La
Purisima Mission Bells - 200 Year Anniversary
By Tim Waag
This article was written for Mission La Purisima Concepcion de Maria Santisima, in celebrating of the 200th year of their "Manuel Vargas" mission bell, cast in Peru in 1818. There is a special display in the Mission's visitors center commemorating this anniversary.
Many things about California’s mission life are
taken for granted - like the timeless sounding of the mission bells. Digging
deeper, there is always a greater depth of knowledge and understanding to be
had. La Purisima Mission State Park is proudly celebrating the 200th
anniversary of it’s 1818 Manuel Vargas-cast bell from Peru. Let’s probe a
little further into the historic mission bells.
The bell-maker’s name and date were often cast
into the bell, and sometimes even the mission’s name. The La Purisima bronze
bell is inscribed with “Manuel Vargas Me Fecit, Año 1818, Misíon de la Purísima
de la Nueva California” (translation of inscription: “Manuel Vargas made
me, year 1818, Mission La Purisima of New California”). The Vargas bell
was found at Mission Santa Inés in the 1930s, and returned to Mission La
Purísima. Interestingly, at neighboring mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, their
“Joy Bell” and “Gloria Bell” have the same inscription (including the same
year 1818) — just swap “Misíon San Luis Obispo” for “Misíon de la
Purísima”.
We know that the first mission bells in
California were transfers from Spanish missions in Baja California, beginning
in 1769. They were brought here by Fr. Junipero Serra O. F. M. (religious
founder of the first California missions) and Gaspar de Portola, recently
appointed Governor of the Californias. We also know that conversion of the
indigenous peoples of California to Catholic belief and lifestyle was enhanced
by the mythic powers of seemingly magical items unfamiliar to them. Playing a
primary role were the metal mission bells with their glorious clanging that
could be heard from miles away.
Resources were scarce at the new “Alta
California” missions, and often, wooden bells were hung in the belfries (or
companarios) until a metal bell could be procurred. Often, the wooden
“placeholder” bell was all there ever was in a given slot in the bell tower.
The padres at the various missions had limited budgets to procur religious
objects, and had to make judicious trade-offs between acquiring religious art,
vestments, beads, tools, livestock and other items.
Mission San Luis Obispo - bell tower (companario)
Each California mission had two Franciscans
assigned to them, and with the advice and counsel of the Alta California
Mission Presidente, decisions were made about how many bells and other items (religious and otherwise) were to be acquired. Large mission bells were heavy and expensive, and prone to
cracking and damage over time, so the trade-offs in deciding where to spend
their mission budget was a difficult one.
Much information has survived from the mission
era, but the internal discussions and trade-offs by the padres related to their
mission and their bells seldom survived to the present day. We do know how
important the missions bells were to the lives of the Franciscans, as they
often described their life as “living completely under the bells”. Today, we are left with
speculation and intuition as to the story of each of California’s mission’s
bells.
