The 400th Anniversary of the First Mass Celebrated in California

occurs sometime this month. It was probably on the 12th but there are other sources which list dates both before and after the 12th. This might be good for a Catholic trivia question: “Which Order celebrated the first Mass in California?” Because it wasn’t the Franciscans. They did most of the original missionary work in California and are well-known for their 21 beautiful missions. But the first Mass was celebrated in 1602 in what is now San Diego by three Discalced Carmelite Friars, Fr. Thomas Aquinas, Fr. Andrew of the Assumption, and Fr. Anthony of the Ascension who were chaplains to Sebastiano Vizcaino’s voyage of exploration.

The Carmelite Order celebrated a Mass on November 12 this year as close to the original spot as possible. It was not open to the general public since the original spot is now in the middle of a U.S. Navy submarine base. But Friars, nuns and naval personnel were there. There is an article on the Mass here. (Note that the PT can’t pass up the opportunity to get in a few politically correct whacks at the Catholic Church.) There was a nice picture in the Los Angeles Times on the 13th, but it didn’t make it into the on-line edition so there’s nothing to link.

The Carmelite Digest has some excellent material on the history in the current issue. No doubt there will be a better story than the PT’s on the anniversary Mass in the next issue.