Five Churches of Mission San Diego de Alcalá
Mission Founded - July 16, 1769, Mission San Diego de Alcalá was established at the Presidio of San Diego. Services were held outdoors or in available rooms.
Founding Missionary: Father Junípero Serra, O.F.M.
1774 Church
The mission relocated to the current location where the first church building was constructed. It was described as “a church of poles, roofed with tules and measured 17’ x 53’ feet * (Zephyrin Engelhardt). This church burned to the ground during a raid in 1775 during an American Indian raid.
Head Missionary and Pastor : Father Luis Jayme, O.F.M.
1776 Church
Two years later, a second, larger church was built with “adobe walls and a thatched roof, it measured 80’ x 14’. and wasequipped with a door and a lock and two small windows”. *
Head Missionary and Pastor : Father Fermin Lasuén, O.F. M
1780 Church
The third church was made of adobe and completed in 1780. It measured 84’ x 15’; a sacristy was added. It was described as “poles of alder, or rough boarding covered the rafters and over all were placed tules. “To insure the roof against fire, the tules were covered by a mass of earth”*. It was damaged by an earthquake in 1803
Head Missionary and Pastor : Father Fermin Lasuén O.F.M.
1813 Church
The construction of the fourth church began in 1808 and was dedicated on November 12, 1813. It had buttress walls and measured 150’ by 35’. Father Bernard Sánchez, O.F.M. and Father Fernando Martin, O.F.M. designed and supervised the building of the church.
Head Missionary and Pastor: Father Fernando Martin, O.F.M.
1930 Church
The current church is the fifth and it replicated the 1813 church, measuring 150 ‘ x 30’ . Bishop John Joseph Cantwell supervised the rebuilding. It was designated a parish by Bishop Charles Buddy in 1941. It is owned by the Diocese of San Diego and is an active Catholic parish.
Pastor: Charles Norman Raley
* Father Zephyrin Engelhardt, O.F.M., The Missions and Missionaries of California, 1908 & 1912
Depiction on 1774 Church by Dr. Jack Williams
Photo of Church in 1885
Early 1900s Church
Present Day Mission San Diego