Father Junípero Serra founded the mission at Monterey in 1770 and moved it to the mouth of the Carmel River in 1771, partly for better farmland and partly to put distance between his Indigenous neophytes and the soldiers at the Monterey presidio. From 1770 until 1833, it was the headquarters of all the Alta California missions.
Serra died in 1784 and is buried in the sanctuary. After secularization in 1833 the buildings decayed; the chapel roof was rebuilt in 1884, and from 1931 Harry Downie restored the mission over the next 50 years. It is a National Historic Landmark and still a parish. It is the only California mission with its original bell and bell tower, and it holds the state’s first library.
The mission is also tied to the harm done to the Rumsen and Esselen people, whose populations fell sharply through disease and forced labor.