Mission San Bruno ( es, Misión San Bruno) was a short-lived Spanish mission established by

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

on October 7, 1684, in what is now the Loreto Municipality of Baja California Sur,

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 ...

. The mission was the first Spanish mission established on the Baja California Peninsula.

Location

The ruins of the mission are located along the northern banks of an

intermittent river Intermittent, temporary or seasonal rivers or streams cease to flow every year or at least twice every five years.(Tzoraki et al., 2007) Such rivers drain large arid and semi-arid areas, covering approximately a third of the earth's surface. ...

as it flows into 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 ...

. The mission is unrelated to the present-day town of

San Bruno San Bruno (Spanish for " St. Bruno") is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States, incorporated in 1914. The population was 43,908 at the 2020 United States Census. The city is between South San Francisco and Millbrae, adjacent to ...

, which is located 110 kilometres (68 mi) to the north of the mission. Visita de San Juan Bautista Londó, a minor visiting chapel built in 1699, is located approximately to the east.

History

In 1683, the Spanish admiral Isidro de Atondo y Antillón and the Jesuit missionary

Eusebio Francisco Kino Eusebio Francisco Kino ( it, Eusebio Francesco Chini, es, Eusebio Francisco Kino; 10 August 1645 – 15 March 1711), often referred to as Father Kino, was a Tyrolean Jesuit, missionary, geographer, explorer, cartographer and astronomer born in ...

were forced to abandon an attempted settlement and mission at La Paz because of hostilities with the native Pericúes and Guaycura. In 1684, they moved north to the central portion of the peninsula, and selected a site for a settlement at 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 Teupnon, near the mouth of a substantial arroyo about north of the present day city of Loreto. The date was October 7, 1684, the Feast of San Bruno. Mission work was begun with about 400 local Cochimi Indians and exploratory expeditions into the surrounding region were undertaken, including the first land crossing of the Baja California Peninsula by Europeans. However, shortages of water and imported food supplies and problems of illness forced the abandonment of San Bruno in May 1685, leaving Baja California again entirely in native hands until the first permanent Jesuit mission was established at

Misión de Nuestra Señora de Loreto Conchó Misión de Nuestra Señora de Loreto Conchó, or Mission Loreto, was founded on October 25, 1697, at the Monqui Native American (Indian) settlement of Conchó in the city of Loreto, Baja California Sur, Mexico. Established by the Catholic Churc ...

in 1697. The San Bruno experience is documented in the letters and reports of Atondo, Kino, and other participants.

Present day

A few crumbling walls of the uncompleted mission and fortress are all that remain of the San Bruno Mission.Edward W. Vernon (2002:1-7)

References

Bibliography

* Bolton, Herbert Eugene. 1936. ''Rim of Christendom''. Macmillan, New York. * Burrus, Ernest J. 1954. ''Kino Reports to Headquarters: Correspondence of Eusebio F. Kino, S.J., from New Spain with Rome''. Instituto Historicum S.J., Rome. * Burrus, Ernest J. 1965. ''Kino Writes to the Duchess''. Jesuit Historical Institute, Rome. * Mathes, W. Michael. 1969. ''First from the Gulf to the Pacific: The Diary of the Kino-Atondo Peninsular Expedition, December 14, 1684 – January 13, 1685''. Dawson's Book Shop, Los Angeles. * Mathes, W. Michael. 1974. ''Californiana III: documentos para la historia de la transformación colonizadora de California, 1679–1686''. José Porrúa Turanzas, Madrid. * Vernon, Edward W. 2002. ''Las Misiones Antiguas: The Spanish Missions of Baja California, 1683–1855''. Viejo Press, Santa Barbara, California.

Location

History

Present day

References

Bibliography

See also