I’m in Santa Barbara, known as the home of the prettiest of the old Spanish missions along the California coast? Is it? I don’t know, I haven’t seen them all, but I’ve got tons of photos!
The tenth of the missions to be founded by the Spanish Franciscans, it was established on the Feast of St. Barbara, Dec 4, 1786, the first mission built after Padre Junipero Serra, who famously founded the first nine, died 2 years earlier.
The missions were all built by the Spanish because they were afraid that the Russians were going to impinge on their Mexican territory. Religion was the best way to keep what they wanted without a large army, for they could spread their language and culture to the native tribes, who would hopefully stick up for the Spanish in the long run.
Interestingly, the monks in the mission began to see themselves as the protectors of the American Indian tribes, who were doing just fine before the Spanish arrived.
The Chumash inhabited the area between Malibu and San Luis Obispo, building incredibly capable boats and making an art out of basketweaving. When Christianity came, however, they left many of their old customs behind, with all of the Chumah converting by the 1830s. Not all traditions fell away, however, evidenced by the Chumash who still live in the area and their preservation programs.
The mission has a long and varied history. First it was Spanish, until 1822, when it became part of Mexico and stopped being a religious building. But, as the civil authority took much worse care of the mission than the Franciscans, in 1843 it and all other missions were returned to the Franciscans. But that only lasted tow years, when governor confiscated the lands and in 1846 the mission was sold. In 1848, the United States took over California, and finally, in 1865, the mission was returned again to the Catholic Church by President Abraham Lincoln.
But I’m not going to bore you with more boring details. On to the pictures!
The building has a very specific tour route for you to go on, with highly choreographed displays that start with a gift shop and end with the same gift shop. (Catholic sites love to sell trinkets. For a thouand dollars, you could buy a complete set of mini-mission replicas!)
But here are some of the more amazing things to see:
First, I liked this old cross owned by one of the monks:
And this doll used in the nativity scenes:
In the kitchen, you could see Chumash cooking instruments intermixed with Spanish cutlery:
There’s a lovely garden:
And a lovelier cemetery, where more than 4,000 Chumash Indians are buried:
Of course, the centerpiece of the mission is the gorgeous church:
And its entryway:
Tucked in a tiny room in the back, however, (an old closet?) was my favorite part of the whole mission. It hold the original mission altar, almost invisible to visitors unless they look for it. Made by the Chumash, it has a pediment delicately carved in wood and painted in white and pink. In the center is abalone glued to the cross, which the Chumash had done for centuries prior to Christianity as a mark fo great value or spiritual significance.
The altar dates back from 1786, and, remarkably, this is the only mission that still has its original altar. This is the real reason I came to this mission above all the others. Here it is:
