Mission San Luis

Mission San Luis Rey de Francia was the eighteenth one built in California, founded June 13, 1798, and was the last California mission founded by Father Fermin Lasuen. It was named for Louis, King of France (Mission San Luis Rey de Francia).

Interesting Facts

The mission has the oldest pepper tree in California, brought from Peru around 1830, still growing in its quadrangle.

1798 - 1820

San Luis Rey Mission was founded on June 13, 1798, by Father Fermin Lasuen. It was number eighteen out of twenty-one missions.

Father Lasuen chose the San Luis Rey Mission site because there were lots of friendly Indians living in the area, but he also picked a place with good soil. Under the guidance of Father Antonio Peyri, who stayed here for more than thirty years, it soon became the most productive of all the California missions.

The natives liked to work and accepted baptism readily. Soon, they were making adobe bricks; within two years, many tile-roofed buildings were completed, and a big church with room for 1,000 people was under construction.

1820 - 1830's

By 1821, the first church was finished. Only six years after its founding, the San Luis Rey was already producing 5,000 bushels a year, and its herds numbered more than 10,000 animals. The Fathers trained the Indians to do many kinds of work: candle and soap-making, tanning, wine-making, weaving, farming, and ranching. They also taught them to sing in the choir.

San Luis Rey Mission reached its peak in 1831 when records show there were 2,800 natives living there. It produced 395,000 bushels of grain, and its vineyard yielded 2,500 barrels of wine.

Secularization

Father Peyri stayed here for 34 years, but he couldn't bear to see what would happen with secularization, so he retired in 1832 and went back to Spain. The decline began as soon as he left. The natives tried to maintain the place but were unsuccessful. Eventually, Mexican Governor Pio Pico sold the San Luis Rey Mission buildings 1846 for $2,427, a fraction of their $200,000 value.

The Indians moved to a reservation at Pala where they still live. The U. S. Army occupied Mission San Luis Rey de Francia site for a time, but then it was neglected. It was returned to the Catholic church in 1865, but it languished until 1892 when Franciscans from Mexico returned along with Father Joseph J. O'Keefe, an American Franciscan. The church was rededicated in 1893, and reconstruction started in 1895.

It took until 1905 for the Fathers to finish enough reconstruction to move back in, and it continues today.