigenous inhabitants of the central part of the Baja California peninsula, from El Rosario in the north to San Javier in the south. Information on Cochimí customs and beliefs has been preserved in the brief observati ...

settlement of Cabujakaamung ("arroyo of crags"), west of Bahía San Luis Gonzaga near the

Gulf of California The Gulf of California ( es, Golfo de California), also known as the Sea of Cortés (''Mar de Cortés'') or Sea of Cortez, or less commonly as the Vermilion Sea (''Mar Bermejo''), is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean that separates the Baja C ...

coast, about 22 kilometers east of Rancho Santa Inés, and south of

Cataviña Cataviña is a town in San Quintín Municipality, Baja California. Geography It is located 118 km (74 mi) south of El Rosario and 106 km (66 mi) north of the junction of Federal Highway 12 to Bahía de los Ángeles. It is a ...

. The mission site was visited by the Jesuit missionary-explorers

Ferdinand Konščak Fernando Consag, known in his native Croatian as Ferdinand Konščak (December 2, 1703 – September 10, 1759), was a Croatian Jesuit missionary, explorer and cartographer, who spent most of his life in Mexico, in Baja California. Education Con ...

and

Wenceslaus Linck Wenceslaus Linck (german: Wenzel Linck) (29 March 1736 – 8 February 1797) was the last of the outstanding Jesuit missionary-explorers in Baja California. Born in Neudek, Bohemia, he entered the Jesuit order at age 18 and studied at Brno and ...

. Victoriano Arnés founded the mission to replace the unsatisfactory site of Calamajué only months before the Jesuits were expelled from Baja California. After the establishment of Mission San Fernando Velicatá in 1769, Santa María was reduced to the status of a ''visita'', or subordinate mission station. The ''visita'' was abandoned in 1818. Ruined structural walls and rock corrals survive at the site.

References

* Vernon, Edward W. 2002. ''Las Misiones Antiguas: Las Misiones Españolas de Baja California, 1683-1855''. Viejo Press, Santa Barbara, California.

History

References

See also