Todos los Santos de Reina de Los Ángeles

I just saw an interesting article in the California Catholic Daily that I thought I'd share. A local Los Ángeles artist has taken to documenting, in art, the history of 103 streets in the City of the Queen of the Angels. Why 103? Because that's how many streets in the city are named after saints. Some of them were named by the Franciscans during the Mission Era, some during the 'hey day' of Spanish California, a few during the Mexican years, but apparently most of these names were given during the late 19th & early 20th centuries by American developers who wanted to play up the romantic Spanish heritage of Southern California to wealthy Easterners looking to vacation.

The city has amazingly contributed funds to this project and will display the paintings in transit stops on the streets they depict. Some of the paintings show rather modern stylized versions of the saints, others show historic persons connected with the street, while still others show local people and places.

A few of the paintings can be viewed here: All the Saints of the City of the Angels.

N.B. that it is a common mistake among Anglos and non-Catholics to refer to Los Ángeles as The City of the Angels. This is incorrect as the original name was El pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de Los Ángeles de Porciúncula or The City of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels of the Little Portion. (The Spanish simply refered to the city as Reina de Los Ángeles for short.) Of course the "little portion" refers to the famous Church of Our Lady of the Angels where St. Francis of Assisi founded his order. The Franciscans named many places in Upper California after saints and devotions relating to their order.

The painting for San Rafael Avenue is above. To-day was the Feast of St. Raphael in the traditional calendar.