DAY TRIPPING: Mission San Juan Capistrano

Mission San Juan Capistrano, became the seventh of twenty-one missions to be founded in Alta California. Like the previous six missions, San Juan Capistrano was established to expand the territorial boundaries of Spain, and to spread Christianity to the Native Peoples of California.

Unlike the British colonies on the East Coast of North America, who brought people from their homeland to form colonies, the Spanish believed they could transform the Native Peoples into good Spanish citizens.

The idea was to make colonial outposts called missions, led by Franciscan padres and Spanish soldiers. The missions would be a center of learning and training of Native Peoples. The Spanish government and Catholic Church wanted to convert the people to Christianity, train them in Spanish or European lifestyle, so that the Native Peoples would eventually live in towns and pay taxes, like good Spanish citizens.In reality, the Spanish padres and soldiers had a huge task ahead of them. Moving into the frontier, making a community from scratch, and trying to communicate and convert the Native Americans was not an easy task.

Native Americans first came to the Mission because they were curious about the Spanish forms of technology, new animals, new food, and ideas. As the Native Peoples interacted with the Spanish they soon realized the padres wanted them to convert to Christianity and join the Mission.

Whether they fully understood it or not, if the Native man or woman decided to be baptized, and join the Mission community, it became a symbol, or contract that showed their commitment and forever bonded them to the mission. Not only did the baptized individual receive a new Christian name, they also agreed to new rules and lifestyle changes.

One condition of joining the Mission was that the converts could no longer leave the grounds without permission. The padres taught the Native American converts the Spanish language, a new set of craft skills, the religion Christianity, and European and Christian social customs.

After 1812, the Mission began to decline. Many factors were involved in the Missions decline including the earthquake in December of 1812 which caused the Great Stone Church to collapse, the decline in birth rate, the increasing mortality rate of the population due to disease, the inability of Spanish government to adequately protect and supply the Missions with needed goods.

By 1821, Mexico won its independence from Spain, which made Alta California a territory of Mexico. Under new governmental direction, the Mission faced continued decline. By 1834, the Mexican government decided to end the mission system entirely. Soon after the decree of secularization, or the ending of the missions, the land holdings of Mission San Juan Capistrano were divided and sold to 20 prominent California families. By 1845, Governor Pio Pico even sold the Mission itself. The Mission was sold at auction to John Forster, Governor Pio Pico’s brother-in-law for $710, when it was valued to be worth more than $54,000. For the next 20 years the Mission was a private ranch property of the Forster family.

The Mission continues efforts in preservation, with the help of donations each year. Although the Mission is owned by the Catholic Church, it is run by a non-profit organization. This means, Mission San Juan Capistrano does not receive any funding from the Catholic Church, State, or Federal Government for operation or preservation. It depends entirely on the generous contributions of visitors and benefactors. With the help of the public, the Mission can continue to be a an inspirational historic, cultural, and religious site.

 Legend of the Swallows

The miracle of the “Swallows” of Capistrano takes place each year at Mission San Juan Capistrano, on March 19th, St. Joseph’s Day.

As the faithful little birds wing their way back to the most famous mission in California, the village of San Juan Capistrano takes on a fiesta air, and visitors from all parts of the world and all walks of life gather in great numbers to witness the “miracle” of the return of the swallows.

At dawn on St. Joseph’s Day, the little birds arrive and begin rebuilding their mud nests, which are clinging to the ruins of the Great Stone Church of San Juan Capistrano. The arches of the two-story, vaulted Great Stone Church were left bare and exposed after the roof collapsed during the earthquake of 1812.

The Great Stone Church, said to be the largest and most ornate in any of the missions, now has a more humble destiny — that of housing the birds that St. Francis loved so well.After the summer spent within the sheltered walls of the Old Mission in San Juan Capistrano, the swallows take flight again, and on the Day of San Juan, October 23rd, they leave after circling the Mission bidding farewell to the “Jewel of the Missions.”