First Mass

August 1, 1769

Photos

Documentation

• Crespi Journal (Bolton, ed., "Fray Juan Crespí: Missionary Explorer on the Pacific Coast, 1769-1774")
• HMDB

Notes

Tuesday, August 1, 1769: "This day was one of rest, for the purpose of exploring, and especially to celebrate the jubilee of Our Lady of Los Angeles de Porciuncula. We both said Mass and the men took communion... To-day I observed the latitude and it came out for us thirty-four degrees and ten minutes north latitude." This is the entry most tempting to label "Los Angeles" because of the Porciuncula feast-day name, but flagging real uncertainty: no footnote pins this specific date to a modern place, and the nearby footnotes (a few days earlier) place the party's camps near La Habra and Fullerton, not the LA basin proper -- the actual "Porciuncula River" naming most historians associate with Los Angeles came a day or two later at a different camp. However, a historical marker exists near what is today Dodgers Stadium for August 2, 1769. I am choosing to locate this 'first mass' at this marker, even though the record for the first mass occurs the day before, probably a little east of where the marker is now.