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Mission San Rafael Arcangel
Categories: Landmarks & Historical Buildings, Churches [Edit]
1104 5th AveSan Rafael, CA 94901
(415) 456-3016
4 reviews for Mission San Rafael Arcangel
I pretty much think the people who recreated that star-shaped relief on the San Rafael facade just straight up copied it from Mission Carmel. I greatly doubt it was part of the original, and the people that came in to rebuild the mission must've liked it.
That said, San Rafael is located in bright and sunny skies north of the San Francisco city region and with good reason--the damp, perpetually foggy and gray climate of San Francisco (Mission Dolores then), made the Native Americans constantly sick, so a sunny sanatorium was founded for them, which eventually morphed into good ol' Mission San Rafael. Lovely spot in bougie San Rafael. Enjoy. It is a bit small, but that's ok :)
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#1 on my Oct 2009 Mission trail, visited on the 12th. The reconstructed mission with its very welcoming nave is basically a historic attraction only, may be used for ceremonial purposes; worshippers use the larger modern church building next to the mission. Reading the previous reviews I think some visitors confuse the two... The site map comparing the original layout to today is very helpful.
http://www.flickr.com/...
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We were in town and wanted to stop by, little did we know that the chapel is only open on week ends. Too bad, really wanted to see the inside of the church.It was beautiful from the outside, hopefully we can come back again.
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i was pretty sure this was the weirdest mission i'd ever been to.
why was it in the middle of everything, where were the grassy knolls distinguishing it from the rest of the world? why was it so loud? was that a school? why was the gift shop the biggest part of it?
& then i bothered to read about it:
(here: http://www.athanasius....)
"Mission San Rafael began as a hospital serving the sick from Mission Dolores. Later it became a thriving Mission on its own."
that explains it!
still, it's a really lovely mission, as far as they go, and the differences compared with other california missions set it apart in a nice way.
i spent the majority of my time here in the actual chapel, trying to do a rosary according to a handy pamphlet i picked up near an altar to/of mary, but to no avail. those rosaries are tricky things, and anyway, i didn't have any beads. after that, i combed through the gift shop for st. therese memorabilia, only to find it really lacking in that department. had i wanted a glow in the dark cross necklace, however, i would have been totally stoked to find it there.
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