Old Mission Santa Barbara Tour:

“The Inside Story”

The Mausoleum

Additional Audio Stops:

#7 museum kitchen

#8 Museum Gallery & Chumash Altar

Previous Audio Stops:

#1 sacred Garden

#2 church

#3 cemetery

#4 cemetery - de la guerra tomb

#5 cemetery - the mexican period & daniel hill

This building was converted in 1893 from a charnel house (in which bones from mass graves were kept) to the Mausoleum you see today. These vaults contain over 60 Friars, Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Heart, a secular priest, and lay people, including Tomás Aquino Ygnacio, who died in 1954. Ygnacio was one of the last native speakers of the local Barbareño Chumash language. In 2011 the mausoleum at Old Mission Santa Barbara was retrofitted and reconfigured, making space for niches to accept cremated remains. This renovation made niches available for all, Catholic and non-Catholic. The cemetery is one way we practice radical hospitality in the humble spirit of St. Francis of Assisi and foster reverence for all people of goodwill.