By Fr. Joseph Illo
On March 27, 1776, Lieutenant Colonel Juan Bautista de Anza camped at Mountain Lake with 240 Spanish settlers, soldiers, indigenous interpreters, and the Franciscan Fathers Francisco Garcés, Tomás Eixarch, and Pedro Font. The next morning, his priests would have offered what is probably the first Catholic Mass in what would become San Francisco. Three months later, on June 29, 1776, the first recorded Mass was offered at what became Misión San Francisco de Asís, after which our city is named. While most think of the June 29 Mass as the first in San Francisco, more likely, Catholic worship had begun three months earlier in the Presidio with the priests of the Anza Party.
You can still visit Mountain Lake and the plaque that the Daughters of the American Colonists placed at the site of the Anza camp. Mountain Lake is one of only three remaining natural lakes in San Francisco, and it was there that the Anza party first camped before moving over Presidio Hill to establish the beginnings of a permanent settlement in what we now call San Francisco. On March 28, 2026, at 12:00 p.m., priests will again offer a sung Mass in the same form in which the original padres celebrated it, followed by a barbecue in Mountain Lake Park. All are welcome to both events at Mountain Lake Park, at 12th Avenue.
