CALIFORNIA: A Life Lived "Under the Bell"

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”.

Above: Mission La Purisima Concepcion, where I am a volunteer docent, and play a Franciscan Priest during "Mission Life Days".  http://www.lapurisimamission.org

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.