San Juan Bautista Mission Essay

In the late 1700s, the Spanish government wanted to teach the Indians that were living in California about Christianity and in order for the friars to teach the Indians, the government decided to build missions. Friar Junipero Serra was chosen by the Spanish government to build 21 missions in California which was considered the New Spain, but before the 9th mission was build he died. Friar Fermin Lasuen continue with the mission of building the rest of the missions. San Juan Bautista mission was not in their plants to build, but there was a big gap between the San Carlos Borromeo Del Rio Carmelo Mission and Santa Clara de Asis Mission. The Spanish did not felt safe to travel from mission to mission if there was a big gap, they were afraid of the Indians that controlled that territory and had not been taught about Christianity, so Friar Lasuen and the Franciscans decided to make the mission of San Juan Bautista to cover the gap between missions. In June 24, 1797 San Juan Bautista became the 15th mission in California; is one of the biggest mission in California with three naves or aisles, it became the widest of

San Juan Bautista was named in honor of St John Baptist, also known as the mission of music because of the beautiful piano music that was played there. No one knew that San Juan Bautista mission was located in the San Andreas Fault, it became known after the mission was built. Even after it was known that the mission was located in a dangerous location because of the tremors, nobody did anything about it. In October of 1798, there was a huge shaking of the earth (earthquake), that caused huge cracks to the buildings, there were about five tremors per day but even then, the mission survived the quakes. The missionaries’ had to sleep outside for a whole month because of the shakings and even thought the shakes caused damages, the mission was never moved from its original