This post was a break in the sequential study of Santa Cruz historical events, occasioned by the event described. The font was cleaned and put back in place in the garden behind the Holy Cross gift shop. To date, I've seen no further information about the item's history.
There's a story in today's San Jose Mercury News about an overnight episode of vandalism at Holy Cross Church in Santa Cruz. I don't need to write more about the evils of senseless vandalism but, since this event involves what is possibly the oldest historical artifact in Santa Cruz - a baptismal font claimed to be from the original mission chapel, a brief commentary on the history details seems in order.One of the earliest posts (#3) in this more-or-less chronological series was about the Spanish missionaries who founded Mission Santa Cruz, the seed that grew into the city we have today. The focus of the post was on the names of historical people and places - no mention of any individual artifact like a baptismal font. I did, however, take the photo included here at that time (pre-vandalism). For those unfamiliar with Catholic practice, a baptismal font is used in the sacrament of baptism, performed on newborns as an initiation into the faith. During the ceremony, the font is filled with holy water to be used in the baptism ceremony. I'm guessing that a solid stone font like this one would have been assigned a permanent place in the chapel.
The damaged (just paint, hopefully) baptismal font is one of the only surviving bits of the original mission chapel built on the hill (dedicated in 1794, following relocation from the flats below). It's not known exactly when the stone font was carved and/or arrived in Santa Cruz, but one thing we can be sure of - it wasn't brought by Junípero Serra (as stated in the Mercury story). Serra died in 1784, seven years before the founding of Mission Santa Cruz, and it's unlikely that Serra ever visited our area. As noted in the blog post, the mission's founder was Fermín Lasuén, Serra's successor. It's nearly as unlikely that Lasuén would have brought the font. His role as head of the Alta California missions was simply to officiate at the site dedication ceremony, prior to any building activity. Supplies and tools for building came from the Santa Clara and San Francisco missions.
It's interesting for a history geek like me to think about exactly how and when the font got to Santa Cruz. I haven't found records of any archaeological examination, so this is all pure speculation (based, of course, on the assumption that the font does indeed date from the earliest days of the mission). The SCPL website contains an excellent and thorough article on the construction history of the mission, but there is no mention of a baptismal font. Leon Rowland provides a concise list of "Mission Dates" in Santa Cruz: The Early Years (see bibliography).
The first thing worth noting about the font is that it is carved from solid stone and must weigh several hundred pounds, so it's unlikely that it was brought overland from Monterey. It's possible that it was carved locally, but that seems unlikely given the primitive local conditions at the time. Stone quarrying activities were necessary (probably from the bluff facing the river right below the mission's hill) to obtain the rough limestone blocks used in the foundations of the buildings, but none of my sources credit the earliest mission padres with advanced stone-carving skills. Some skilled artisans did come to Alta California from Mexico in later years. Also, I've never heard that anyone has analyzed the font to determine the type of rock and its origin.
Another possibility is that the font was manufactured elsewhere and brought to Santa Cruz by sea. It could have come from one of the larger Spanish settlements in Mexico, where such things could have been manufactured, or even shipped directly from Spain. There was no Santa Cruz wharf in those days, of course, so heavy items had to be transferred from a ship to a smaller boat that could land on the beach. There was no machinery for unloading cargo, so the big hunk of rock had to be unloaded by hand and wrestled up onto the beach. From there, some sort of conveyance was needed to get it up to the mission chapel. It could have been something simple like a sling between two donkeys or oxen.
A wagon or two-wheeled cart (careta) is another possibility - the mission establishment included the various kinds of craftsmen needed to build all of the the tools necessary for a mostly self-sustaining community. A wagon, however, needs a road - especially on the climb up Mission Hill. The mission eventually built a wagon road that later became today's Mission Street, but we don't know if that project was complete when the baptismal font arrived.
So, as much as I would like to believe that such a relic remains from the very earliest days of Mission Santa Cruz, I remain highly skeptical. Hopefully, the cleanup and restoration of the baptismal font will provide an opportunity for further study that might fill in some of the blanks in my story. That at least would be one bit of good produced by a destructive act. Maybe the church could also move it to a safer and more prominent location, where visitors are more likely to see and appreciate it.
Another possibility is that the font was manufactured elsewhere and brought to Santa Cruz by sea. It could have come from one of the larger Spanish settlements in Mexico, where such things could have been manufactured, or even shipped directly from Spain. There was no Santa Cruz wharf in those days, of course, so heavy items had to be transferred from a ship to a smaller boat that could land on the beach. There was no machinery for unloading cargo, so the big hunk of rock had to be unloaded by hand and wrestled up onto the beach. From there, some sort of conveyance was needed to get it up to the mission chapel. It could have been something simple like a sling between two donkeys or oxen.
A wagon or two-wheeled cart (careta) is another possibility - the mission establishment included the various kinds of craftsmen needed to build all of the the tools necessary for a mostly self-sustaining community. A wagon, however, needs a road - especially on the climb up Mission Hill. The mission eventually built a wagon road that later became today's Mission Street, but we don't know if that project was complete when the baptismal font arrived.
So, as much as I would like to believe that such a relic remains from the very earliest days of Mission Santa Cruz, I remain highly skeptical. Hopefully, the cleanup and restoration of the baptismal font will provide an opportunity for further study that might fill in some of the blanks in my story. That at least would be one bit of good produced by a destructive act. Maybe the church could also move it to a safer and more prominent location, where visitors are more likely to see and appreciate it.
