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SANTA INES
MISSION
FOUNDED SEPTEMBER 17, 1804
SANTA YNEZ VALLEY
SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA
By FATHER ZEPHYRIN ENGELHARDT, O.F.M.
Historian of the California Missions
This material was written in 1922 for a leaflet to be distributed at the Mission. This was about the time F. Engelhardt completed the original manuscript of the volume, "MISSION SANTA INES," published in 1932 by the Santa Barbara Mission. The original was not used because the printer included the personal letter of transmittal.
MISSION SANTA INES
ST. AGNES, VIRGIN AND MARTYR
THE FOUNDING
Santa Ines Mission was established to win the natives of the Interior for Christianity.
Founded by Fr. Presidente Estevan Tapis on September 17, 1804, the feast of the Stigmata of St. Francis. Present were the commander of the garrison of Santa Barbara, Raymundo Carrillo, with a detachment of soldiers from there, numerous neophytes from Missions Purisima and Santa Barbara, more than 200 natives.
An enramada, or brushwood shelter, had been erected for Holy Mass. The Great Cross was erected and blessed on the spot where the church was to be erected. High Mass was celebrated by Fr. Superior of the Missions, Estevan Tapis, assisted by three Franciscan Fathers—Marcelino Cipres of San Luis Obispo, and Jose Calzada with Romualdo Gutierrez. The last two named were appointed the first missionaries.
Fr. Tapis also preached, and then through an interpreter explained to the numerous pagans the object of the coming of the missionaries. Te Deum and the Salve Regina closed the morning ceremonies. Pagan parents on the same occasion offered for Baptism twelve boys from 6 months to 6 years, and fifteen girls from 6 months to 7 years old. Fr. Tapis baptised these first fruits that day. A good beginning, which made the Fathers happy.
At the end of that year, 1804, the Baptismal Register showed 112 entries.
THE BUILDING
An adobe church was erected that same year, roofed with thatch. A row of buildings was put up of adobe with thatched roofs, 232 feet long, 19 feet wide, and 19 feet high—the first wing.
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It was later known as the College Ranch, which had 35,499 acres of land. Micheltorena also promised $500 cash every year from his own pocket. The Governor was driven out by the Pio Pico gang. Pico then sold the Mission and its lands and belongings (exclusive of the College Ranch) on June 15, 1846, to Jose Covarrubias and Joaquin Carrillo for $7000. The United States Government repudiated the sale as enacted without authority from the Mexican Government, and contrary to Spanish and Mexican laws on the subject, and on May 23, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the patent which restored the Mission to the Catholic Church.
Always a priest resided there.
Down to 1850, inclusive, there were 1631 baptisms, 497 marriages, and 1632 burials entered. The last Franciscans, Father Jose Joaquin Jimeno and Father Francisco de Jesus Sanchez, left May, 1850, in favor of the Picpus Fathers. Two fathers of the order, Revs. Bousseier and Migorel, came to Santa Ines from Valparasio, Chile, for a year. Rev. Eugene O'Connell, later Bishop of Marysville, took charge of the Mission, transferring it to Rev. Honoratus Lampfred, an Oblate Father. Then came a succession of secular priests who kept the Mission from being "abandoned" during their transient years.
RESTORATION
In 1904, Rev. Alexander Buckler came to the Mission, dislodged a family who had taken possession of the Mission building, and for twenty years continued a labor of love. During this time his niece, Miss Mamie Goulet, preserved the Mission's fine collection of vestments and several valuable Spanish paintings. In 1924, Bishop Cantwell of Los Angeles invited the Capuchin Franciscan Friars of the Irish Province to take charge and the Mission was solemnly reopened Nov. 20 of that year with Rev. Albert Bibby, O.M. Cap. as pastor. Three months later illness overtook Friar Albert and he was laid to rest in the little campo santo at the side of the old church. Other Capuchins have carried on the work to the present day.
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