Mission Santa Barbara
by Elizabeth M.

Mission Santa Barbara is a Spanish Franciscan mission near present day Santa Barbara, California. It was founded December 4th, 1786. That was the feast day of Saint Barbara. The mission was founded by Father Fermin Lasuen. The mission is named for Saint Barbara and has the nickname Queen of the Missions for its beautiful exterior.

The early missionaries built the Santa Barbara Mission. They had already built three different chapels during the first few years, each of the chapels were bigger than the ones they had built before. The mission was made out of local materials. There were largely reed structures often no more than huts. As the colonization went on and more Native people were made available to work, the missions started to be built out of adobe. They still had reed roofs and dirt floors though. Still later, after some uprisings, the mission roofs were covered with tile over the reed roofing. That helped to prevent fires and they protected the adobe walls which usually melted in the rains. The dirt floors were eventually replaced with adobe or clay, tile called Roman Cement, or wood or stone. Adobe was the most common of these materials.

The Santa Barbara mission shows a number of special architectural characteristics. One is the fountain at the center of the courtyard, which indicated the relative wealth of the mission. Another is the number of courtyards and gardens. Finally, there is the use of arches on mission buildings.

• Rectangular or L·plan
• Horizontal massing
• Predominantly one-story
• Interior and exterior courtyards
• Asymmetrical shape with cross-gables and side wings

Mission Santa Barbara's name comes from the legend of Saint Barbara, who was a girl who was beheaded by her father because she followed the Christian Faith. It was only after the great Santa Barbara Earthquake on December 21, 1812, that the re- construction of the mission was begun. It was completed then dedicated in 1820. The towers were considerably damaged in the June 29, 1925 earthquake, but were subsequently rebuilt.

The appearance of the inside of the church has not been changed by much since 1820. A dam constructed in 1807 is situated in the current Santa Barbara Botanic Garden up "Mission Canyon." The mission's tanning vats, pottery oven, and guard house are all in ruins to this day. In 1818, two Argentine ships under the command of the French privateer Hipolito Bouchard approached the coast and threatened the young town of Santa Barbara. The padres armed and trained 150 of the new converts to prepare for attack. With their help, the presidio soldiers confronted Bouchard, who sailed out of the harbor without attacking. After the Mexican Congress passed An Act for the Secularization of the Missions of California on August 17, 1833 Father Presidente Narciso Duran transferred the missions' headquarters to Santa Barbara, thereby making Mission Santa Barbara the Depot (Safe House) of some 3,000 original documents that had been scattered through the California missions. The mission archive is the oldest library in the State of California that still remains in the hands of its founders, the Franciscans. Beginning with the writings of Hubert Howe Bancroft, the library has served as a center for historical study of the missions for more than a century. When President Abraham Lincoln restored the missions to the Catholic Church on March 18, 1865, the mission's leader at the time, Friar Jose Gonzalez Rubio, came into conflict with Bishop Amat over the matter of whether the mission should be under the ownership of the Franciscan order rather than the diocese. Bishop Amat refused to give the deed for the mission to the Franciscans, but in 1925, Bishop John J. Cantwell finally awarded the deed to them.

Daily Life for the Native Americans at the Mission of Santa Barbara consisted of raising cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, mules, and horses in great number. In 1809 there were 5,200 head of cattle and in 1803, 11,221 head of sheep. Arts and Crafts were a common production too. At the mission, the Indians made adobes, tiles, shoes, and woolen garments, learned the trades of carpenter and mason, and became herdsmen and farmers. They also learned to sing and play European instrumental music. Church services were accompanied by an Indian choir and instrumental ensemble of violins, cellos, woodwinds, and brasses rather than an organ. The Chumash found the mission system much to their liking. With their help, the Franciscans soon made the mission self sustaining. The Chumash Indians lived in some 250 Adobe houses.

The padres of the California Mission focused on what it was like to be a priest at the California Missions. They had two goals. The first goal is to mold the Indians into a work force that would produce surplus grain for military garrisons. The second goal is to regulate the Indian moral conduct and religious practices. The priests were quite effective in serving the economic goals. Padres had many responsibilities beyond simply holding masses. They served as educators, community leaders, planners, and supervisors for many aspects of mission life. It was a life of hard work and sacrifice. The Franciscans of California began and ended each day with prayer. As priests, they made a promise to pray for the needs of the universal church as well as for their own individual needs. Seven times during the day were set aside in which they prayed. Their prayers starting as early as 2:00 am. They rose at sunrise and began the day with morning prayer and meditation, then celebrated mass around 7 :00 am, in the Church. After church a simple breakfast. The friars ate bread, fresh fruit, milk, eggs, vegetables, soup, and on special occasions, cheese, fish, and red meat. They lived at the mission, in small humble cubicles and carried their daily lives around the needs of the mission and its inhabitants.

Mission Santa Barbara is the only California mission never to have been abandoned. It has remained in continuous use by the padres since the founding day in 1786. They took good care of this mission and there never really was a rebirth as in some of the other missions. The mission has been well maintained and repaired through all of the years. The city of Santa Barbara has been built near the mission. The Mission Santa Barbara today continues to serve the city as a parish church with many active members.

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