Mission Santa María de los Ángeles was the last of the missions established by the
Jesuits
The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
in
Baja California
Baja California, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California, is a state in Mexico. It is the northwesternmost of the 32 federal entities of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1952, the area was known as the North Territory of B ...
, Mexico, in 1767. The mission was named after
Saint Maria of the Angels, as well as after
Maria Ana Antonia Luisa de Borja-Centelles y Fernández de Córdoba, Duchess of Gandía, who donated money to the Baja California missions in 1747.
History
The site chosen was the
Cochimí settlement of Cabujakaamung, also spelled as Kabujakaamung or Cabuja-Camang ("arroyo of crags"), west of
Bahía San Luis Gonzaga near the
Gulf of California
The Gulf of California (), also known as the Sea of Cortés (''Mar de Cortés'') or Sea of Cortez, or less commonly as the Vermilion Sea (''Mar Vermejo''), is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean that separates the Baja California peninsula from ...
coast, about 22 kilometers east of
Rancho Santa Inés, and south of
Cataviña.
The mission site was visited by the Jesuit missionary-explorers
Ferdinand Konščak and
Wenceslaus Linck.
Victoriano Arnés founded the mission in 1767 to replace the unsatisfactory site of
Calamajué, which did not have good water sources, only months before the Jesuits were expelled from Baja California. After the Jesuit expulsion, the Franciscan order took control of the missions.
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 due to the lack of suitable land for crops and cattle.
Ruined structural walls and rock corrals survive at the site.
References
Further reading
* Vernon, Edward W. 2002. ''Las Misiones Antiguas: Las Misiones Españolas de Baja California, 1683-1855''. Viejo Press, Santa Barbara, California.
See also
*
Spanish missions in California
The Spanish missions in California () formed a List of Spanish missions in California, series of 21 religious outposts or missions established between 1769 and 1833 in what is now the U.S. state of California. The missions were established by ...
*
List of Jesuit sites
This list includes past and present buildings, facilities and institutions associated with the Society of Jesus. In each country, sites are listed in chronological order of start of Jesuit association.
Nearly all these sites have be ...
Santa Maria de los Angeles
Landmarks in Ensenada
1767 establishments in New Spain
Jesuit missions
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