Santa Barbara, like San Diego and Monterey, was listed on the Spanish maps of California long before the arrival of the Franciscan Friars. It had been so named by Sebastian Vizcaíño, some 60 years after its discovery by Cabrillo in …
The “Queen of the Missions”. On a spring day in 1782, the Padre Presidente of the California Missions, Fr. Junípero Serra, and the Spanish Governor de Neve founded (as Serra supposed) the Presidio and Mission of Santa Barbara. Today, the …
Mission Santa Barbara, the tenth mission in the California Mission Chain, was founded on the Feast of Saint Barbara on December 4, 1786, by Father Fermín de Lasuén. The legend holds that when still a young girl, Saint Barbara was …