Mission San Rafael treated sick and dying natives
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By Miguel Pérez
We hear a lot about the European deseases that devastated Native Americans. Most of us know it was not intentional genocide, as some people want us to believe. We know the natives didn't have inherited resistance to European diseases, such as measles and smallpox, and that thousands died. It was a terrible tragedy! But how much do you hear about European efforts to help the natives recover from illnesses? Not much, right? That's because you probably have not been to Mission San Rafael, California's first hospital, established in 1817 by four Spanish Franciscan padres to treat sick and dying Miwok Native Americans. |
Church of Saint Raphael (center), Mission San Rafael Arcangel (right).
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A replica of the original mission, built in 1949, still serves as a strong reminder of the humanitarian work that took place here.
It became a complete Franciscan mission, the 20th in California, after first serving as a hospital and asistencia (sub-mission) to relieve the growing number (hundreds) of patients who were seeking care at Mission San Francisco de Asis (Dolores). |
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Just 15 miles north of San Francisco, but with a much better climate to treat the sick, San Rafael was established by raising of a wooden cross on December 14, 1817. It was appropriately named after Saint Raphael Arcángel, who is known as the patron saint of good health, the "Healer of God."
“Converted Indians at Mission Dolores were dying faster than at any of the other Alta California missions due to the inclement foggy, damp, and windy year-round climate,” notes the information packet given to visitors here. |
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“The mission padres were determined to find a sunnier, more hospitable location for their sick," the pamphlet says. "The site they chose was an ideal location across San Francisco Bay and north of Mission Dolores, where rolling hills east of the site protected it from the cold, damp winds. Best of all it was indeed a sunnier location!”
After San Rafael was opened, hundreds of sick Indians were transferred there from the San Francisco mission. And after they began to recover, a chapel was added in 1818, and the community grew and prospered substantially, until the asistencia was promoted to full mission status on Oct. 19, 1822. |
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But since it was started much later than most California missions, San Rafael only lasted 17 years. After Mexico became independent from Spain in 1821 and took control of the missions, San Rafael was secularized in 1834, abandoned in 1844, and offered for sale in 1846. The U.S government returned a small portion of the original mission land (6.5 acres) to the Catholic Church in 1855. But by that time "the old mission adobe building was in ruins."
After the Gothic-style Church of Saint Raphael was built on the recovered church property in the 1860s, the rest of the mission land (a large but unclear number of acres) was cleared by 1870 to make room for new construction that expanded the City of San Rafael. |
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The Church of Saint Raphael was rebuilt in 1919 after it was devastated by a fire. But it was never a replacement for the old mission. The replica of the lost mission chapel was not finished until May of 1949 – more that a century after it was abandoned! And its recreation was no easy task, given that its builders had to go only by a few remaining drawings and paintings of the medical asistencia.
"The walls of the chapel were constructed of hollow concrete and then stuccoed over to resemble the original abobe texture," the pamphlet says. "This replica chapel is approximately the same size as the original 1818 structure." (About 87 feet long by 42 feet wide). |
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It also explains that, "Since San Rafael had been conceived as a hospital and sanitarium, no effort was made to construct anything but a small building that would serve as an auxiliary sanitarium with a small chapel at one end . . . no attempt was made to build subsidiary buildings to form a typical mission quadrangle."
The long building that housed the hospital, storage room and padres' quarters is now a museum and gift shop. Also, unlike other missions, the chapel never had a bell tower. It had three bells hanging from a thick, ground-level wooden frame, and it still does! (See photo). |
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Yet, the pamphlet notes that, "there is nothing left of the original mission building," and all that remains are a few artifacts, including three of the original mission bells, some nails, tiles, and arrowheads.
In spite of its few remaining artifacts, here you learn that the mission founders – padres Vicente Francisco Sarría, Ramón Abella, Narciso Durán, and Luis Gil y Taboada – created a magnet for sick natives seeking help. |
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"As a result of the care given to the Indians," the mission grew rapidly, the pamphlet says. It notes that in its large property, “by the end of the first year, there were more than 300 Indians in residence,” and that “the mission Indian population (on mission land) reached 1,140 by the end of 1828.” It also notes that San Rafael had its best year in 1832, “with a produce crop of almost 20,000 bushels and various livestock herds numbering 5,500.”
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Yet, the pamphlet makes it clear that mission residents lived in constant fear of attack by other Indians, "troublemakers" who disapproved of the mission system. And when hostile Indians attacked the mission in February of 1829, “Loyal mission Indians took F. (Juan) Amorós to a hiding place and formed a human shield around him to protect him from the attackers. They eventually hid him in the marshes and saved his life.”
Nevertheless, the church has recognized its faults and friction with Native Americans. According to a timeline of the life of this mission on display here, in 2007, while celebrating the 190th anniversary of the mission's founding, Archbishop Francis A. Quinn apologized on behalf of the Catholic Church "for any mistreatment of the Native American Indians," and "at the reception following the mass, Greg Sarris, Tribal Chairman of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, said to the Archbishop, 'On behalf of my people, we accept your apology.'" |
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Amorós rebuilt the damaged mission and remained its leader until he died in 1832. But the prosperous mission he built was rapidly devastated after San Rafael was secularized by the Mexican government in 1834. Mission documents note that it had diminished to 150 Indians by in 1840 and it was totally abandoned by 1844.
Father Amorós is buried in the mission chapel. He is remembered here as “a devoted and energetic worker, loved by both the settlers and the Indians – no small feat for an Alta California missionary!” |
Image of the old San Rafael Mission
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