According to Antonio María de Bucareli, the viceroy of New Spain in 1773, the missionaries had "the right to manage the mission Indians as a father would manage his family."

To the friars, a mission was far more than the complex of buildings—it was a family of native Californians living as Christians. The friars followed their own religious path while guiding the larger community in both religious and practical matters.

Daily Devotions

The missions were thousands of miles from the College of San Fernando in Mexico City, and farther still from the friars' homes in Spain. Here, among the Indians, the friars lived as Franciscans with the same structured discipline they had learned during the novitiate. Their schedule of prayer, work, meals, and rest varied little from day to day.

As many as seven times a day...