Thirteen days after he dedicated the mission at San José, Fr. Lasuén was at San Juan Bautista, where he performed a like ceremony and San Juan joined the growing chain of Franciscan establishments on June 24, 1797. Within six months, …
Spanish Corporal Juan Ballesteros and five men came to the site of Mission San Juan Bautista (“Saint John the Baptist”) in the late spring of 1797. In a month they had erected a chapel, houses for themselves and the padres, …
Mission San Juan Bautista was founded June 24, 1797 by Father Fermin Lasuén. A year later, in 1798, the first church was complete. Named after John the Baptist, Mission San Juan Bautista was located north of Salinas and ranked fifteenth in the California Mission Chain. …