St. Junípero Serra’s Mission San Gabriel Reopens With New Story to Tell
Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, the fourth of California’s 21 Franciscan missions, has reopened to the public after an arson fire destroyed the roof and much of the interior of its historic church three years ago.
Along with the reopening of the restored church, the mission has also opened a new exhibit, “Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, 1771-1900: Natives, Missionaries, and the Birth of Catholicism in Los Angeles,” to tell the mission’s story to visitors.
The reopening kicked off with a blessing by Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez with representatives of the Gabrieleno/Tongva San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians, for whose ancestors St. Junípero Serra and his fellow Franciscan padres established the mission 252 years ago to introduce them to the Catholic faith and the Spanish way of life, including agriculture, raising livestock and the construction of permanent living facilities (often made of adobe in 18th-century Southern California).
Mission San Gabriel was founded by Father Serra in 1771 and relocated to its present site in 1775. Its historic church was made of stone, brick and mortar between 1791 and 1805, making it one of the state’s oldest structures. Many of its interior items, including its altar and statues, were built in Mexico and Spain. Some artifacts, including 17th-century vestments, predate Mission San Gabriel.
California was a Spanish possession at the time of the mission’s founding; then it fell under Mexican rule, after Mexico won its independence from Spain in 1821. In the decades that followed, the missions were “secularized,” or sold off to private parties, then restored to the Church by the American government after California became a U.S. state in 1850.
Some missions fell into disrepair and largely eroded in the 1800s, while others, including Mission San Gabriel, are well-preserved.
