Mission San Juan Bautista is a Spanish mission in San Juan Bautista,

San Benito County, California San Benito County (; ''San Benito'', Spanish for " St. Benedict"), officially the County of San Benito, is a county located in the Coast Range Mountains of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 64,209. The c ...

. Founded on June 24, 1797 by

Fermín Lasuén Fermín or Fermin may refer to: * Fermin Fermin (also Firmin, from Latin ''Firminus''; Spanish ''Fermín'') was a legendary holy man and martyr, traditionally venerated as the co-patron saint of Navarre, Spain. His death may be associated with e ...

of the

Franciscan , image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans , abbreviation = OFM , predecessor = , ...

order, the mission was the

fifteenth In music, a fifteenth or double octave, abbreviated ''15ma'', is the interval between one musical note and another with one-quarter the wavelength or quadruple the frequency. It has also been referred to as the bisdiapason. The fourth harmonic, ...

of the Spanish missions established in present-day California. Named for

Saint John the Baptist John the Baptist or , , or , ;Wetterau, Bruce. ''World history''. New York: Henry Holt and Company. 1994. syc, ܝܘܿܚܲܢܵܢ ܡܲܥܡܕ݂ܵܢܵܐ, Yoḥanān Maʿmḏānā; he, יוחנן המטביל, Yohanān HaMatbil; la, Ioannes Bapti ...

, the mission is the namesake of the city of San Juan Bautista. Barracks for the soldiers, a nunnery, the

Jose Castro House Jose is the English transliteration of the Hebrew and Aramaic name ''Yose'', which is etymologically linked to ''Yosef'' or Joseph. The name was popular during the Mishnaic and Talmudic periods. * Jose ben Abin * Jose ben Akabya *Jose the Galile ...

, and other buildings were constructed around a large grassy plaza in front of the church and can be seen today in their original form. The Ohlone, the original residents of the valley, were brought to live at the mission and baptized, followed by

Yokuts The Yokuts (previously known as MariposasPowell, 1891:90–91.) are an ethnic group of Native Americans native to central California. Before European contact, the Yokuts consisted of up to 60 tribes speaking several related languages. ''Yokuts ...

from the Central Valley. Mission San Juan Bautista has served mass daily since 1797, and today functions as a

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one o ...

church of the

Diocese of Monterey ''This article describes the present Diocese of Monterey in California. The entity previously known as the Diocese of Monterey from 1849 until 1859, and subsequently known as the Diocese of Monterey-Los Angeles from 1859 until 1922, is the presen ...

History

Aerial view of Mission San Juan Bautista

Following its creation in 1797, San Juan's population grew quickly. By 1803, there were 1,036 Native Americans living at the mission. Ranching and farming activity had moved apace, with 1,036 cattle, 4,600 sheep, 22 swine, 540 horses and 8 mules counted that year. At the same time, the harvest of wheat, barley and corn was estimated at 2,018 fanegas, each of about 220 pounds. Mission San Juan Bautista California - Entrance Bell

Mission San Juan Bautista California - Entrance Bell

Father

Pedro Estévan Tápis Pedro is a masculine given name. Pedro is the Spanish, Portuguese, and Galician name for ''Peter''. Its French equivalent is Pierre while its English and Germanic form is Peter. The counterpart patronymic surname of the name Pedro, meaning ...

(who had a special talent for music) joined Father

Felipe Arroyo de la Cuesta Felipe Arroyo de la Cuesta (1780–1842) was a Spanish Franciscan missionary and linguist notable for his work on native languages. Arroyo de la Cuesta was born in Cubo de Bureba, Burgos, Spain in 1780. He arrived in the Spanish territory of A ...

, at Mission San Juan Bautista in 1815 to teach singing to the Native Americans. He employed a system of notation developed in Spain that uses varied colors or textures for polyphonic music, usually (from bottom to top) solid black, solid red, black outline (sometimes solid yellow) and red outline (or black outline when yellow was used). His choir of Native American boys performed for many visitors, earning the San Juan Bautista Mission the nickname "the Mission of Music." Two of his handwritten choir books are preserved at the San Juan Bautista Museum. When Father Tapis died in 1825 he was buried on the mission grounds. The town of San Juan Bautista, which grew up around the mission, expanded rapidly during the California Gold Rush and continues to be a thriving community today. The mission is situated adjacent to the

San Andreas Fault The San Andreas Fault is a continental transform fault that extends roughly through California. It forms the tectonic boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate, and its motion is right-lateral strike-slip (horizonta ...

, and has suffered damage from numerous

earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, fr ...

s, such as those of 1800 and 1906. However, the mission was never entirely destroyed at once. It was restored initially in 1884, and then again in 1949 with funding from the Hearst Foundation. The three-bell ''campanario'', or "bell wall," located by the church entrance, was fully restored in 2010. An unpaved stretch of the original El Camino Real, just east of the mission, lies on a fault scarp.Robert Iacopi, ''Earthquake Country'' (Menlo Park:Lane Publishing, 2004, 1971). Although initially

secularized In sociology, secularization (or secularisation) is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious values and secular institutions. The ''secularization thesis'' expresses the ...

in 1835, the church was reconsecrated by the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

in 1859, and continues to serve as a parish of the

. The mission includes a cemetery, with the remains of over 4,000 Native American converts and Europeans buried there. The mission and its grounds were featured prominently in the 1958 Alfred Hitchcock film ''

Vertigo Vertigo is a condition where a person has the sensation of movement or of surrounding objects moving when they are not. Often it feels like a spinning or swaying movement. This may be associated with nausea, vomiting, sweating, or difficulties w ...

''. Associate producer Herbert Coleman's daughter Judy Lanini suggested the mission to Hitchcock as a filming location. A steeple, added sometime after the mission's original construction and secularization, had been demolished following a fire, so Hitchcock added a bell tower using scale models, matte paintings, and trick photography at the

Paramount Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to: Entertainment and music companies * Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS. The following busin ...

studio in Los Angeles. The tower does not resemble the original steeple. The tower's staircase was assembled inside a studio.

References

Sources

* * * * * * * * * *

External links

Mission San Juan Bautista
– official site
Early photographs, sketches, land surveys of Mission San Juan Bautista
via Calisphere, California Digital Library *
Listing and photographs of church
at the

Historic American Buildings Survey Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) is a division of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) responsible for administering the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), and Historic American Landscapes ...

Listing, drawings and photographs of mission
at the

Another view of the Mission Facade, circa 1980s
* * * {{Authority control San Juan Bautista San Juan Bautista, California 1797 in Alta California Museums in San Benito County, California Religious museums in California History museums in California Churches in San Benito County, California Cemeteries in California 1797 establishments in Alta California California Historical Landmarks Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in California Roman Catholic Diocese of Monterey in California History of San Benito County, California Spanish Colonial architecture in California National Register of Historic Places in San Benito County, California

History

See also

References

Sources

External links