Mission San Miguel Arcángel

Mission San Miguel Arcángel

San Miguel's various-sized arches are a noted feature of this mission
Location of Mission San Miguel Arcángel in California Show map of California Location of Mission San Miguel Arcángel in California Show map of the US
Location	775 Mission Street San Miguel, San Luis Obispo County, California 93451
Coordinates	35°44′41″N 120°41′53″W / 35.74472°N 120.69806°W / 35.74472; -120.69806Coordinates: 35°44′41″N 120°41′53″W / 35.74472°N 120.69806°W / 35.74472; -120.69806
Name as founded	La Misión del Gloriosísimo Príncipe Arcángel, Señor San Miguel [1]
English translation	The Mission of the Very Glorious Archangel Prince, Sir Saint Michael
Patron	Saint Michael the Archangel[2]
Nickname(s)	"Mission on the Highway" ...  [3] "The Unretouched Mission" [4]
Founding date	July 25, 1797 [5]
Founding priest(s)	Father Fermín Lasuén [6]
Area	0.4 acres (0.16 ha)
Built	1821
Architectural style(s)	Queen Anne
Founding Order	Sixteenth[2]
Military district	Third[7]
Native tribe(s) Spanish name(s)	Salinan
Native place name(s)	Valica [8]
Baptisms	2,471[9]
Marriages	764[9]
Burials	1,868[9]
Secularized	1834[2]
Returned to the Church	1859[2]
Governing body	Roman Catholic Diocese of Monterey
Current use	Parish Church
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Designated	July 14, 1971
Reference no.	71000191[10]
U.S. National Historic Landmark
Designated	March 20, 2006[11]
California Historical Landmark
Reference no.	#326
Website
http://www.missionsanmiguel.org/

Mission San Miguel Arcangel around 1906

Mission San Miguel Arcángel is a Spanish mission in San Miguel, San Luis Obispo County, California. It was established on July 25, 1797 by the Franciscan order, on a site chosen specifically due to the large number of Salinan Indians that inhabited the area, whom the Spanish priests wanted to evangelize.

The mission remains in use as a parish church of the Diocese of Monterey. After being closed to the public for six years due to the 2003 San Simeon earthquake, the church reopened on September 29, 2009. Inside the church are murals designed by Esteban Munras.^[12]

The mission was put on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971^[10] and was named to a National Historic Landmark in 2006.^[11]

Features

• The Mission Arcade, a series of 12 arches, is original. The variety of shapes and sizes was planned^[13] and the Mission was known for this arcade.
• The first chapel on the site was replaced within a year of its construction by a larger adobe chapel, which burned in the 1806 fire.^[13]
• The current mission church was built between 1816 and 1818. It is 144 long, 27 feet (8.2 m) wide, and 40 feet (12 m) high.^[13]
• The cemetery adjacent to the church holds the remains of 2,249 Native Americans listed in the Mission's burial records.^[13]
• The painted walls inside the church are the original artwork by artist Esteban Munras and other Salinan artists.^[13]

Mission bells

Bells were vitally important to daily life at any mission. The bells were rung at mealtimes, to call the Mission residents to work and to religious services, during births and funerals, to signal the approach of a ship or returning missionary, and at other times; novices were instructed in the intricate rituals associated with the ringing the mission bells.

History

Father Fermín Lasuén and Father Buenaventura Sitjar founded the mission on July 25, 1797, making it the sixteenth California mission. Its location between Mission San Luis Obispo and Mission San Antonio de Padua provided a stop on the trip that had previously taken two days.^[14] A temporary wooden church was built with living quarters. The site was picked as it was close to a Salinan Indian village called Vahca. In 1798 the small chapel was replaced. In 1816 to 1818 a new church was constructed with a tile roof and courtyard.

Mission San Miguel Arcángel land sold off after the Mexican secularization act of 1833. The William Reed family lived in the buildings until 1848. Then the mission was closed and decay started. In 1841 the last Franciscan left San Miguel.^[15][16]

In 1859 the Mission was returned to the Catholic Church. But with the buildings all in ruins, no priests were assigned to the return mission. Parts were rented to a some small businesses. In 1878 the Church reactivated the mission and priests were again living at the mission. ^[17]

Gallery

• 
  Mission plaza
• 
  Ojo de Dios, above altar
• 
  Interior of the church
• 
  Fountain in plaza

See also

• USNS Mission San Miguel (AO-129) – a Buenaventura Class fleet oiler built during World War II.
• Ygnacio Coronel (1795–1862). In 1836, Coronel was appointed commissioner of the securalized Mission.

Notes

References

• Coronado, Michael; Heather Ignatin (June 5, 2006). "Plan would open Prop. 40 funds to missions". The Orange County Register. Retrieved 2008-03-08. 
• Engelhardt, Zephyrin, O.F.M. (1931). San Miguel Arcángel: The Mission on the Highway. Mission Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA. CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)
• Forbes, Alexander (1839). California: A History of Upper and Lower California. Smith, Elder and Co., Cornhill, London. 
• Jones, Terry L. and Kathryn A. Klar (eds.) (2007). California Prehistory: Colonization, Culture, and Complexity. Altimira Press, Landham, MD. ISBN 0-7591-0872-2. CS1 maint: Extra text: authors list (link)
• Krell, Dorothy (ed.) (1979). The California Missions: A Pictorial History. Sunset Publishing Corporation, Menlo Park, CA. ISBN 0-376-05172-8. CS1 maint: Extra text: authors list (link)
• 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. CS1 maint: Extra text: authors list (link)
• Ruscin, Terry (1999). Mission Memoirs. Sunbelt Publications, San Diego, CA. ISBN 0-932653-30-8. 
• Yenne, Bill (2004). The Missions of California. Thunder Bay Press, San Diego, CA. ISBN 1-59223-319-8. 

External links

• Official web site – Includes an online tour of the mission interior and some exterior
• Elevation & Site Layout sketches of the Mission proper
• Virtual Reality Panorama "Mission San Miguel"
• Early photographs, sketches, land surveys of Mission San Miguel Arcángel, via Calisphere, California Digital Library
• Early History of the California Coast, a National Park Service Discover Our Shared Heritage Travel Itinerary
• Library of Congress, Americas Memory
• Howser, Huell (December 8, 2000). "California Missions (104)". California Missions. Chapman University Huell Howser Archive. 

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