San Antonio de Pala Asistencia

San Antonio de Pala Asistencia

The modern capilla (chapel) at "Pala Mission."
Location in California
Location	San Diego County
Coordinates	33°21′40″N 117°4′45″W / 33.36111°N 117.07917°W / 33.36111; -117.07917
Name as founded	Asistencia de la Misión San Luis, Rey de Francia [1]
English translation	Sub-Mission to the Mission San Luis Rey de Francia
Patron	Saint Anthony of Lisbon, Portugal and Padova, Italy [1]
Founding date	June 13, 1816 [2]
Founding priest(s)	Father Antonio Peyrí [1]
Military district	First
Native tribe(s) Spanish name(s)	Payomkowishum Luiseño
Native place name(s)	Pale [3]
Governing body	Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego
Current use	Parish Church / Museum
California Historical Landmark
Reference no.	#243
Website
https://missionsanantoniodepala.org/

The San Antonio de Pala Asistencia, or the "Pala Mission", was founded on June 13, 1816, as an asistencia or "sub-mission" to Mission San Luis Rey de Francia, some twenty miles inland upstream from the latter mission on the San Luis Rey River. Pala Mission was part of the Spanish missions, asistencias, and estancias system in Las Californias—Alta California. Today it is located in the Pala Indian Reservation located in northern San Diego County, with the official name of Mission San Antonio de Pala.^[2][4] It is the only historic mission facility still serving a Mission Indian tribe.

Pala (a derivation of the native term Pale, meaning water) was essentially a small rancho surrounded by large fields and herds. The Pala site had been noted by Father Juan Mariner and Captain Juan Pablo Grijalva on an exploratory trip in 1795, when they went up the San Diego River, and then through Sycamore Canyon to the Santa Maria Valley (or Pamó Valley) and into what they named El Valle de San José, now known as Warner Springs. Once Mission San Luis Rey began to prosper, it attracted the attention of numerous mountain Native Americans in the area, who were called the Luiseño by the Spanish.