Mission San Buenaventura was founded on Easter Sunday, March 31, 1782 by Father Junipero Serra, the ninth mission in the California mission chain. It was named for St Bonaventure, and was the last of the missions founded by Father Serra. It is located in Ventura, California.
In 1794 the first church burned down. It took the Indians 15 years to build the new church. That church still stands today. In 1893, Father Cyprian Rubio modernised the interior of the church, painting over the original artwork. When he finished almost nothing remained of the old church. In 1957, new priests restored the church to its original style.
Today all that is left of the mission is the church and its garden. Services are still held in the parish church. A small museum sits at the mission with displays of Chumash (Native American tribe) artifacts and mission period items.
The mission suffered no disturbance after that until 1818, when it was abandoned for approximately a month because of the violence visited upon the area by Bouchard, the French pirate.
In 1845 SanBuenaventuraMission was rented to Don Jose Arnaz and Narciso Botello and was later illegally sold to Arnaz.
By 1836, the mission was caught in the vortex of the social disruption that followed the Mexican revolt.
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