San Antonio de Pala Asistencia

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**San Antonio de Pala Asistencia**
Location	San Diego County
The modern capilla (chapel) at "Pala Mission."
Name as Founded	Asistencia de la Misión San Luis, Rey de Francia ^[1]
English Translation	Sub-Mission to the Mission San Luis Rey de Francia
Patron	Saint Anthony of Lisbon, Portugal and Padova, Italy ^[1]
Founding Date	June 13, 1816 ^[2]
Founding Priest(s)	Father Antonio Peyrí ^[1]
Military District	First
Native Tribe(s) Spanish Name(s)	Payomkowishum Luiseño
Native Place Name(s)	Pale ^[3]
Governing Body	Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego
Current Use	Parish Church / Museum
Coordinates	33°21′40″N, 117°04′45″W
California Historical Landmark	#243
Web Site	http://www.missionsanantonio.org/

The San Antonio de Pala Asistencia was founded on June 13, 1816 in what is today the Pala Indian Reservation located in San Diego County (some twenty miles inland) as an asistencia ("sub-mission") to Mission San Luis Rey de Francia; its official title is now Mission San Antonio de Pala.^[2]^[4] Pala (a derivation of the native term Pale, meaning water) was essentially a small rancho surrounded by large fields and herds. The Pala site had been noted by Father Juan Mariner and Captain Juan Pablo Grijalva on an exploratory trip in 1795, when they went up the San Diego River, and then through Sycamore Canyon to the Santa Maria Valley (or Pamó Valley) and into what they named El Valle de San José, now known as Warner Springs. Once Mission San Luis Rey began to prosper, its existence attracted the attention of large number of mountain Indians, dubbed the Luiseños by the Spanish.

1 Precontact
2 History
3 Mission bells
4 Notes
5 References
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] Precontact

The current prevailing theory postulates that Paleo-Indians entered the Americas from Asia via a land bridge called "Beringia" that connected eastern Siberia with present-day Alaska (when sea levels were significantly lower, due to widespread glaciation) between about 15,000 to 35,000 years ago. The remains of Arlington Springs Man on Santa Rosa Island are among the traces of a very early habitation in California, dated to the last ice age (Wisconsin glaciation) about 13,000 years ago. The first humans are therefore thought to have made their homes among the southern valleys of California's coastal mountain ranges some 10,000 to 12,000 years ago; the earliest of these people are known only from archaeological evidence.^[5] The cultural impacts resulting from climactic changes and other natural events during this broad expanse of time were negligible; conversely, European contact was a momentous event, which profoundly affected California's native peoples.^[6]

[edit] History

The site for the Pala Mission was selected because it served as a natural gathering place for the native tribesman. Father Peyrí oversaw the addition of a chapel and housing to the granary complex that was constructed at the spot in 1810.^[4] The chapel (whose interior wall surfaces featured paintings by native artists, and which today is the only mission facility still serving an Indian tribe) originally measured 144 by 27 feet. Workers went into the Palomar Mountains and cut down cedar trees for use as roof beams.^[7] Pala is unique among all of the Franciscan missions in that it boasts the only completely freestanding campanile, or "bell tower," in all of Alta California. By 1820, some 1,300 baptisms had been performed at the outpost.^[8] The Mexican Congress passed An Act for the Secularization of the Missions of California on August 17, 1833 (the Act was ratified in 1834).^[9] Father Buenaventura Fortuna surrendered Mission San Luis Rey and all its holdings, including Las Flores Estancia and the Pala Asistencia, to government comisianados (commissioners) Pío Pico and Pablo de la Portillà on August 22, 1835; the assessed value of "Rancho de Pala" was $15,363.25.^[10] Fearful of the impending "conquest" of California by the United States, Pico sold off all of the holdings (including Pala) to Antonio J. Cot and José A. Pico on May 18, 1846 for $2,000 in silver and $437.50 in wheat (the sale was later declared invalid by the U.S. Government).^[8] Through the years, priests from San Luis Rey continued to visit Pala and conduct baptisms, marriages, and worship services.

Pala Asistencia, with its original bell tower, circa 1875. The structure is loosely styled after a similar one at the Mission of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe located in Juárez, Mexico.^[11]

On Christmas Day, 1899 the San Jacinto Earthquake shook the Pala Valley, causing the rook over the church sanctuary to collapse.^[12] In 1902, a group calling itself the "Landmarks Club of Southern California" (under the direction of acclaimed American journalist, historian, and photographer Charles Fletcher Lummis) purchased Pala Mission. The following year, the Club returned ownership to the Catholic Church and "...saved the Chapel and a few rooms from complete ruin with a timely work of partial restoration...".^[13] Pala is alone among the California missions in that it that has ministered without interruption to the needs of the Indians for whom it was originally built since its inception.^[12] It is also the only sub-mission still intact. The traditional Corpus Christi Fiesta has been celebrated every year since its founding. Though it lacked a resident priest, Pala nonetheless served as the "mother" mission to chapels in Cahuilla, La Jolla, Pauma, Pichanga, Rincon, Santa Rosa, and Temecula.^[14] On August 9, 1942 MGM motion picture actress Ruth Hussey was wed at Pala Mission. In 1948 the Verona Fathers (Sons of the Sacred Heart) succeeded the Franciscans in the care of the Mission.^[15] Six years later, the fathers undertook a complete restoration of the Mission. In May, 1991 administration of the Mission reverted to the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego, and since June of 1996 the Barnabite Fathers have held charge over the Mission's affairs.

[edit] Mission bells

Pala's replica bell tower.

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. Pala's bells are the same ones that have been calling the Indians to prayer since 1916. American academician, architect, and author Rexford Newcomb published design studies of the original bell tower in his 1916 work The Franciscan Mission Architecture of Alta California.^[16] Ironically, the structure was completely destroyed by torrential rains later that same year; a precise replica was erected immediately thereafter and today stands in its place. The structure measures some 35 feet above the base (which itself is 15 feet off the ground) and supports two bells, each hanging from a rawhide tether.

The large bell, set in the lower embrasure, bears inscriptions in Latin and Spanish as follows (translated into English):

"Jesus, Redemptor of Mankind [IHR] Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, Have Mercy on us. Year of our Lord 1816" (upper band);

"Cervantes made us." (middle band); and

"[In honor of] Our Seraphic Father, Francis of Assissi, San Luis King, Saint Clara, Saint Eulalia, Our Light" (lower band).

The smaller bell, mounted in the upper opening, reads (in Latin):

"Jesus + Maria" (upper band); and

"Santus Deis, Santus Fortus, Santus Immortalis" and "Micerere nobis" (lower band).^[17]

Folk tales about the mission all include mention of a prickly pear cactus (the symbol of Christian victory) that grew up at the foot of the cross.^[18]

[edit] Notes

Pala Mission's "Centre Garden."

^ ^a ^b ^c Ruscin, p. 153
^ ^a ^b Leffingwell, p. 32
^ Ruscin, p. 195
^ ^a ^b Carillo. p. 7
^ Paddison, p. 333: The first undisputable archaeological evidence of human presence in California dates back to circa 8,000 BCE.
^ Jones and Klar 2005, p. 53: "Understanding how and when humans first settled California is intimately linked to the initial colonization of the Americas."
^ Carillo, p. 8
^ ^a ^b Leffingwell, p. 33
^ Yenne, p. 19
^ Carillo, p. 9
^ Carillo, p. 16
^ ^a ^b Carillo, p. 11
^ Carillo, p. 33
^ Carillo, p. 39
^ Carillo, p. 12
^ Newcomb, pp. 58-59; 61
^ Carillo, pp. 17-18
^ Carillo, p. 18

[edit] References

Carillo, Fr. J.M. (1959). The Story of Mission San Antonio de Pala. North County Printers, Oceanside, CA.
Jones, Terry L. and Kathryn A. Klar (eds.) (2007). California Prehistory: Colonization, Culture, and Complexity. Altimira Press, Landham, MD. ISBN 0-759-10872-2.
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.
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.