|
Home 
San
Juan Capistrano
Little Chapters
Chapter I
Little Chapters About San Juan Capistrano
Chapter I: The Place
This Mission of San Juan Capistrano, with the little town
bearing the same name, is situated in Orange County, California,
fifty-six miles south of Los Angeles, on the Santa Fe Railway.
It stands about a mile above the confluence of two streams
which flow through narrow valleys skirted by lomas, as the
rather high and rounded hills are called by the people here,
for Spanish is still the prevailing language of the place.
The stream from the north, which runs on the west side of
the Mission, is the Trabuco, and that from the northeast,
which comes down the Mision Veija Cañon and crosses
the Camino Real about a mile south of the Mission, is known
as the San Juan. Consequently the Mission stands between these
two streams, so that its gardens, vineyards and orchards had
a plentiful supply of water from both of them, partly by means
of zanjas, or open ditches, and partly by underground waterways,
fragments of which may still be seen leading from the separate
streams. The distance to the Pacific Ocean is about two and
a half miles, and the opening formed by the valley at the
Ocean is called La Boca de la Playa. A few miles up the coast,
there is a high cliff overlooking a narrow sandy beach. This
spot was formerly called El Embarcadero Viejo, but from the
circumstance of Richard H. Dana's experience there, as described
in his "Two Years Before the Mast," when hides from
the Mission were thrown over the cliffs to be brought out
in small boards to the ships, the place has come be known
as "Dana's Point."
This region was formerly inhabited by Indians who called
themselves Acagchemem, and the place Acagcheme. Father Junipero
Serra calls the place Quanís-savit, but this probably
refers to the original location of the Mission, six miles
up the Mision Vieja Cañon. When an Indian became formally
associated with the Mission, which took place at his baptism,
he came to be known as a San Juaneño or Mission Indian
connected with San Juan Capistrano.
The Mission was named after San Juan Capistrano, or St. John,
native of Capistrano, which is a town in the Abruzzi, in Italy.
Born in 1385, he became a Franciscan priest, and being noted
for his zeal and eloquence, was chosen as preacher in the
army of Hunyadi, and was present at the siege of Belgrade.
Consequently his statue in the Church of the Mission shows
him in a semi-military habit. He died in 1456. There is another
mission bearing his name near San Antonio, in Texas.
The first founding of this Mission took place on October
30, 1775, the octave of the feast of San Juan Capistrano,
when mass was celebrated in a mere shelter of boughs, by Fray
Fermin Francisco de Lasuen, who had come up from San Diego,
accompanied by Lieut. José Francisco de Ortega, one
sergeant, and a few soldiers. Eight days afterwards, news
arrived from San Diego of the destruction of the Mission there
by the Indians, and giving orders to bury the bells, Fr. Lasuen
returned to San Diego with Lieut. Ortega and his men.
Local tradition at San Juan says that this first founding
took place six miles up the Mision Vieja Cañon, where
the remains of a large building of adobes may still be seen.
The following year Father Serra with Fathers Amurrio and Mugartegui
and eleven soldiers came from San Diego to begin again the
work that had been interrupted, and finding the cross of the
year before still standing, formally founded a second time
the Mission on November 1, 1776, which thus became the seventh
in order of establishment. The first Upper California was
begun at San Diego, on July 16, 1769.
Father Serra then went to Mission San Gabriel to send cattle
and neophites to assist in the building of the Mission, but
before leaving he made several entries in the record books
of the new establishment. The following is translation of
his entry in the record of deaths:
Praised be Jesus, Mary and Joseph.
In this book are the death entries of the Mission San
Juan Capistrano, of Quanís-savit, belonging to the
Apostolic College of San Fernando, Mexico, of missionaries
of the Order of our holy Father, St. Francis, of the (regular)
observance, founded by the religious of the said Apostolic
College at the expense of the Catholic Monarch of the Spains
and the Indies, Señor Don Carlos III, whom may God
prosper many years; the funds supplied by order and direction
of his excellency, Señor Fray Don Antonio Maria Bucareli
y Ursua, Knight and Baylio of the Order of St John, Lieut.
General of the Royal Armies, Viceroy, Governor and Captain
General of this New Spain, etc., and eminent promoter of
these new establishments, begun on the most solemn day of
All Saints, Nov.1, 1776, on which I, the undersigned, president
of these new missions of the infidels for the said Apostolic
College, conjointly with the Father Procurator, Fray Gregorio
Amurrio, having implored the divine aid and made the usual
blessings of water, place, cross and bells, sang Mass and
declared the mission as begun, for the administration of
which I left assigned as its first ministers the Rev. Lector,
Fray Pablo de Mugartegui and the aforementioned Father Procurator,
Fray Gregorio de Amurrio, both of the holy province of Cantabria,
and Preachers Apostolic of the aforesaid College of San
Fernando, Mexico
"Junipero Serra"
Next: Chapter II
|
