Mission Santa Ines

My report is on Mission Santa Ines which is 35 miles north of Santa Barbara among the rolling hills near the Santa Ynez River. The mission was established September 17, 1804 by Father Estevan Tapis as the 19th mission along El Camino Real.

In the early 1700’s, the country of Spain sent many explorers to the western world to claim land and find riches. When California was founded by several Spanish explorers, like Cabrillo, and De Anza, Spain decided to send missionaries to build missions. There are a total of 21 missions built in California. Mission Santa Ines was the 19th mission and was built to share the European God with the Indians and how to eat and dress like Europeans. Father Tapis wanted to make the Indians Christians and civilize them as well as keep and claim land for Spain. The missions were built near harbors, bays or rivers so the towns could grow the needed crops to survive, and to bring more Europeans, and show the Indians more European ways. The Indians built the missions under the supervision of the padres along El Camino Real, the Royal Road, where there was a water supply for the mission gardens and crops. The first mission built along El Camino Real was built in 1769, and the mission period lasted 54 years with the last mission built in 1823.

My mission is named after St. Agnes who was put into a fire, and then beheaded when she was 12 years old. When Agnes refused to offer incense to the pagan idols, the Chumash Indians put Agnes into a fire but she remained untouched by the flames. Since the flames did not kill her, she was then beheaded. On her feast day on the 21st of January, two lambs are blessed and their wool is used to make the palliums (which are bands of white wool which the pope gives to the archbishops as symbol of their authority over the new archbishop) of the year. A large painting of St. Agnes is at Santa Ines Mission carrying a lamb, a palm and a lily which was painted by Andres Lopez and restored in 1953. One padre kept a journal of the founding of the mission. He also kept a list of supplies that were used at the mission as well as the climate which is Mediterranean (hot and dry) in the summer and mild and rainy in the winter. The padres taught the Indians about the Christian God, led church services, performed baptisms, marriages and other religious ceremonies. He kept a list of births, baptisms, marriages and deaths. The other padre at the mission was in charge of outdoor activities such as making adobe bricks and tile, planting and harvesting crops and taking care of the livestock. The work of the Indian men at the mission was to plow cultivate the soil, plant cops, making and laying adobe bricks, making limestone powder for plaster and for soaking corn and hides, as well as tanning the hides. They were also responsible for making candles, threshing the grain, tending the cattle, hoses and sheep and making shoes, reatas (long sections of horsehair that are braided up to measure land) and saddles from leather. Meanwhile the Indian women were to winnow, blowing the outer covering of the grain before it can be used as food, the grain, spin wool from the fleece of sheep, prepare corn and wheat tortillas and bread as well as all other foods. The women were also to make baskets, wash clothing and make soap. Even the Indian children worked, keeping the animals out of the gardens, turning the adobe bricks that were drying in the sun, going to church school to learn the lessons of the church, scaring the birds away from the grain fields and helping their mothers with their work. The older Indians at the mission had the responsibility of teaching the younger Indians the customs and stories of their tribes, sweeping, some baking, weaving, weeding and assisting the padres. The soldiers also came to protect the padres and make the Indians of California follow the rules of Spain.

If you were to visit the Santa Ines Mission today, you would see that is 139 feet long, 26 feet wide, 29 feet high and made of adobe brick, faced with brick cement. The design of the mission is called Classic and was designed by Father Francisco Javier de Uria, borrowing some design feather from earlier missions. There are carved wooden doors with a small arched window above the entrance. Beams and rafters made of pine, sycamore and oak brought 45 miles down from the mountains are held together by rawhide strips. The interior walls are painted with murals in the native Indian style with some walls painted to look like marble. Dark brown columns are painted on the exterior flanking the door. The walls are five to six feet thick with heavy buttresses, or support. There are three bells, one on top, two below, hanging in openings cut in a campanario (a bell wall) and the bells were cast in 1807, 1817 and 1818. A group of building formed a square 350 feet on each side around a central patio, which was lined by living gardens, store rooms, work shops