Overview

Old Mission Santa Barbara is a community of many parts, but one spirit. The Mission has served as a gathering place and spiritual home for many since its establishment in 1786. Today the Mission operations include a museum, gift shop, cemetery and mausoleum, and several historic gardens, as well as being the home to a community of Franciscan Friars on about 15 acres. The Mission is also home base for Saint Barbara Parish, which operates under the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the Santa Bárbara Mission Archive-Library, a separate Franciscan-sponsored non-profit, and a Novitiate which provides the first year of education for Friars in training from across the United States.

Old Mission Santa Barbara was established on the Feast of St. Barbara, December 4, 1786 by Fr. Fermin Francisco de Lasuen, and was the tenth of the 21 California Missions to be founded by the Spanish Franciscans. It is also the only Mission that has been under the continuous guidance of the Franciscan Friars since its foundation in 1786, and it has the oldest liturgical choral singing tradition of any California mission.

During the two centuries of her history, Mission Santa Barbara has undergone many changes. Three adobe churches were constructed here before the present church was erected in 1820. The Mission has seen the flags of Spain, Mexico and the United States fly overhead. Two major earthquakes nearly destroyed her: the first in 1812, was the impetus for the construction of a new and stronger church; the second, in 1925, wrought considerable damage and, once again, required extensive rebuilding. However, despite natural disaster, and political and social turmoil, the Queen of the Missions has endured.

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