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Updated: June 26, 2025
When Serra came to the establishment of the presidio, he expected also to found the Mission, and great was his disappointment. This undoubtedly hastened his death, which occurred August 28, 1782. It was not until two years later that Neve's successor, Fages, authorized Serra's successor, Lasuen, to proceed.
In the middle of March, 1788, Sergeant Cota of Santa Barbara, with a band of laborers and an escort, went up to prepare the necessary buildings; and early in April Lasuen, accompanied by Padres Vicente Fuster and José Arroita, followed. As early as August the roll showed an acquisition of seventy-nine neophytes.
From Santa Barbara, Father Lasuen traveled north to Lompoc, and founded Mission La Purisima Concepcion on December 8, 1787. Mission de Nuestra Senora de in Soledad was founded in October of 1791. The last Act of Secularization in 1835 fell very heavily on this lovely Mission of which scarcely a trace remains today. This mission was noted for its fine stock and luxuriant pastures.
Lasuen, with the honored Padre Peyri and Padre Santiago, conducted the ceremonies on June 13, and the hearts of all concerned were made glad by the subsequent baptism of fifty-four children.
In 1786, Palou was appointed head of the College of San Fernando, and his place as mission president was filled by Father Firmin Francisco de Lasuen, by whom the mission of Santa Barbara was dedicated, on the festival day of that virgin-martyr, before the close of the year . Just twelve months later, the third channel settlement was started, with the performance of the usual rites, on the spot fixed for the Mission of La Purisima Concepcion, at the western extremity of the bay; though some months passed before real work there was begun.
Another very significant event of this restoration was that Father Casanova had the four bodies contained in the vaults of the mission exhumed and placed on new vaults, built however near the original spots "on the gospel side of the altar, within the sanctuary." The four bodies are the remains of Fathers Junipero Serra, Juan Crespi, Francisco de Lasuen and Julian Lopez.
There were seven hundred and forty neophytes at that time under missionary care, though Lasuen spoke most disparagingly of the location as a Mission site. In 1824 San Diego registered its largest population, being then eighteen hundred and twenty-nine.
In 1780 the new church, built of adobe, strengthened and roofed with pine timbers, ninety feet long and seventeen feet wide and high, was completed. In 1782 fire destroyed the old presidio church. In 1783 Lasuen made an interesting report on the condition of San Diego.
The Father Guardian of the College of San Fernando, on receiving the letter from King Carlos, immediately appointed Junipero Serra, whose zeal and sanctity were so well known, as the Father President of the band of missionaries to set out for California. Among the missionaries who volunteered to evangelize California were Fathers Francisco Palou, Francisco de Lasuen and Juan Crespi.
Good Father Serra, the founder of the Missions, his friend and brother-priest Father Palou of San Francisco, and their fellow-laborers Crespi and Lasuen, helped in the work of building churches and teaching the Indians. Governor Portola, the first Spanish ruler of Alta California, assisted the Padres, and also found San Francisco Bay.
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