Mission San Gabriel Arcángel ( es, Misión de San Gabriel Arcángel) is a Californian mission and historic landmark in

San Gabriel, California San Gabriel (Spanish language, Spanish for "Gabriel, St. Gabriel") is a city located in the San Gabriel Valley of Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, California. At the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census, the population was 3 ...

. It was founded by

Spaniards Spaniards, or Spanish people, are a Romance ethnic group native to Spain. Within Spain, there are a number of national and regional ethnic identities that reflect the country's complex history, including a number of different languages, both ...

of the

Franciscan , image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans , abbreviation = OFM , predecessor = , ...

order on "The Feast of the Birth of Mary," September 8, 1771, as the fourth of what would become twenty-one

Spanish missions in California The Spanish missions in California ( es, Misiones españolas en California) comprise a series of 21 religious outposts or missions established between 1769 and 1833 in what is now the U.S. state of California. Founded by Catholic priests of ...

. San Gabriel Arcángel was named after the Archangel Gabriel and often referred to as the "Godmother of the Pueblo of Los Angeles." The mission was built and run using what has been described as

slave Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

labor from nearby

Tongva The Tongva ( ) are an Indigenous people of California from the Los Angeles Basin and the Southern Channel Islands, an area covering approximately . Some descendants of the people prefer Kizh as an endonym that, they argue, is more historically ...

villages, such as Yaanga and was built on the site of the village of

Toviscanga Toviscanga was a former Tongva village now located at Mission San Gabriel Arcángel in San Gabriel, California. Alternative spellings for the village include Tobiscanga. The name of Tuvasak was the Payómkawichum name for the village. The village ...

. When the nearby Pueblo de los Ángeles was built in 1781, the mission competed with the emerging pueblo for control of Indigenous labor. The mission was designed by Antonio Cruzado, who gave the building its capped buttresses and the tall narrow windows, which are unique among the missions of the California chain. A large stone cross stands in the center of the ''Campo Santo'' (

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a bu ...

), first consecrated in 1778 and then again on January 29, 1939, by the Los Angeles Archbishop John Cantwell. It serves as the final resting place for some 6,000 "neophytes;" a small stone marker denotes the gravesite of José de los Santos, the last American Indian to be buried on the grounds, at the age of 101 in February 1921. Also interred at the Mission are the bodies of numerous

priests who died during their time of service, as well as the remains of Reverend Raymond Catalan, C.M.F., who undertook the restoration of the Mission's gardens. Entombed at the foot of the altar are the remains of eight Franciscan priests (listed in order of interment): Miguel Sánchez, Antonio Cruzado, Francisco Dumetz, Ramón Ulibarri, Joaquín P. Núñez,

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 come ...

José Bernardo Sánchez Father José Bernardo Sánchez (September 7, 1778 – January 15, 1833) was a Spanish missionary in colonial Mexico and Alta California. Early life Born in Robledillo de Mohernando, Old Castile, Spain, Sánchez became a Franciscan on October ...

, and Blas Ordaz. Buried among the priests is centenarian

Eulalia Pérez de Guillén Mariné Eulalia Pérez de Guillén Mariné (1766? – June 11, 1878) was a Californio who was '' mayordoma'' of Mission San Gabriel Arcángel and grantee of Rancho del Rincón de San Pascual in the San Rafael Hills, in present-day Los Angeles County, Ca ...

, the "keeper of the keys" under Spanish rule; her grave is marked by a bench dedicated in her memory. According to Spanish legend, the founding expedition was confronted by a large group of native Tongva peoples whose intention was to drive the strangers away. One of the priests laid a painting of "Our Lady of Sorrows" on the ground for all to see, whereupon the natives, designated by the

settler A settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established a permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. A settler who migrates to an area previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited may be described as a pioneer. Settle ...

s as the ''Gabrieleños'', immediately made peace with the missionaries, because they were so moved by the painting's beauty. Today the 300-year-old work hangs in front of and slightly to the left of the old high altar and

reredos A reredos ( , , ) is a large altarpiece, a screen, or decoration placed behind the altar in a church. It often includes religious images. The term ''reredos'' may also be used for similar structures, if elaborate, in secular architecture, for e ...

in the Mission's

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 ...

. Resistance to the mission by the Tongva was recorded and how much the neophytes embraced Catholicism remains a subject of debate among scholars.

History

In August 1771, the Portolà expedition, which consisted of "ten Spanish soldiers and two Franciscan priests, encountered armed

Indians 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 throug ...

." One month later, Mission San Gabriel was founded on September 8, 1771, by Fray Ángel Fernández de la Somera and Fray Pedro Benito Cambón. The planned site for the Mission was along the banks of the ''Río de los Temblores'' (the River of the Earthquakes—the Santa Ana River). The priests chose an alternate site on a fertile plain located directly alongside the Río Hondo in the Whittier Narrows. The site of the '' Misión Vieja'' (or "Old Mission") is located near the intersection of San Gabriel Boulevard and Lincoln Avenue. The expedition of

Juan Bautista de Anza Juan Bautista de Anza Bezerra Nieto (July 6 or 7, 1736 – December 19, 1788) was an expeditionary leader, military officer, and politician primarily in California and New Mexico under the Spanish Empire. He is credited as one of the founding f ...

visited the mission in January and February 1776, having previous been there in 1774. In 1776, a flash flood destroyed much of the crops and ruined the original Mission complex, which was subsequently relocated five miles closer to the mountains in present-day San Gabriel (the Tongva settlement of

or 'Iisanchanga). The Tongva village of Shevaanga was also located "close to the second location of Mission San Gabriel" after the original site was abandoned due to the flooding. On December 9, 1812 (the "Feast Day of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin"), a series of massive

earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, fr ...

s shook Southern California. The

1812 San Juan Capistrano earthquake The 1812 San Juan Capistrano earthquake, also known simply as the Capistrano earthquake or the Wrightwood earthquake, occurred on December 8 at in Alta California. At the time, this was a colonial territory of the Spanish Empire. Damage occurre ...

caused the three-bell ''campanario'', located adjacent to the chapel's east façade, to collapse. A larger, six-bell structure was subsequently constructed at the far end of the ''Capilla''. While no pictorial record exists to document what the original structure looked like, architectural historian Rexford Newcomb deduced the design and published a depiction in his 1916 work ''The Franciscan Mission Architecture of Alta (upper) California''. Over 25,000

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 were conducted at San Gabriel between 1771 and 1834, making it the most prolific in the chain of missions. Tongva people from nearby settlements like Akuranga village were affected by the practices of Franciscan missionaries, who attempted to "eradicate what they perceived as ills within Tongva society" through "religious indoctrination, labor, restructuring of gender structures, and violence," which took place at and around the Mission. A missionary during this period reported that three out of four children died at Mission San Gabriel before reaching the age of 2. Nearly 6,000 Tongva lie buried in the grounds of the San Gabriel Mission. There were reports throughout this period of

Indigenous peoples Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

fleeing the conditions at the Mission. For example, in 1808, the missionaries sent Spanish soldier José Palomares after some "neophytes" who had fled the mission. Escapees traveled as far as the Serrano village of Wá’peat to escape the Mission. Palomares observed the escapees at the village and attempted to negotiate with the chief of the village for their return. However, the chief refused. Although San Gabriel once furnished food and supplies to settlements and other missions throughout California, a majority of the Mission structures fell into ruins after it was secularized in November 1834. The once-extensive vineyards were falling to decay, with fences broken down and animals roaming freely through it. The Mission's chapel functioned as a

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...

church for the City of San Gabriel from 1862 until 1908, when the

Claretian Missionaries The Claretians officially named the Congregation of Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary ( la, Congregatio Missionariorum Filiorum Immaculati Cordis Beatae Mariae Virginis) abbreviated CMF is a Catholic clerical reli ...

came to San Gabriel and began the job of rebuilding and restoring the Mission. In 1874, tracks were laid for Southern Pacific Railroad near the mission. In 2012, artifacts from the mission era were found when the tracks were lowered into a trench known as the

Alameda Corridor The Alameda Corridor is a freight rail "expressway" owned by the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority that connects the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach with the transcontinental mainlines of the BNSF Railway and the Union Pacific Rail ...

-East. On October 1, 1987, the Whittier Narrows earthquake damaged the property. A significant portion of the original complex has since been restored. Fire completely destroyed the roof of the original church sanctuary on July 11, 2020. Prior to the fire, the mission was undergoing renovation, saving some paintings and artifacts. An investigation into the origin of the fire was opened. On May 5, 2021, John David Corey, age 57, was charged with felony counts of arson and burglary for setting the fire. An invitation-only Mass was celebrated in September 2022 with hope of permanently open the mission by early December.

Mission industries

The goal of the missions was to become self-sufficient in relatively short order.

Farming Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled peopl ...

was the most important industry of any mission. Prior to the missions, the Native Americans had developed a complex, self-sufficient culture. The mission priests established what they thought of as a manual training school: to teach the Indians their style of agriculture, the mechanical arts, and the raising and care of livestock. The missions, utilizing the labor of the neophytes, produced everything they used and consumed. After 1811, the mission Indians could be said to sustain the entire military and civil government of California. Ranchos (not to be confused with secular government land-grant ranchos) were established in a wide area for raising cattle, sheep and other livestock. These included; San Pasqual, Santa Anita, Azusa, San Francisquito, Cucumonga, San Antonio, San Bernardino, San Gorgonio, Yucaipa, Jurupa, Guapa, Rincon, Chino, San Jose, Ybarras, Puente, Mission Vieja, Serranos, Rosa de Castilla, Coyotes, Jabonaria, Las Bolsas, Alamitos, and Cerritos. When Rancho San Gorgonio was established in 1824, in what today is known as the

San Gorgonio Pass The San Gorgonio Pass, or Banning Pass, is a elevation gap on the rim of the Great Basin between the San Bernardino Mountains to the north and the San Jacinto Mountains to the south. The pass was formed by the San Andreas Fault, a major tran ...

, it became the most distant rancho operated by the San Gabriel Mission. Many of the Native Americans lived in communities called rancherías. "The names of the rancherías associated with San Gabriel Mission were: Acuragna, Alyeupkigna, Awigna, Azucsagna, Cahuenga, Chokishgna, Chowigna, Cucomogna, Hahamogna, Harasgna, Houtgna, Hutucgna, Isanthcogna, Maugna, Nacaugna, Pascegna, Pasinogna, Pimocagna, Pubugna, Sibagna, Sisitcanogna, Sonagna, Suangna, Tibahagna,

, Toybipet, Yangna." To efficiently manage its extensive lands, Mission San Gabriel established several outlying sub-missions, known as '' asistencias''. Several of these became or were included in land grants following the Mexican secularization of the missions in the 1830s, including: * Rancho Santa Ana del Chino * Rancho La Puente * San Bernardino de Sena Estancia * Rancho Santa Anita In 1816, the Mission built a

grist mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separat ...

on a nearby creek. El Molino Viejo still stands, now preserved as a museum and historic landmark. Other mission industries included cowhide tanning/exporting and tallow-rendering (for making soap and for export),

lime kiln A lime kiln is a kiln used for the calcination of limestone ( calcium carbonate) to produce the form of lime called quicklime (calcium oxide). The chemical equation for this reaction is : CaCO3 + heat → CaO + CO2 This reaction can take pla ...

s, tile making, cloth weaving for blankets and clothing, and

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 ...

bricks.

Mission bells

Architect and engineer (1920) (14779735781)

Bells were important to daily life at any mission. They were rung to mark mealtimes, to call the Mission residents to work and to religious services, to mark births and funerals, to signal the approach of a ship or a returning missionary, and at other times; novices were instructed in the intricate rituals associated with the ringing of the mission bells. The mission bells were also used to tell time. The actor Gil Frye portrayed Father Miguel Sánchez in a 1953 episode, "The Bell of San Gabriel," of the syndicated

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

anthology series An anthology series is a radio, television, video game or film series that spans different genres and presents a different story and a different set of characters in each different episode, season, segment, or short. These usually have a dif ...

'' Death Valley Days,'' hosted by Stanley Andrews. As a child portrayed in the segment by Peter J. Votrian, Miguel provides funds acquired from a wealthy nobleman to sweeten the tone of the bell at Mission San Gabriel Arcángel. Years later, the ringing of the bell saves his life when he is a young monk stranded in the desert in the Death Valley country.

Visitors

Visitors can tour the church, museum and grounds. The adobe museum building was built in 1812 and was originally used for sleeping quarters and book storage."Mission, Museum, Grounds, Gardens, and Gift Shop"
, San Gabriel Mission Exhibits include mission relics, books and religious artifacts. The grounds feature operations from the original mission complex, including indoor and outdoor kitchens, winery, water cisterns, soap and candle vats, tanning vats for preparing cattle hides, and a cemetery. There is also a gift shop.

Matrimonial Investigation Records

As part of th

in th

at the Claremont Colleges' Honnold/Mudd Library, th
Matrimonial Investigation Records of the San Gabriel Mission
are a valuable resource for research on the pre-statehood activities of the Mission.Claremont Colleges Digital Library
Claremont Colleges Digital Library
William McPherson was a rancher, scholar, and collector from

Orange County, California Orange County is located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area in Southern California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,186,989, making it the third-most-populous county in California, the sixth-most-populous in the United States, ...

, who donated his extensive collection of mission documents, primarily from the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, to Special Collections in 1964.Special Collections
William McPherson Collection
The matrimonial records span 1788 to 1861 and are notarized interviews with couples wanting to marry in the Roman Catholic Church, performed to establish the couples' freedom to marry. The collection includes 165 investigations, with 173 men and 170 women. Because the donated records are fragile, they are no longer available to be photocopied. The California Digital Library has a
online guide
available to search the collection.

Notes

References

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

External links

San Gabriel Mission Parish

Elevation and Site Layout sketches of the Mission proper

Listing, drawings, and photographs
at the

Historic American Buildings Survey Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) is a division of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) responsible for administering the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), and Historic American Landscapes ...

Official website of the Gabrieleno/Tongva Tribal Council of San Gabriel

San Gabriel Mission High

Mission's Fan Page on Facebook

Matrimonial Investigation Records of the San Gabriel Mission
a
Claremont Colleges Digital Library
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mission San Gabriel Arcangel San Gabriel Arcangel San Gabriel, California 1771 in Alta California Churches in Los Angeles County, California Museums in Los Angeles County, California History museums in California Religious museums in California 1771 establishments in Alta California Religious organizations established in 1771 Roman Catholic churches completed in 1776 18th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles California Historical Landmarks History of Los Angeles History of Los Angeles County, California Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in California Buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Los Angeles County, California Spanish Colonial architecture in California Tongva Old Spanish Trail (trade route) Junípero Serra