The Carmel Mission

A few days ago I had the great opportunity to visit the Saint Carlos Borromeo Mission. The mission is located in Carmel, California, where it was founded by Fray Junípero Serra in 1770. It still serves as an active parish, where they celebrate Mass and have a catholic school. They say this is one of the prettiest of the missions and after seeing it with my own eyes, I’d say that is true.

The thing that impacted me the most of the exterior is that the construction is so primitive that the windows are crooked. This only helps to prove that humans are not perfect and even though it was abandoned about 200 years ago, it has been restored and is better than ever. The beautiful church is complete with it’s garden full of flowers and it’s pews full of faithful believers.

Behind the church there is a cemetery with wooden crosses and sea shells instead of rocks over the tombs of the priests and natives that were buried there many years ago. There is also a museum where they have the original tools on display that were used during the construction of the mission. But the most interesting thing to me, was that it houses California’s very first library!