Mission Nuestra Senora de la Soledad daily life

The schedule at Mission Nuestra Senora de la Soledad was very strict. You had to wake up at 6:00. Then you would do your morning prayer, followed by breakfast. Then you would work until 12:00. At 12:00 you would have lunch. Then you would have a break, Followed by work.Later you would do your evening prayer. Then you would rest. Followed by bedtime.

Table of Contents Show

What was the daily life at Mission Soledad?
What did the Indians do at Mission Soledad?
What is the nickname of the Mission Nuestra Senora de la Soledad?
What is Soledad known for?

On Oct. 9, 1791, the Franciscan monk Father Fermín Francisco de Lasuén erected a cross in a place known to the Native Americans as Chuttusgelis about 40 miles (65 kilometers) southeast of Monterey in central California. There he founded the mission Nuestra Señora de la Soledad (Our Lady of Solitude). Living in a barren and isolated part of California, the missionaries and their few converts endured floods, epidemics of disease, and crop failures before the mission closed permanently in 1835.

Nuestra Señora de la Soledad was the 13th of a chain of missions founded by Spanish missionaries in California. By the end of 1791 a makeshift church had been constructed on the site identified by Lasuén. Later, adobe buildings with tiled roofs were added. A chapel, also fashioned of adobe, with a thatched roof was completed in 1797. The mission was located in a sparsely populated region. Nevertheless, the Franciscan missionaries set about trying to convert the few Indians living there to Roman Catholicism. By the second year of its operation, the Franciscans had converted 115 Indians, but in 1802 an epidemic struck and many converts died or ran away. By 1805, however, the mission had recovered and recorded an all-time high population of 688, a figure large enough to require that the church be enlarged.

Despite a few years of success, the mission had trouble getting missionaries to stay for very long. The mission was not near any major settlement and was once described by California historian Alfred Robinson as “the gloomiest, bleakest, and most abject looking spot in all California.” The summers were hot and the winters hard. In 1831 floods destroyed the church and it had to be rebuilt, though the fortunes of the mission were already in decline. By 1835, following a secularization decree the previous year, the mission found itself in desperate circumstances, with very little food or resources of any kind. On May 24, Father Vincente Francisco de Sarría collapsed on the altar steps on his way to say an early morning mass and died of starvation. After Sarría’s death, the mission was closed. Season after season of winter rains soon reduced the mission’s adobe buildings to a muddy ruin. In 1954 the chapel was rebuilt, but the original ruins remain. A museum on the site chronicles the mission’s history.

Mission Soledad founded in 1791 by Father Lasuén, was built to assist the other missions of northern California. The Spanish word Soledad, means solitude or loneliness. Built in the sparsely populated area of central California, the feeling of isolation is evident, but founder Father Lasuén didn’t name the mission after its surroundings, rather to glorify Our Lady of Solitude, one of the sacred names for the Virgin Mary.

Speculation abounds as to whether its number thirteen in the chain is related to the bad luck it has experienced. Massive floods from the Salinas River ravaged the mission many times. These grounds, still scattered with the ruins of the mission’s adobe walls that once stretched the entire complex, are a constant reminder of how difficult life must have been at this remote and desolate mission.

The church, originally located at the east end of the padres quarters was destroyed by floods in 1828. Rebuilt in 1832, this quite simple chapel depicts the religious tone surrounding Mission Soledad. Although a replica bell now occupies the wooden beam to the left of the church entrance, the original mission bell can be found inside the museum.

Like all missions, the fourteen stations of the cross adorn the walls of the mission church. Each church has a different version of the fourteen stations, or the journey of Jesus to Golgotha where he was crucified. These fourteen religious symbols are rare originals.

After the flood of 1828, the mission was hit by an epidemic which killed off many of the Indians. Then, Father Vicente Francisco de Sarría died causing many Indians to leave in hopes of finding a better life elsewhere.

Secularization was particularly hard on Mission Soledad, with the property serving as a ranch house, a grocery store and then a restaurant, eventually sitting abandoned for almost one hundred years until it was sold in 1946 for a mere eight hundred dollars. Eventually, the land was returned to the Catholic Church and a restoration effort began with the help of the Native Daughters of The Golden West. The group restored the small chapel and the covento wing, which now serves as the mission museum.

Mission Soledad; small in size, but still a well maintained part of California history.

From Inside the California Missions
© David A. Bolton

What was the daily life at Mission Soledad?

Daily life at the mission The Frias were in charge of the indans. The jobs were done by the indans. The men's jobs were woodcrafting, and blacksmith. The women peppered food, spun yarn, wove blankets, and made cloth.

What did the Indians do at Mission Soledad?

The Indian tribes at the mission were the Chalon, Esselen,Yokuts, and the Salinan. Water was brought from the Salinas and Arroyo Seco Rivers through a five-mile system of cement aqueducts, which was built by the Salinan Indians. The mission people grew wheat, barley, corn, beans, and peas.