Mission San Juan Bautista

July 11, 2011: The Mission San Juan Bautista was founded in 1797 immediately, albeit unwittingly, adjacent to the San Andreas Fault in the Pajaro River Valley. Mass has been served daily since June 24, 1797 despite earthquake damage including the collapse of the side walls of the Mission in the 1906 ("San Francisco") earthquake. The cornerstone of the Mission church was laid in June 1803, the church was dedicated in 1812 and the altar and reredos completed in 1817 by an American sailor who had jumped ship in Monterey. Of the 22 California missions, San Juan Bautista has the only mission church with side aisles, giving it room for side altars and, appropriately, a baptistry. The mission was a climatic destination in Hitchcock's Vertigo.

Hic domus Dei est et porta coeli: Here is the house of God and the gate to Heaven (left). The central nave (below):















A side altar to Our Lady of Guadalupe (below) and the bautisterio at San Juan Bautista (left):















Each winter solstice (December 21-22), the morning sun shines through the front window of the church and strikes the tabernacle (the green square behind the main altar). This "Sacrament of the Sun" has been observed at 11 other mission churches. All are set in the landscape so that on an equinox or solstice or Saint's day, a similar solar illumination of the altar or tabernacle occurs.The statues of the reredo are (clockwise from top left) St. Anthony of Padua, St. Dominic, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Pascal Baylon, St. John the Baptist and the Lamb of God, St. Isidore.

"The next day, John saw Jesus coming to him, and he saith:
Behold the Lamb of God,
behold him who taketh away the sin of the world." John 1:29.

The medallion in the front of the alter says: Hoc est enim Corpus meum. Hic est enim Calix Sánguinis mei, novi et ætérni testaménti; mystérium fidei: qui pro vobis et pro multis effundétur in remissiónem peccatórum: For this is my Body. For this is the Chalice of my Blood, of the new and eternal testament; the mystery of faith: which shall be shed for you and for many unto the remission of sins.

The mission cemetery was along the valley side of the church:

This chapel behind the main altar is the oldest part of the mission: