History:
The last of the four missions founded by Fr. Lasuén in the summer of 1797, this location was chosen precisely because it was close to the new Pueblo (village) of Los Angeles. When this mission was secularized in 1846, Pío Pico, the last Mexican governor of California, used it as his base.
Patron Saint:
One of two missions named after a king (the other is San Luis Rey), this is also the only one named for a Spanish king, St. Ferdinand III of Castile (1199-1252). He fought back the Moors and conquered the Iberian Peninsula. Today, in Spain, the main language (what we know as Spanish) is called “Castilian” (to distinguish it from three other minor languages spoken in Spain: Catalan, Basque, and Galician). He was a patron of all friars in Spain, not just Franciscans.
Distinctives:
-Bob Hope (1903-2003) is buried here! He was not only a resident of the San Fernando Valley, but a Catholic, so the gardens are named after him, and he has an amphitheater-like mausoleum in the back (built in 2005, two years after his death).
-Among the many rooms you can visit, see the grandest of them all, called “La Sala.” It is one of the most elegant rooms in all the California missions.
-Another one worth seeing is the “Madonna Room,” filled with several hundred depictions of the Virgin Mary.
-All the missions have a statue of Fr. Junipero Serra, but this is the only mission that has a statue of Fr. Francisco Fermin de Lasuén (who founded just as many missions as Fr. Serra, and actually founded this particular mission).
My Opinion:
A very nice mission indeed. From the outside, it looks deceptively small, but once you walk in, the grounds sprawl. It is in very good condition with lots of displays, artifacts, and rooms to visit. In fact, I’d say it has the best museum of any California mission (in terms of how informative it is, and how well maintained everything is). There are not only gardens within the grounds, but there is a beautifully manicured garden across the street, in front of the mission.
Ranking: #9 / 21