Mission San Luis Rey de Francia
Presented by Oak Hill Elementary School
Escondido , CA
On July 16, 1769 on a warm Sunday, Father Junipero Serra held a church service. This was the beginning of a series of Missions which would span the California coastline..Father Lasuen founded Mission San Luis Rey on the feast of St. Anthony, June 13th in the year 1798. He named it after Louis IX, King of France. Father Lasuen chose to name it after this thirteenth century King of France who left his country for the Holy Land to fight the crusades. The site of the mission was forty miles north of San Deigo and was selected by Father Lasuen himself. It's in a sheltered valley a few miles east of Oceanside in San Deigo County. The permanent church was not completed until 1815. San Luis Rey was known as the "King of Missions" because it was the largest. San Luis Rey was the last mission founded by Fr. Lasuen.
Mission Luis Rey was built under the order of Father Peyri. Father Peyri was put in charge from the day of the mission's founding on June 1798 to January 1837. Between those years the mission became home to as many as 3,000 Indians. As so often is the case with the missions, makeshift structures housed the worship services in the earliest years. In 1811 construction began on the present building. Father Antonio Peyri designed the original compound-completed four years later and stayed on to manage the mission for more than thirty years. Peyri was among the most popular and versatile of the padres, and there are many stories of the veneration with which the Indians regarded him. Peyri is also remembered for the first pepper tree brought to California although it was planted a year after Peyri's departure. There is a tale which surrounds his departure in 1829. It is said that after the Mexican expulsion decree that year, Father Peyri left for San Diego in the middle of the night without saying goodbye to his beloved Indians so that they would not try to stop him.
Mexico won its independence from Spain in 1821, and the law of secularization was passed. The missionaries were given ten years to teach the Indians, and then the mission was to be turned into a pueblo, or small town. Secularization began and the church lands were sold and the population dispersed. Mission properties were put into the hands of the Luiseno Indians, and almost immediately bought from them for a very small amount of money by greedy colonialists. Cattle and sheep and land fell into the hands of various administrators and the Luiseno Indians were left with nothing that had been promised to them.
After California became a state, U.S. soldiers occupied the mission lands and used it as a base. The famous scout, Kit Carson, led General Kearny and his troops to the mission where they camped from 1849 to 1857. Their job was to protect the mission from disrepair and to watch over its inhabitants.
In 1865 Abraham Lincoln signed a document returning the mission and its land to the Catholic Church. He signed the deed less than a month before his assassination. In 1892, Father Joseph Jeremias O'Keefe was sent to San Luis Rey to establish a missionary college for Mexican Franciscans. In 1893 the building was begun, and the restoration of the mission started at last. The church was restored first from 1892 to about 1900, and this was followed in 1903 by the rebuilding of the living quarters on the foundation of the old mission. Work continued until 1912. In 1949 a Franciscan college was built, but now it is a Retreat Center. In 1984 more restoration took place which helped preserve the outside of the church building.
The church of San Luis Rey is architecturally one of the most graceful of mission structures. Restoration was carefully adjusted to the plans and designs of the mission.
The heritage which the Franciscans brought to California in 1769 was rich with many accomplishments of Spain. The arts and social customs were transplanted to the mission complex. As evidence of this, the sala general, or reception room, depicts a representation of Europe in the New World. The life which the Friars led was dedicated to God, disciplined by poverty and filled with the variety of tasks necessary to bring Christianity to a new frontier. Padres were usually assigned in groups of two to each mission. In theory, they divided responsibities. For example; one watched over temporal things and the other, spiritual affairs. The industries were established in order to provide self-suffciency, a means of trade, and preparation for the Indian secularization. Men worked in areas such as tanning, blacksmithing, making tallow, producing wine, tending stock and the care of the fields and crops (such as; grapes, oranges, olives, wheat, oats, etc.) The women would cook, sew, spin and weave. The kitchen, in the mission today, contains pots, pans, stoneware, utensils and glassware typical of the mission period. The rack hanging from the ceiling was used to protect the food from rodents. (such as; mice, rats etc. ) Since there was a language barrier, the Franciscans used visual symbols whose aim was to explain and show the glory of God. Various santos, books, vestments and liturgical vessels are on exhibit in the mission museum.
Peyri court is a cloistered area used by Padres for reflection and meditation. Old fountains and a statue of St. Francis can be found there.
The Sacred Garden is a smaller portion of the quadrangle and contains two models of the mission, a bell typical of the mission period, plants and a fountain. There are beautiful arches consructed of tile brick covered with plaster which frame a collade around the mission. Rooms open up to this walkway. The Friary is above the gardens. The Mission church is a National Landmark. It is also used for regular services. Cruciform in shape, this is the only one of twenty-one missions that has a wooden dome. The adobe walls, up to six feet thick, are the original walls constructed in 1811. The painted decorations are original in their designs and have been restored over the years. The pulpit is constructed of wood and is original. The works of art are from the many different periods, and they reflect the typical furnishings of the Spanish mission. The Madonna Chapel originally was a mortuary chapel. Two entrances are found, one on each side of the altar. The entrance on the left was used by the padre when the body lying in state blocked his way to the altar. The entrance on the right leads to a balcony above the altar. Here loved ones could view from above the deceased. The cemetery contains early grave markers, as well as modern ones, since it is being used to this day for local inhabitants of the area. A large wooden cross marks a memorial dedicated to the memory of 3,000 Luiseno Indians buried around the mission. The Friars crypt is located in the southwest corner of the cemetery.
San Luis Rey was the most extensive of the Spanish missions in the New World. The mission's building covers nearly six acres and is arranged around a quadrangle 500 square feet. In front of the mission is an ornate sunken garden and lavanderia (laundry- area), now being restored. Indian women went to the lavanderia to wash clothes with crude soap, and paddle them clean on the stones. Fresh springs provided water on either side of the lavandaria. A charcoal filter served to clean the water. Nearby is a lime kilm which was used to produce tiles and materials used in plaster and in tanning hides.Mission San Luis Rey now serves as a parish church and center for religious retreats and conferences.
Back to Mission San Luis Rey Homepage