On a mission with Missions.

I’m on a mission to visit all 21 California missions. I have no idea how long it will take. I have no concrete plans. What I do know is that the last time I visited the Santa Barbara Mission, my kids were little. I never went there during the years my son was a student at UCSB.This is probably the most famous of the Missions. It certainly has the largest number of foreign visitors. Junipero Sera is standing out front greeting people to this mission as well. I heard some of the guides saying that this is a life-size sculpture, he was tiny. I believe he was tiny, I also believe that casting bronze sculptures isn’t cheap or easy, so he probably was larger than this.The sacred garden, inside the mission, the only reason it is sacred is because it is part of an ecclesiastical structure – there isn’t anything holy in the garden itself. Although what a wonderful quiet retreat from the world.Fountains are a big deal in arid California. The mission was built on the spot becasue they were able to redirect spring waters here. A fountain is a very necessary thing, not only a thing of beauty.Beauty doesn’t hurt.The garden is in full bloom, I just adore purple roses.… and was a little early for the cactus bloom.The Mission is a combination of adobe and stone. Adobe came first. On our tour we were the only people from California, others were from England or other parts of the US. They wanted to know what is adobe and why is it used. Adobe is unbaked clay bricks. It is used all over the world in arid climates and is often faced with stucco or lime in order to protect it from rain. One question no one asked was why? Why not bake the bricks. I didn’t want to step on our guides toes – but here’ the answer, an oven used to bake bricks needs to things – to be very large and to have plenty of wood to burn.  Wood is scarce in arid climates, so baking in the sun will have to do.The mission bells, I have no idea if this is an original or a replica. What I do like here is that the main structure is made of stone, once they rebuilt the bell towers (earthquakes happen), they faux finished the concrete to look like stone. We’ll see more faux finishing inside.Maybe this is one of the original bells?This is a small bell in the courtyard. We were there at noon, the bells in the towers were ringing and ringing loudly!Our guide was a secular Franciscan. Which means he went through the seminary but decided not to become a priest. He is affiliated with the Mission Church but he lives off campus with other seculars. Being called secular doesn’t mean he isn’t religious, he appeared to be quite religious. Most of the tour was more about the Catholic practices in this church, which I appreciated, seeing that I’m pretty familiar with the history.

He did talk about how this sanctuary is Old school Catholic, from before Vatican II. After that, the Catholic Church really cut back on the pageantry, the bright colors and the images of saints. I’m Jewish, but what can I say, I like the old school.For an adobe building to be tall, the walls have to be massive. Plenty of faux marbling inside the church. Although I think the artists would readily admit that they went way beyond faux – into fantastic. I have to include arrested decay, I find it so beautiful. This is out in the cemetery, all of these textures just make me happy.