Mission San Diego de Alcalá

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**Mission San Diego de Alcalá**
Location	San Diego, California
Image:Mission San Diego 1987.jpg The chapel façade of Mission San Diego de Alcalá as it appeared in 1987.
Name as Founded	La Misión San Diego de Alcalá ^[1]
Translation	The Mission of Saint Didacus of Alcalá
Patron	Saint Didacus of Alcalá
Nickname(s)	"Mother of the Alta California Missions" ^[2]
Founding Date	July 16, 1769 ^[3]
Founding Priest(s)	Father Presidente Junípero Serra ^[4]
Founding Order	First
Headquarters of the Alta California Mission System	1769–1771 ^[5]
Military District	First ^[6]
Native Tribe(s) Spanish Name(s)	Kumeyaay (Ipai / Tipai) Diegueño
Native Place Name(s)	Kosoi, Nipowai ^[7]
Current Owner	Roman Catholic Church
Current Use	Parish Church
Coordinates	32°47′4″N, 117°6′23″W
National Historic Landmark	#NPS–70000144
California Historical Landmark	#242
Web Site	http://missionsandiego.com

Mission San Diego de Alcalá was founded on July 16, 1769, the first in the twenty-one Alta California mission chain established by Father Presidente Junípero Serra; today it is known as "California's First Church." Spanish explorer Sebastián Vizcaíno named San Diego Bay San Diego de Alcalá when he made landfall there, some ten miles from the present Mission site, in 1602. The Mission was the site of the first Christian burial in Alta California;^[4] San Diego is also generally regarded as the site of the region's first public execution in 1778.^[8]^[9]

1 History
- 1.1 Other historic designations
2 References
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] History

Originally founded at a site known as "Presidio Hill" (Kosoi to the natives), the settlement was relocated to its present location (Nipowai) in 1774.^[10] The Kumeyaay Indians rebelled against Spanish rule, and attacked the Mission on November 5, 1775. Father Luís Jayme, who had been left behind to run the Mission while Father Serra moved on to found other missions, was killed, making him California's first Christian martyr.^[11] Peace eventually settled over the area, and by 1797, there were approximately 1,400 Kumeyaay living in the vicinity of the Mission proper. Wheat, corn, wine grapes, barley, beans, cattle, horses, and sheep were the major crops. In 1795, construction on a system of aqueducts was begun to bring water to the fields and the Mission (the first irrigation project in Upper California). The building manager was Fray Pedro Panto, who was poisoned by his Indian cook Nazario before the project was completed.

After Mexico gained its independence from Spain in 1821, it decided that it was not profitable to maintain the missions. The Mexican Congress' Act for the Secularization of the Missions of California was ratified in 1834. The missions were offered for sale to citizens, who were unable to come up with the price, so all mission property was broken up into ranchos and given to ex-military officers who had fought in Mexico's war against Spain. In 1846, the Mission San Diego de Alcalá was given to Santiago Arguello. After the United States seized California, the Mission was used by the military from 1846 to 1862. The National Weather Service notes that the first official weather observations in San Diego were begun in 1850 at the mission. In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signed an act declaring that all of the missions would become the property of the Roman Catholic Church, and most of them remain so until today. When Mission San Diego de Alcalá was granted back to the Church, it was in ruins. In the 1880s Father Anthony Ubach began to restore the old Mission buildings. He died in 1907, however, and the restoration stopped until 1931. In 1941, the Mission once again became a parish church, in what is still an active parish serving the Diocese of San Diego. In 1976, Pope Paul VI designated the Mission church as a minor basilica.

Image:Death of Father Jayme.jpg

An illustration depicts the brutal death of Father Luís Jayme by the hands of angry natives at Mission San Diego de Alcalá, November 4, 1775.^[12] The uprising was the first of a dozen similar incidents that took place in Alta California during the Mission Period.^[13]

Mission San Diego de Alcalá is located within San Diego city limits, near the intersection of Interstate 8 and Interstate 15, and approximately 1 mile east of Qualcomm Stadium.

[edit] Other historic designations

California Historical Landmark #52 — mission dam and flume system completed in 1816
California Historical Landmark #784 — El Camino Real (starting point in Alta California)
City of San Diego Historic Designation #113

[edit] References

Image:San Diego Alcala circa 1900 Keystone-Mast Company.jpg

Mission San Diego de Alcalá as it stood circa 1900.

Bancroft, Hubert Howe (1884-1880). History of California, vols. i–vii (1542-1890). The History Company, San Francisco, CA.
Engelhardt, Zephyrin, O.F.M. (1920). San Diego Mission. James H. Barry Company, San Francisco, CA.
Leffingwell, Randy (2005). California Missions and Presidios: The History & Beauty of the Spanish Missions. Voyageur Press, Inc., Stillwater, MN. ISBN 0-89658-492-5.
Paddison, Joshua (ed.) (1999). A World Transformed: Firsthand Accounts of California Before the Gold Rush. Heyday Books, Berkeley, CA. ISBN 1-890771-13-9.
Ruscin, Terry (1999). Mission Memoirs. Sunbelt Publications, San Diego, CA. ISBN 0-932653-30-8.
Yenne, Bill (2004). The Missions of California. Advantage Publshers Group, San Diego, CA. ISBN 1-59223-319-8.
Young, Stanley and Melba Levick (1988). The Missions of California. Chronicle Books LLC, San Francisco, CA. ISBN 0-8118-3694-0.