USD Magazine, Winter/Spring 1997

A full-page advertisement in a mid- l 960s edition of Time magazine asked readers, "Is this any way to pre– pare for 2000 A.D.?" A large picture of USD stu– dents excavating at the Mission San Diego de Alcala was accompa– nied by copy touting the newest Catholic university in Southern California. "We believe it is," the ad stated. "By studying timeless truths of the past, they best prepare for the future." The ad won a contest sponsored by Time and was displayed prominently in the national news magazine. Monsignor I.B. Eagen, then admissions counselor and director of school relations for the fledgling university, designed the ad, an appropriate marker for the beginning of a generation of work carried on at San Diego's two missions by USD faculty and students. Mission San Diego de Alcala is the birthplace of California. Mission San Luis Rey was once the largest building in the state. The majesty of these important landmarks in California's first city has been restored and preserved in large part by history and art pro– fessionals from USD. And for many of those involved, the work seems a natural extension of living in such an extraordinary place. "These missions are the first European settlements here," says

Catholic traditions of the Europeans. The parishioners who attend daily Mass at the mission worship in the church that still contains remnants of the original building crafted by the friars in the mid- l 770s. Much of what modem day guests see and experience at the first California mission, nicknamed the "mother of the missions," is the direct result of archeological and restoration work performed by USD faculty and students. The relationship began in 1966 when Ray Brandes, professor of history, started excavating sections of the mission grounds and continues today with Whelan, a USD profes– sor of art and curator of the mission museum. As part of the first coeducational course taught on campus - the College for Women and College for Men had not yet merged - stu– dents accompanied Brandes to the dig site every Saturday. While some students performed the actual archeological excavation, others photographed the process, wrote press releases for the local media about their work, led tours of the mission or translated Spanish documents written in the early days of mission life. The interdisci– plinary course allowed participants to hone their skills in history, English and communications. "The idea of the coursework was to initiate a primary knowledge

Mary Whelan '86, curator of the museums at both San Diego County missions. "This really is the Jamestown of the West Coast." Mother of the Missions When Father Jun(pero Serra left Majorca, Spain, to be a missionary in Mexico, his ultimate dream was to introduce Christianity in the uncharted territory of Alta California (Upper California). The quiet, hum– ble Franciscan got that chance in March 1769 when he left on foot, while a supply ship left by sea, for what would become San Diego. The first Mass in the history of Upper California was said July 16, 1769, on the hill overlooking San

about the history of the mis– sion and hope for its restora– tion," Brandes says. The work by students and faculty carried on for nearly 15 years under James Moriarty, professor emeritus of history, who took over for Brandes. Over the years, the USD team unearthed dinnerware, glass– ware, buttons and combs from Europe and Asia, pottery from Mexico and the bodies of priests buried on the grounds. Perhaps the most signifi– cant historical discovery was the body of Father Luis Jayme, the first martyr in California. The friar was killed in 1775

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'l'ha nlins al Miain San Diap da Alcala (1885).

while protecting the mission during an Indian attack. His body had been moved from its original burial at some point during a rebuilding of the mission. The pastor of the mission at the time of the discovery, Monsignor I.B. Eagen, was honored to bury the body in the church, where tradition says the early padres were laid to rest. Doing Away with Drab Monsignor Eagen, now USD vice president of mission and ministry, served as pastor of the San Diego mission for 21 years beginning in 1971. He is credited by those who worked with him for quietly but resolutely seeing to much of the preservation and restoration of the church and other mission buildings. He was spurred on by a critique written in a Sunset Magazine book on architecture and interior design that referred to the mis– sion's church as drab. Soon after, he enlisted the help of Therese

Diego Bay, now popularly known as Presidio Park. On that site too, Father Serra established the first mission and European settle– ment on the West Coast of America. Five years after claiming San Diego for Spain and beginning the process of converting the Native Americans living in the area, the Franciscan padres decided to move Mission San Diego de Alcala six miles east to a hill overlooking a long, narrow valley, now Mission Valley. The move took place because the soldiers stationed at the presidio scared the Native Americans from venturing too close to the mission and the land proved unfit for any real agricultural endeavor. Today, when the average 100 visitors a day walk the grounds of Mission San Diego, they are following in the footsteps of the Spanish padres who said Mass every day, and the Native Americans who lived at the mission, worked the fields and learned the

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