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Mission San Diego de Alcalá
Mission San Diego de Alcalá is a former religious outpost established by Spanish colonists on the west coast of North America in the present-day State of California. Founded on July 16, 1769 by Roman Catholics of the Franciscan Order, the settlement was the first in the twenty-one mission Alta California chain, and is therefore known today as "California's First Church." Named after a lay brother of the Order of Friars Minor who died at Alcalá de Henares, Spain in 1463, Mission San Diego was the site of the first Christian burial in Alta California, and of the region's first public execution. Father Luís Jayme, "California's First Christian Martyr," lies entombed beneath the chancel floor. Designated as both a National Historic Landmark and a California Historical Landmark, in 1976 Pope Paul VI named the Mission as a Minor Basilica. Today the chapel serves as a parish church within the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego.
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