The Santa Inés Mission Museum houses a collection of vestments, artwork, documents, and artifacts that were used in and around the Mission throughout its history. The Museum's existence is due in large part to the care given to the Mission art and artifacts by Father Buckler's niece, Mamie Goulet. It was through her twenty years of effort (1904 to 1924) that many items were cleaned, repaired, and restored to their original beauty.
Repair and restoration work on the Museum building took place during Father Timothy O'Sullivan's term (1950s-60s). Partitions, doors, and window frames were removed to allow the reopening of original doorways that had been sealed. The original tile floor was exposed after wooden flooring was removed.
Father Timothy also removed a low concrete bench-wall under the front corridor, which had been built by Father Buckler. The museum rooms were repaired, plastered, and rewired. New exhibition cases were provided to safely display the valuable vestments, artwork, irreplaceable Mission-period documents, and other historic artifacts. The Chapel of the Madonnas (pictured here) adjacent to the museum was created during this time.
The museum is open daily for self-guided tours that begin in the Mission gift shop.
Mamie Goulet and unknown soldier displaying one of the many vestments she restored SANTA BARBARA MISSION ARCHIVE-LIBRARY. |
The vestments are made of materials such as beautiful oriental silks, with floral designs, satins, damasks, and brocades, which were transformed into Spanish- and Roman-style chasubles. Some have gold or silver flat threads woven into their designs.
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Below: Roman-style chasuble
of brocaded silk MISSION MUSEUM COLLECTION. 
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Above: Vestment worn by Father Junipero Serra MISSION MUSEUM COLLECTION. |
The six music manuscripts that survive from the Mission period in the Mission Santa Inés Archive are important testaments to the musical activity of the Franciscan friars and the Native Americans who used these manuscripts for the Mission choir and orchestra. The surviving music manuscripts give us a glimpse of the importance of singing at all of the Missions.
The six manuscripts and fragments of the originals are but a part of the choral library of the Mission. The musical content is primarily plainsong, also called Gregorian chant, which is one-line, homophonic music sung to Latin texts. The beautifully produced manuscripts exemplified the book production practices used by the Roman Catholic Church since the Middle Ages.
Pictured here is a Mission music manuscript of a Gregorian Chant, dating from 1841.
The fourteen Stations of the Cross in the church are based on an engraved series copied from the church of Santa Maria del Gigho in Venice.
Significant statues at Mission Santa Inés include Saint Agnes in the niche above the main altar, and the Virgin of the Rosary in the area that had previously been a doorway to the cemetery.
The decorations in the church were done under the direction of skilled artisans who had access to old pattern books of neoclassical design. The skillfully executed architectural and floral decorations include the particularly fine floral and Greek key pattern in the sacristy. Designs outside the altar rail appear to have been done by neophyte artists. All the original designs (1818-1820) had survived untouched until they were restored and repainted in the 1970s.
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Left: Saint Vibiana, patron saint of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, oil on canvas, 19th-century Mexican painting.
Right: Our Lady of the Rosary, an excellent Mexican Baroque period sculpture from the mid-18th century. |
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| Below and right: These murals depicting early Mission life were painted by members of various youth groups under the direction of Santa Ynez-area artists in 1994. They are displayed in the parish hall of Mission Santa Inés. |
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Bells have always played an important role in the life of the Mission, calling early members to prayer or work, marking the time of day, tolling for the deceased, joyfully celebrating the union of marriages, ringing out the traditional Angelus, and noting the end of day. The bells of Santa Inés have rung out across the valley since September 17, 1804. On that day a cross was planted and the bell was suspended from a neighboring oak tree. The first bell site was destroyed by the earthquake of 1812.
Today, the Mission museum displays four bells. The 1804 Juan Baptisia bell is the oldest. The Ave Maria Purisima bell (pictured at right) was cast in 1807, and the bell from Lima was cast in 1817. Still hanging in the top arch of the bell wall is the 1818 Lima bell (pictured at left), which was recast in 1953. The 1912 St. Agnes bell was used for the dedication of the new tower that same year. Two new bells were dedicated in 1984.
