What is the History of Mission San Fernando Rey de Espana?

What is the History of Mission San Fernando Rey de Espana?

The Founding of Missions San Fernando Rey de Espana

Father Fermin Lasuen founded the Mission San Fernando Rey de Espana on September 8th, 1797. It was the 17th of California’s 21 missions, and it still is considered the largest adobe structure in California.

How Did Mission San Fernando Rey de Espana Get Its Name?

Father Lasuen named the mission for St. Ferdinand III, King of Spain. The original structure location was founded in order to provide a stopping ground between San Buenaventura and San Gabriel. Because of the desirable location of the San Fernando Valley, the mission actually sits closer to San Gabriel.

Mission San Fernando Postcard, circa 1900; Detroit Publishing Co. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

What is the History of Mission San Fernando Rey de Espana?

The mission church building at Mission San Fernando Rey de Espana itself is not large. Instead, Father Lasuen invested the mission’s energies into the building of a Convento (a housing structure for missionaries). The Convento, usually attached to the church, in this case was set away from the chapel. The reason was simple: the convento was much too large to connect. It stands two stories high, 243 feet long, and 50 feet wide.

How Did Mission San Fernando Rey de Espana Support Itself?

This Convento was built to be so large because the Mission San Fernando was a main stopping ground for traveling missionaries. It served as a rest stop for tired travelers, a hotel, and an inn. With so many visitors, it was imperative for the mission to have a strong economy. Like most California missions, the Mission San Fernando Rey de Espana supported itself and the Native inhabitants of the area by growing crops of wheat and corn. They also raised herds of horses and cattle, and cultivated grapes in a vineyard. San Fernands largest income came from raising cattle, and especially leather and tallow.

Native Americans and Mission San Fernando Rey de Espana

The mission’s economic success would not have been possible without the support of the Indian community. In 1804, more than 1,000 neophytes (Christianized Indians) lived and worked at the mission. They worked leather, dipped candles, worked in the fields, and performed many other duties essential to the survival of the mission.

Today, more than 2,000 people are buried at the Mission San Fernando Rey de Espana. Most of these are Indians from the mission and surrounding areas. The work of these individuals is memorialized in the creation of the adobe Convento building, which is the only original building left at the Mission San Fernando Rey de Espana complex, and the largest original adobe building in California.