Churches

Welcome to Mission San Diego de Alcalá. California’s first mission was founded on July 16, 1769 by Saint Junípero Serra, a Franciscan priest. The Mission was relocated to the present site in 1774 in order to be closer to the American Indian (Kumeyaay) villages, a reliable source of water and good land for farming.

1774 Church

The mission relocated to the current location where the first church building was constructed. It was described as “a church of poles, roofed with tules and measured 17’ x 53’ feet * (Zephyrin Engelhardt). This church burned to the ground during a raid in 1775 during an American Indian raid.                                                                                                   

Head Missionary and Pastor : Father Luis Jayme, O.F.M.   

1776 Church

Two years later, a second, larger church was built with “adobe walls  and a thatched roof, it measured 80’ x 14’. and wasequipped with a door and a lock and two small windows”. *                                                                                                          Head Missionary and Pastor :  Father Fermin Lasuén, O.F. M

1780 Church

 The third church was made of adobe and completed in 1780. It measured 84’ x 15’; a sacristy was added. It was described  as “poles of alder, or rough boarding covered the rafters and over all were placed tules. “To insure the roof against fire, the tules were  covered by a mass of earth”*. It was damaged by an earthquake in 1803         

Head Missionary and Pastor : Father Fermin Lasuén O.F.M.

1813 Church

The construction of the fourth church began in 1808 and was dedicated on November 12, 1813. It had buttress walls and measured 150’ by 35’. Father Bernard Sánchez, O.F.M. and Father Fernando Martin, O.F.M. designed and supervised the building of the church.                                                                                                                                             

Head Missionary and Pastor: Father Fernando Martin, O.F.M.

 

1930 Church

The current church is the fifth and it replicated the 1813 church, measuring 150 ‘ x 30’ .  Bishop John Joseph Cantwell supervised the rebuilding. It was designated a parish by Bishop Charles Buddy in 1941. It is owned by the Diocese of San Diego and is an active Catholic parish.                                                                                 

Pastor: Charles Norman Raley                   

Father Zephyrin Engelhardt, O.F.M., The Missions and Missionaries of California, 1908 & 1912