Mission San Rafael Arcángel was not meant to be a mission at all. St. Raphael Parish says Father Vicente de Sarría founded it on Dec. 14, 1817, as an asistencia, or helper, of Mission San Francisco de Asís (Mission Dolores). It was set up as a hospital for sick neophytes, the parish's term for Christianized Native Americans, and named for Saint Raphael, the angel of healing. Wikipedia calls it Alta California's first sanitarium and says the milder weather north of the bay was believed to help patients recover.
The parish says it became the 20th of the 21 missions in Alta California. It received full mission status on Oct. 19, 1822, as it grew into a working farm and ranch. The parish credits the Coast Miwok with building its simple buildings, orchards, farmland and herds.
A short life
The parish says San Rafael was a mission for only 17 years. After Mexico secularized the missions in 1834, the lands were divided into ranchos. It reports that 150 Native people remained at the mission in 1840 and that it was abandoned by 1844. Wikipedia says what was left of the buildings sold for $8,000 in 1846. Both sources say John C. Frémont used the mission as his headquarters during the Bear Flag Revolt.
Wikipedia also records a darker episode. On June 28, 1846, three men including Kit Carson left the mission and killed three unarmed Californios, José R. Berreyesa and the twin brothers Ramon and Francisco de Haro. Wikipedia says they acted on Frémont's order.
'Most obliterated'
A priest was living there again by 1847, and a new parish church went up near the old chapel ruins in 1861. In 1870, the parish says, the rest of the ruins were removed to make room for the growing city of San Rafael. All that remained was one pear tree from the mission orchard. Wikipedia says this is why San Rafael is known as the "most obliterated" of California's missions.
In 1949, Msgr. Thomas Kennedy and supporters, including the Hearst family, built a replica of the mission chapel. It stands next to the larger St. Raphael's Church, and Wikipedia says it occupies the site of the original hospital.
Its mother mission: Mission Dolores at 250.