The bell tower.
The bell tower.
Mission San Gabriel was the first settlement in Los Angeles.
The first day that the mission was built there were four earthquakes on the same day, knocking down the belltower and the fathers' rooms.
The painting of Mary
that the padre held up.
In the front of the church is a picture of the virgin Mary which a priest held up to scare some Indians away who were fighting them while the mission was being built. Two Indian chiefs laid down their necklaces and one Indian ran away.
Once the mission was called Queen Of The Missions, because there were many ways to get there, and many people had to get food and water in the desert, like the explorer Juan Bautista De Anza.
This is one of the few missions that made wine.This mission was very famous for its wine.
When Father Serra was young he had the name Joseph Serra. When he was growing up he wanted to teach the Indians about God. When Joseph Serra became a priest he changed his name to Father Junipero Serra. After Father Serra became a priest, he was bitten by a snake and was not able to heal the wound properly.
He lived five more years after the snake bite, and he is buried at the Carmel Mission.
