Santa Cruz is the only mission named after an object (Holy Cross) and not a saint, angel or religious event.
Although the original mission building was destroyed by a combination of Nature and Man many of it's artifacts were saved. The three statutes on the altar, Our Lady of Sorrows, Saint Joseph and Saint Michael were originally in the old church. The painting of our Lady of Guadalupe on the left rear wall of the church was done in Mexico in 1791 and came to the Mission in 1797.
Santa Cruz was the site of a somewhat spectacular and gruesome death of one of the Franciscans. Father Andres Quintana was known as a cruel disciplinarian and shortly after he died under mysterious circumstances some of the Natives claimed that they had not only killed, but in the process castrated the priest. The facts are still murky and likely the truth will never be known.
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