LASUÉN, FERMÍN FRANCISCO DE

Franciscan missionary; b. Vitoria, Cantabria, Spain, June 7, 1736; d. Carmel, Calif., June 27, 1803. He was the son of Lorenzo and María Francisca (de Arasqueta) de Lasuén. He became a Franciscan (1751) and as a deacon volunteered for the missions of the New World. Upon arriving in Mexico (1759), he entered the Apostolic College of San Fernando. After serving the missions of the Sierra Gorda (1762–67), he went to Baja California until 1773, building the mission of San Borjas. Traveling overland to the missions of Upper California, Lasuén reached San Diego (1773) and was assigned to Mission San Gabriel until 1775, when he became the personal chaplain to Commander Rivera at Monterey. Fray J. Serra sent him to found Mission San Juan Capistrano, but his assignment there was cut short by the Native American revolt at San Diego. After the restoration of peace he was placed in charge of San Diego until 1785, when he was chosen president of the missions of Upper California, with headquarters at Mission San Carlos, Carmel. Between 1786 and 1798, Lasuén founded nine missions, bringing the total established since 1769 to 18. He was vicar forane, ecclesiastical judge, and military vicar for the bishop of Sonora, in whose jurisdiction California lay, and from 1795 he was commissary of the Holy Office of the Inquisition. Under Lasuén the number of missionaries increased from 18 to 40; between 1784 and 1802 baptisms rose from 5,800 to 33,717, and the number of converts living at the missions, from 4,646 to 15,562. Mission buildings increased, and stone churches such as San Carlos and San Gabriel were erected.

Though adhering to principles, Lasuén was diplomatic in his relationships with the civil and military authorities. The explorers G. Vancouver, J. P. Lapérouse, and C. Malaspina, who met him at Monterey, proclaimed him a model padre and president. Their combined appraisal of him, together with that of later historians such as G. Bancroft and C. E. Chapman, show Lasuén to have been a pious, learned, agreeable, dignified, unobtrusive, and benevolent apostle, who through the quiet force of his character built up the missions spiritually, economically, and architecturally. His numerous writings were confined to missions matters and are concise in style. Lasuén is interred at Carmel Mission church.

See Also: california, catholic church in; san francisco, archdiocese of.

Bibliography: Archives, Santa Barbara Mission. Archives, Archdiocese of San Francisco. Archivo General de la Nación, Mexico City. Missions San Gabriel, San Diego, and San Carlos, Calif., Church Registers. h. h. bancroft, History of California, 7 v. (San Francisco 1884–90). c. e. chapman, A History of California: The Spanish Period (New York 1928). z. engelhardt, The Missions and Missionaries of California, 4 v. (2d ed. San Francisco 1929); San Diego Mission (San Francisco 1920). m. j. geiger, The Life and Times of Fray Junípero Serra, 2 v. (Washington 1959). f. kenneally, Writings of Fermín Francisco de Lasuén, 2 v. (Washington 1965).

[m. geiger]