Mission Soledad - The Lonely Mission

Tucked into the inland side of California's Coast Range Mission Soledad was a lonely and desolate place.

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In its forty six year history, almost thirty different priests were assigned to it. That is a turnover record that no other mission even comes close to. It was at Mission Soledad that Father Vincente Sarria wrote the first ever medical treatise in California. Father Sarria wrote a description of "how to perform a Caesarean Section" and distributed it to the Franciscans in all of the Misions. In the 18th Century in California the Franciscans were generally the most educated of all of the populace and they were often called upon to attend to difficult or complicated births.