La Mision del Gloriosisimo Patriarch San Jose

When this Mission was founded it was named "La Mision del Gloriosisimo Patriarch San Jose" in honor of St. Joseph.

Father President directed some of the escort to construct a large cross on the ground, and others to build in the open an enramada, of “bower of branches,” with an altar in its shelter, in preparation for the ceremony of founding the mission set for the next day.

“Very early in the morning,” the first day of the week, June 11, 1797, the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity, the reverend Fathers, the Spanish soldiers, and the Loreto Indians assembled for the dedicatory ceremony.  The unusual stir in the camp, the ringing of the bell, the firing of the muskets, the smoke of the incense, the lighting of the Mass candles, the sight of the beautiful vestments of the priests – all attracted groups of [Indians] to the scene.

The Secularization Act of 1833

 
Mexico won its independence from Spain in 1821. The California Missions continued to prosper under Mexican rule until the Secularization Act of 1833. What was left of Mission San Jose began to decline, and over time, the native populations were scattered. Very few were given their land, and many died of disease and starvation.

Mission San Jose Was Built on the Site Known as Oroysom

 

The site chosen for the only mission on the east side of San Francisco Bay had been inhabited for countless generations by the Ohlone Indians. Their village at this site was known as Oroysom. According to Spanish law, the mission's lands and resources belonged to the natives and would be put in their control when they had learned to manage themselves in the Spanish way.

Mission San Jose was founded in 1797

Mission San Jose was founded on June 11, 1797 by Father Fermin Francisco de Lasuen on a site which was part of a natural highway by way of the Livermore Valley to the San Joaquin Valley. It was founded to secure Spain's claim to this land and to teach the native people Christianity and the Spanish way of life.

Mission San Jose

 

MISSION SAN JOSE

At the Ohlone Indian village of Oroysom, Padre Fermin Fransisco De Lasuen founded this fourteenth of twenty-one Franciscan missions June 11, 1797.  The Ohlone orchestra and choir became famous. By 1830 almost 2,000 Indians were living at the mission. The mission was secularized in 1836 and its lands divided into ranchos.