Mission Santa Clara de Asís

Mission Santa Clara
Mission Santa Clara de Asís, shown in 2008
Location in Santa Clara County
LocationPalm Drive and Alviso Street intersection, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, California
Coordinates37°20′57″N 121°56′29″W / 37.3493°N 121.9415°W / 37.3493; -121.9415
Name as foundedLa Misión Santa Clara de Asís[1]
English translationThe Mission of Saint Clare of Assisi
Founding dateJanuary 12, 1777[2]
Founding priest(s)Father Presidente Junípero Serra[3][a]
Founding OrderEighth[4]
Military districtFourth[5]
Native tribe(s)
Spanish name(s)		Bay Miwok, Tamyen, Yokuts
Costeño
Native place name(s)Socoisuka[6]
Baptisms8,536[b][7]
Marriages2,498[b][7]
Burials6,809[b][7]
Neophyte population1,125[7]
Secularized1836[4]
Governing bodySanta Clara University; Roman Catholic Diocese of San Jose
Current useUniversity chapel; Parish church
Reference no.#338
Website
www.scu.edu/missionchurch/

Mission Santa Clara de Asís (Spanish: Misión Santa Clara de Asís) is a Spanish mission in the city of Santa Clara, California. The mission, which was the eighth in California, was founded on January 12, 1777, by the Franciscans. Named for Saint Clare of Assisi, who founded the order of the Poor Clares and was an early companion of St. Francis of Assisi, this was the first California mission to be named in honor of a woman.[8]

It is the namesake of both the city and county of Santa Clara, as well as of Santa Clara University, which was built around the mission. This is the only mission located on the grounds of a university campus. Although ruined and rebuilt six times, the settlement was never abandoned,[9] and today it functions as the university chapel for Santa Clara University.

History

The outpost was originally established as La Misión Santa Clara de Thamien (or Mission Santa Clara de Thamien, a reference to the Tamien people) at the Native American village of So-co-is-u-ka (meaning "Laurelwood", located on the Guadalupe River) on January 12, 1777. There the Franciscan brothers erected a cross and shelter for worship to bring Christianity to the Ohlone people. When Spanish entered into Santa Clara it was Fray Tomás de la Pena who enlisted Junipero Serra to spread christianity to the Ohlone people. This played a very big role for the future of Santa Clara changing their tradition once Junipero Serra arrived in Santa Clara. The Ohlone people started attending masses and began receiving supplies from the missions.Floods, fires, and earthquakes damaged many of the early structures and forced relocation to higher ground. The second site is known as Mission Santa Clara de Asís. A subsequent site of the mission dating from 1784 to 1819 is located several hundred yards west of the De La Cruz overpass of the Caltrain track; moreover, several Native American burial sites have been discovered near this subsequent site.[10] The current site, home to the first college in Alta California, dates back to 1825.[3]

The Six Churches of Santa Clara de Asís[11]
Construction Number Dates of Use Date of Abandonment Cause Materials Cemetery
1 1777–1779 1779 flooding wood yes
2 1779–1784 1784 abandoned wood yes
3 1784–1818 1818–1825 earthquake, water adobe yes
4 1818–1825 1867 demolition adobe no
5 1825–1926 1926 fire adobe yes (in use from 1825–1851)
6
(same site as 5)		 1928–present masonry no

The six churches were built from 1777- present. Each one has been created and destroyed by different causes. Each church has been built with different materials and with different foundations. All showing how each church was unique.[11] The churches were destroyed many times throughout the time of the missions. In total they reconstructed it 6 times each time using different materials.This was to show how each church was unique to the people. And due to how the Ohlone people were forced to keep moving location with new environments. Always attending their masses led by father Junipero Serra.

The first mission was an adobe structure that was near the Guadalupe River near the north end of San Jose International airport. It was later moved to its current location in Santa Clara University. An Indian chief who lived near the river said that the ruins of the adobe was the first Santa Clara Mission.[12]

The second mission was used as a staging point for the construction of the third mission also called the Murguia Mission. The cornerstone for this adobe was built on November 19, 1781. In 1812 and 1818 there were earthquakes at the mission which caused the mission to be shaken and damaged. Before being torn down in 1777, the first complex was built en palisada. A palisada is a wooden post construction with earthen roofs covered with tule reed thatching. Once moved, Junípero Serra dedicated the church on May 16, 1784.She said it was the best and largest of all the missions.[11]

The third mission and quadrangle complex was abandoned. A new building was used and the tejas from the third site were removed and reused. Since the mission did not have tiles the adobe walls began to melt. By the end of the 19th century the complex was gone. Years later when the third mission was gone the adjacent adobe housing area was demolished and replaced with the new Euromerican immigrants that came to Santa Clara during the gold rush.[11]

In the fourth mission they were building the new quadrangle, and adobe building was erected from the east of the construction site. In 1818 and 1819 Informes describes the building and finishing of the church with ladrillos and tejas.[11]

The fifth mission church was constructed in 1822 and 1825 in the same place that the six mission stands today. When the fifth mission got destroyed by fire in October 1926. After the mission got destroyed the other adobe buildings that compromised the complex were demolished to make classrooms and dormitories for Santa Clara University.[11]

Initially, there was tension between the people of the mission and those in the nearby Pueblo de San Josè over disputed ownership rights of land and water. The tension was relieved when a road, the Alameda, was built by two hundred Native Americans to link the communities together.[13] On Sundays, people from San Jose would come to the mission for services, until the building of St. Joseph's Church in 1803. In that year, the mission of Santa Clara reported a Native American population of 1,271. In the same tabular report, its resident priest estimated that 10,000 cattle, 9,500 sheep, 730 horses, 35 mules, and 55 swine were on mission lands, while about 3,000 fanegas of grain (some 220 pounds (100 kg) each of wheat, barley or corn) had been harvested.[11] The Ohlone people had small settlements and lived on hunting and gathering. When spanish came to the indians it forced them to begin civilization. They forced the people of the land to have to change their ways from before to rely on the Spanish. for their supplies and pressured them to follow traditions of the spanish. [14]

After the Mexican secularization act of 1833 most of the mission's land and livestock was sold off by Mexico. The mission land was subdivided, and the land sold to whoever could afford it which often meant it was sold to government officials and with half of the mission land going to Native Americans.[15] Most of the buildings continued to be used as a parish church, unlike the other missions in California.[16] By 1836, the mission Native Americans were "freed" by the Mexican government.[15] And Ohlone people still had family and friends in San Pedro y San Pablo. With the possibility of after being freed by the Mexicans fled back to this was also supported with the idea that. San Pablo carried a ancestral line even after the missions in San Pablo[17]. The local land near the mission had drastically changed in the 60 years of mission operation under the Spanish and many of the native plants needed for Native American survival were gone. Also this was Detrimental since the Native Americans relied on plants not only as a food supplement but also for medicine. There were 265 species of medicinal plants used by the people. After the missions period there was   these were all altered after the missions[18]. Requiring a change from the former lifestyle for many Native Americans.[15] Many Native Americans fled to the Central Valley of California, others stayed locally and worked for the new ranchos.[15] There were a few small and short-lived Native American villages established around the Bay Area by 1839; many of these villages could not support themselves, so they began raiding the nearby ranchos. Juan Prado Mesa was the figure that was able to stop the raids. Once over he was rewarded with 4000 acres of land within the area of los altos. This would soon be known as the Ranch San Antonio.[15] Minor parts of land returned back to the Ohlone people. While it was small fractures of the land. One main place was Ulistac which was a land important to the Ohlone men. After the Secularization act of 1833 it reverted back to the farming land. This was seen as one of the rare instances where after the missions the Ohlone people still had control of their homes.[16]

In 1850, California became a state. With that change, priests of the Jesuit order took over the Mission Santa Clara de Asís in 1851 from the Franciscans. Father John Nobili, S.J., was put in charge of the mission. He began a college on the mission site in 1851, which grew into Santa Clara University;[19] it is the only mission to become part of a university, and it is also the oldest university in California. Throughout the history of the mission, the bells have rung faithfully every evening, a promise made to King Charles III of Spain when he sent the original bells to the mission in 1777. He asked that the bells be rung each evening at 8:30 in memory of those who had died, although the actual bells have since been replaced by a recording.[20] The bell tower has three bells; one was donated by King Carlos IV but subsequently destroyed in a fire. King Alphonso XIII donated a replacement bell, which is on display in the de Saisset Museum (in the mission).

In 1861, a new wooden façade with two bell towers was attached over the old adobe front of the building. The interior was widened in 1885 to increase the seating capacity by removing the original adobe nave walls.[16][21] A fire in 1925 destroyed the structure, including the surrounding wall. The church's parochial functions were transferred to the Saint Clare Parish west of the campus. A rebuilt and restored Mission Santa Clara was consecrated in 1929, when it assumed its primary modern function as chapel and centerpiece of the university campus. It is open to visitors daily; the mission museum is located in the university's De Saisset Museum. The original mission cemetery, still in use, is located on nearby Lincoln Street.[22][23]

Santa Clara Mission Cemetery

Santa Clara Mission Cemetery, also known as Santa Clara Catholic Cemetery, was founded in 1777, alongside the mission by the same Franciscans.[24] In 1851, when Santa Clara College was founded, the cemetery near the mission was running out of space, so they moved the location a few minutes walk from the mission near the adobe home of Fernando Berryessa, son of Maria Zacharias Bernal y Berryessa.[25]

In the 1930s, this cemetery completed its first indoor mausoleum.[14] In part due to the popularity of mausoleum burial, in 2015, they began building the St. Ignatius Outdoor Mausoleum Complex.[14]

The Santa Clara de Asis mission was home to many indigenous groups like the Ohlone/Costanoan, Yokuts, and Miwok ancestry. All these indigenous groups have been buried at the mission. These cemeteries have shown many signs of native mortuary practices. There is data from the burial records from 1777 where it tells us about the burials and the causes of death. Many of the objects that were left with the deceased can be put in a group of mortuary practices.[26]

The Native groups had their own formal ceremonies and have strong beliefs. When the indigenous people were putting the people in their graves, they would put them in a different position then what we usually do today. Many of the deceased were laid in a flexed position but there were others who were laid to rest in an extended position, or they had the people's remains redeposited. They used many things in burial ceremonies like shell beads, glass beads, boot-spur parts, and bone awl. Archaeologist found four humans remain at the site.[11]

Glass Beads from the 1825-1851[11]
Bead Type Color/Munsell Size Range Count
Seed White/N9 1.0 to 4.5mm dia.,0.5 to 3.5mm length 494
Drawn Ivory/5Y 81 1.5 to 5mm dia., 1.0 to 4mm length 1118
Drawn and Faceted Royal Blue 5B 3/2 5.0 to 6mm dia, 5mm length 3
Drawn and Barrel Shaped Royal Blue 5B 3/2 3.0 to 5.5mm dia., 5.0 to 6mm length 21
Cornaline d'Alepo type DIVa6 Red and Green 2.0 to 5mm dia., 2.0 to 4mm length 214
Cornaline d'Alepo Red and White 3.0mm dia., 2.0mm length 1
Wire Wound Light Blue 5B 5/1 9.0 to 11mm dia., 8.0 to 9mm length 7

In the graveyard there are a lot of burials and one of the things that people see the most are glass beads. Along with human remains there are cultural materials like shell beads, glass beads, and redwood board fragments. In California missions, the last features of the burials were the inclusion of personal items of adornment, shells and glass beads. In the third mission cemetery there are 6,000 shells and 484 glass beads were found in burials. In the fifth mission's cemetery there are over 2,000 beads. Glass beads were manufactured by Europeans. The beads were found among a lot of burials and in the screening of back dirt. Glass beads totaled 2347 and had both wire wound and drawn beads. Glass beads found in Santa Clara were manufactured in Venice or Bohemia.[11]

Notable burials

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Though Serra is generally credited with the Mission's founding, it was Father Tomás de la Peña who actually celebrated the first mass at the site.[1]
  2. ^ a b c Mission Santa Clara witnessed the greatest number of baptisms, marriages, and burials of any settlement in the Alta California chain.[7]

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b Leffingwell 2005, p. 137.
  2. ^ Yenne 2004, p. 80.
  3. ^ a b Ruscin 1999, p. 196.
  4. ^ a b Krell 1979, p. 167.
  5. ^ Forbes 1839, p. 202.
  6. ^ Ruscin 1999, p. 195.
  7. ^ a b c d e Krell 1979, p. 315.
  8. ^ "Santa Clara de Asís". California Missions Foundation. Retrieved January 22, 2020.
  9. ^ Ruscin 1999, p. 79.
  10. ^ Giglio 1988, p. 3.11-1.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Skowronek, Russel K.; Wizorek, Julie C. (Fall 1996). "Archaeology at Santa Clara de Asís: The Slow Rediscovery of a Moveable Mission". Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly. 33 (3): 55. Retrieved May 10, 2024.
  12. ^ K. Skowronek, C. Wizorek, Russell, Julie (Summer 1997). "Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly". Archaeology at Santa Clara de Asís: The Slow Rediscovery of a Moveable Mission. 33.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  13. ^ Shannon E. Clark, The Alameda: The Beautiful Way, San Jose: Alameda Business Association, 2006, ISBN 978-1-4243-1868-1, p. 2.
  14. ^ a b c "Santa Clara Mission Cemetery Prepares for its Next Project | The Valley Catholic News". The Valley Catholic. November 12, 2015. Retrieved January 22, 2020.
  15. ^ a b c d e Stanley, Tim (February 2, 2012). "Indian Warrior Yozcolo Set Roots in Los Gatos". Los Gatos, CA Patch. Retrieved November 10, 2019.
  16. ^ a b c Pugh, Teresa (2006). "History of Mission Santa Clara de Asis". Santa Clara University. Archived from the original on June 27, 2015. Retrieved June 8, 2013.
  17. ^ Eerkens, Jelmer W.; Panich, Lee M.; Canzonieri, Christopher; Zimmer, Christopher, eds. (August 12, 2025). Native Persistence at a California Mission Outpost: The Bioarchaeology and History of the Asistencia de San Pedro y San Pablo. University of Florida Press. doi:10.5744/9781683405474. ISBN 978-1-68340-547-4.
  18. ^ Bartelink, Eric J. (April 22, 2026). "Native Persistence at a California Mission Outpost: The Bioarchaeology and History of the Asistencia de San Pedro y San Pablo". Historical Archaeology. doi:10.1007/s41636-026-00625-3. ISSN 0440-9213.
  19. ^ Fodor's (December 21, 2010). Fodor's Northern California 2011: With Napa, Sonoma, Yosemite, San Francisco & Lake Tahoe. Random House Digital, Inc. p. 48. ISBN 978-1-4000-0503-1. Retrieved December 25, 2011.
  20. ^ "Mission Church Bell Tower". Mission Santa Clara Unearthed. Santa Clara University. Retrieved January 9, 2019.
  21. ^ Kimbro, Edna; Costello, Julia G.; Ball, Tevvy (October 20, 2009). The California Missions: History, Art and Preservation. Getty Conservation Institute. ISBN 978-0-89236-983-6.
  22. ^ Lichtenstein, Bea (2005). "Images of America Series". Cemeteries of Santa Clara. Mount Pleasant, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 9780738530130.
  23. ^ Santa Clara Mission Cemetery. Santa Clara University
  24. ^ "Herhold: Santa Clara's graveyard teaches us about the past". The Mercury News. March 5, 2013. Retrieved January 22, 2020.
  25. ^ "Home is Where the City Begins". The Silicon Valley Voice. September 11, 2013. Retrieved January 22, 2020.
  26. ^ Panich, Lee M. (December 2015). ""Sometimes They Bury the Deceased's Clothes and Trinkets": Indigenous Mortuary Practices at Mission Santa Clara de Asís". Historical Archaeology. 49 (4): 110–129. doi:10.1007/bf03376983. ISSN 0440-9213.
  27. ^ "Peter Hardeman Burnett". National Governors Association. January 3, 2011. Retrieved January 22, 2020.
  28. ^ "Daniel Murphy – Pioneer of the West". Morgan Hill Times. August 29, 2006. Retrieved November 12, 2025.
  29. ^ "Highlights of the Funeral". Cardinal Kung Foundation. 2000. Retrieved January 22, 2020.
  30. ^ "Remembering Archbishop Tang Yee-Ming, SJ". The Cardinal Kung Foundation. 1995. Archived from the original on August 26, 2005. Retrieved January 22, 2020.
  31. ^ "Tiburcio Vasquez – California Desperado". Legends of America. Retrieved January 22, 2020.

Sources

  • Forbes, Alexander (1839). California: A History of Upper and Lower California. Cornhill, London: Smith, Elder and Co.
  • Giglio, Gary, C. (September 1988). "Environmental Impact Report for the General Plan Amendment, Rezoning and Development of a Portion of FMC Corporation's Coleman Avenue Facility, Earth Metrics Inc" (Press release). City of Santa Clara, California.{{cite press release}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  • Krell, Dorothy (1979). The California Missions: A Pictorial History. Menlo Park, CA: Lane Publishing Co.
  • Leffingwell, Randy (2005). California Missions and Presidios: The History & Beauty of the Spanish Missions. Stillwater, MN: Voyageur Press, Inc. ISBN 0-89658-492-5.
  • Ruscin, Terry (1999). Mission Memoirs. San Diego, CA: Sunbelt Publications. ISBN 0-932653-30-8.
  • Yenne, Bill (2004). The Missions of California. San Diego, CA: Advantage Publishers Group. ISBN 1-59223-319-8.

Further reading

  • Jones Terry L.; Kathryn A. Klar, eds. (2007). California Prehistory: Colonization, Culture, and Complexity. Landham, MD: Altimira Press. ISBN 978-0-7591-0872-1.
  • Levy, Richard (1978). William C. Sturrent; Robert F. Heizer (eds.). Handbook of North American Indians. Vol. 8 (California). Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution. p. 486. ISBN 0-87474-188-2.
  • Milliken, Randall (1995). A Time of Little Choice: The Disintegration of Tribal Culture in the San Francisco Bay Area 1769–1910. Menlo Park, CA: Ballena Press Publication. ISBN 0-87919-132-5.
  • Paddison, Joshua, ed. (1999). A World Transformed: Firsthand Accounts of California Before the Gold Rush. Heyday Books, Berkeley, CA. ISBN 1-890771-13-9.
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