San Antonio de Pala Asistencia
The modern capilla (chapel) at "Pala Mission."
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 Location of San Antonio de Pala Asistencia in California
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| Location | San Diego County |
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| Coordinates | 33°21′40″N 117°4′45″W / 33.36111°N 117.07917°WCoordinates: 33°21′40″N 117°4′45″W / 33.36111°N 117.07917°W |
| Name as founded | Asistencia de la Misión San Luis, Rey de Francia |
| English translation | Sub-Mission to the Mission San Luis Rey de Francia |
| Patron | Saint Anthony of Lisbon, Portugal and Padova, Italy |
| Founding date | June 13, 1816 |
| Founding priest(s) | Father Antonio Peyrí |
| Military district | First |
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Native tribe(s) Spanish name(s) |
Payomkowishum Luiseño |
| Native place name(s) | Pale |
| Governing body | Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego |
| Current use | Parish Church / Museum |
| Reference no. | #243 |
| Website | |
| http://www.missionsanantonio.org/ | |
The San Antonio de Pala Asistencia, or the "Pala Mission", was founded on June 13, 1816 as an asistencia ("sub-mission") to Mission San Luis Rey de Francia, some twenty miles inland upstream from the latter mission on the San Luis Rey River. Pala Mission was part of the Spanish missions, asistencias, and estancias system in Las Californias—Alta California. Today it is located in the Pala Indian Reservation located in northern San Diego County, with the official name of Mission San Antonio de Pala. It is the only historic mission facility still serving a Mission Indian tribe.
Pala (a derivation of the native term Pale, meaning water) was essentially a small rancho surrounded by large fields and herds. The Pala site had been noted by Father Juan Mariner and Captain Juan Pablo Grijalva on an exploratory trip in 1795, when they went up the San Diego River, and then through Sycamore Canyon to the Santa Maria Valley (or Pamó Valley) and into what they named El Valle de San José, now known as Warner Springs. Once Mission San Luis Rey began to prosper, it attracted the attention of numerous mountain Native Americans in the area, who were called the Luiseño by the Spanish.
The Franciscan fathers chose this site for the Pala Mission because it was a traditional gathering place and village for the Native American residents. Father Peyrí oversaw the addition of a chapel and housing to the granary complex, which was constructed at the spot in 1810. The chapel's interior wall surfaces featured paintings by native artists, originally measuring 144 by 27 feet. Workers went into the Palomar Mountains and cut down cedar trees to use as roof beams.
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