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This the fifteenth and largest of the California Missions was founded on St. John's Day, 1797. The Mission Sadly neglected for many years was restored in 1884. Under the leadership of Father Estevan Tapis, an excellent man for the position, in 1823, the population figures at the mission reached their highest point. Above the mission on Pagan Hill a wooden cross was erected by the mission Fathers to ward off evil when they discovered their Indian neophytes secretly practicing pagan religious rites on the spot. |
