First Beginnings - Presidio Chapel

Our Lady of Sorrows Church had its beginning with the founding of Santa Barbara.  In 1782, a presidio or fortress was established in Santa Barbara to protect interests of the Spanish Empire in the California frontier as well as to safeguard the Spanish Citizens, which included the soldiers and their families, and the missionary priests and Indian converts.

While the Franciscan priests worked to establish a "mission church" to serve the native Chumash population, a presidio church was also constructed to serve as the parish of the Spanish army.

Blessed Junipero Serra, O.F.M., celebrated Santa Barbara's first Mass on the very site on where the reconstructed Presidio Chapel. The first chapel was "made of brush and decorated as best the circumstances permitted," according to Father Serra's notes. 

Father Serra provided all the Chapel's Books of Record, Baptism, Marriage and Burials, (now housed at the Santa Barbara Old Mission Archive Library) and its furnishings of altar-pieces, etc. Usually the church goods for the Spanish Frontier churches were simple pieces.  However, Father Serra had brought with him many church goods used by the Jesuit missionary priests from Baja or Lower California, which were more elaborate.  The tall gold chalice that is said to have been used by Father Serra in that very first Mass is a treasure of the church today, and it has been used occasionally for special services held at the Presidio Chapel.  This chapel was the last religious institution founded by Father Serra.

Between 1782 and 1786, while the Mission Santa Barbara was being built, priests from Mission San Buenaventura traveled to the Santa Barbara Presidio to celebrate Mass and provide the Sacraments to the soldiers and their families.  When Mission Santa Barbara was finished in 1786, Fathers Fermin Lasuen and Francisco Dumetz from the Santa Barbara Mission said Mass and administered the sacraments at the Presidio Chapel.

The Early Building

From its start as a stockade of wood and branches the entire fortress was slowly turned into a walled fort of adobe bricks, and the chapel evolved with it.  In 1786, the initial Chapel structure was so shaky that Father Lasuen held Mass in the Commandant's quarters; but by 1787 it was declared finished.  The parish then consisted of the soldiers of the fort and those Indians who were friendly to the Presidio, mostly those from the nearby village governed by Chief Yanonalit.  There were 32 soldiers, a number of them with families, and others assigned to duties outside the presidio.  The average number parishioners at first was around 60 people.  Over the next decade, the garrison doubled, and likewise the Presidio Chapel was expanded and finally even roofed properly in tile by 1797. 

There still were problems.  An earthquake and then a major storm in 1806 rocked the building, and for some time a temporary building was used.  Perhaps this is when the rear buttresses were added.  Then the great and severe earthquake hit in 1812.  That was combined with a 'tidal wave,' or tsunami, so frightening and so close that the entire complex was almost rebuilt on higher ground.  The repairs were not finished until 1814. 

Furnishings

In the Chapel's first year as a brush hut, its furnishings seem to have only had an altar stone and a painting of Saint Barbara.  By 1788, after the first building was completed and the Mission of Santa Barbara had been founded, the Chapel received paintings of St. Joseph and Our Lady of the Angels. 

By 1790 there was a gilt tabernacle, a Crucifix with gilt trim, and four oval paintings.  For the first time, we see an interest in Our Lady of Sorrows, for she was the subject of one those paintings.  The next year, 1791, a statue of the Virgin of Mount Carmel was acquired; its statue still survives and can be seen at the Santa Barbara Historical Society.

The interior was soon decorated with painted Spanish designs on the white-washed walls.  A soldier, Tomas Gonzalez, was paid 100 peso, quite a bit of money then, to do the painting, which must been extensive. 

Two years later, in 1793, the church acquired four mirrors, a gift from the Protestant explorer George Vancouver, in his famous visit of that year.  The building also received two chandeliers of copper, each with four branches or lights.  Many other things were there, some on loan from the Mission, and others from gifts and purchases, such as statues of St. Francis, St. Gertrude, St. Joseph, St. Anthony and Our Lady of the Rosary.

By then the Chapel certainly held linens for the altar, altar cards, a chalice (likely the one said to have been used by Father Serra), an incense burner, and candlesticks, although they are not always mentioned in inventories or by travelers.

Padres Estevan Tapis, Miguel Miguel, and Juan Cortes were the next priests to celebrate Mass in the Presidio Chapel.  They served the community between 1793 and 1802.

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