Some 100 people protested outside of Mission Dolores church Wednesday afternoon against the pope’s same-day canonization of Junipero Serra, an 18th-century priest who established the California mission system and has been criticized for his role in the brutal treatment and death of tens of thousands of Native Americans. “I am here standing for the Ohlone ancestors that were slaughtered for the crime of...
Earlier today, while on tour of the Philippines, Pope Francis announced he’d canonize Spanish friar,—but not just any friar, it’s Junípero Serra. As Alta California’s “Father Presidente,” Serra oversaw the founding of 21 of California’s Spanish Missions, including Mission de San Francis of Asís (aka our very own Mission Dolores). Now there are two saints who have statues in the Mission Dolores cemetery....
Hundreds of people gathered at Mission Dolores early Wednesday morning, many with roses for the Virgen de Guadalupe. Dec. 12 marks the annual celebration of the appearance of the Virgen in Mexico in the area of Tepeyac Hill. A boy by the name of Juan Diego saw the Virgen on Dec. 12, 1531. The story goes that she asked the...
The western side of the Mission Dolores neighborhood is $40,000 short of being nominated to the National Register of Historic Places as a historic district.
Even at the turn of the last century, organizations were trying to get control of the Mission. This and other trivia await visitors to the Ephemera Collection at the California Historical Society.
Click here for a pdf of the map. "You've got to understand, these creeks smelled bad," says Carlsson. "Wetlands don't smell great even when they're healthy, but so much sewage ran into them that by the time they were covered, pretty much every creek in San Francisco was nicknamed 'shit creek'" En Español
Will it take miracles to lead Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha to be named the first Native American saint before controversial Father Junipero Serra? En Español
