Saint Raphael Church & Mission San Rafael Arcangel

Historic Architecture — classic California. GREAT Arc Angel on the tower. Very visible from the activity, restaurants and attractions of San Rafael. Bring your camera

Very disappointed. The hours are posted on the door, however they adhere to their own times. Came a long way to visit the Mission Museum but didn’t get to see because they weren’t open…

The modern church (the one you can see from down the street) looks amazing. The mission is more humble (as expected).
If you’re looking for some history then you’ll be disappointed as the original mission was completely left to ruin — a mud heap. The one on the site is a reproduction but isn’t even in the original location (taken up by the modern church). So there’s not much to see as the mission looks brand new and there are no original artifacts inside.
There may be more historical stuff inside the museum but I don’t know where that it. It doesn’t say anything about a museum on the site. It could be inside the gift shop but unfortunately it was closed for lunch (noon-1:30pm) which wasn’t stated on the website. We looked inside the windows but couldn’t see anything museum-​like.
According to the website the museum and gift shop are open 11am to 4pm on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday.

Wow, have you ever seen a «pink» church? Well, here it is… My dad and I toured this after noticing on our way to the square. We took some photos and then got my sister and mom to come see as well. It got darker but they turned the lights on which was cool:) I even remembered that we got my niece in the photo shot as well:)

How do you give less than a 5 star rating to a church. Aren’t you afraid you are going to pull up in front of the gates of heaven and they go «Hmmm, are you the one who gave us a 3 star rating??». I am not taking that chance.
This is another beautiful mission and is located in downtown San Rafael. I would highly recommend making it a day trip and visiting other spots in this neighborhood. Make sure to include Gerstle Park and Sol Food.

I do love going along the 101 and visiting all the missions. I mean, I love history, and the West Coast just doesn’t have as much compared to a trip to the East Coast with Philly and Civil War battlefields and Washington DC and all that.
That being said, Mission San Rafael is nice, at least from the outside… it was locked and we couldn’t get in. Parking is metered on the street, so not the easiest to get to. I prefer a lot of the other missions with their own parking lots, This one you could drive right by on the busy street it’s on. The day we went, the church almost looked pink… wish we could have seen the inside :(
We can say we’ve been though.

the world according to noelle
~2012~
Came here recently on a cold and rainy weekend with my husband. Parking is metered on the street. The reconstructed Mission San Rafael Arcangel is beautiful inside yet it lacks the old and authentic feel of the other missions. Definitely worth stopping by to learn the history of this specific California Mission. They also have one of the nicest Mission gift shops which was well stocked with bibles, prayer books, religious statues and things that encourage catechesis for those interested in the Catholic faith.

Mission San Rafael Archangel was the twentieth spanish mission built in 1817 to serve as an «asistencia» for Mission Dolores — San Francisco.
Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821, and the popular retreat of San Rafael Archangel was elevated to full mission status in 1822. However, those relaxing days in the sunshine of Marin were short lived.
In 1846, John C. Fremont captured Mission San Rafael for the U.S., and used the chapel as a horse stable. It’s condition continued to deteriorate, and by 1861 all the original buidlings had to be torn down.
A «replica» of the Mission San Rafael Arcangel chapel was rebuilt in 1949, with a grant from the Hearst foundation.
After going out for mexican tacos al pastor, I decided to come here and have a look around. I stumbled upon this mission chapel and suddenly found myself at the 7pm Spanish mass. There were three guys performing music; two on the guitara, and one on bass. Most of the songs were about some guy named hey-​zeus.
The people inside the church were singing these canciones en espanol and clapping along with the music. I sat down in an old wooden pew and relaxed for awhile, soaking in the California history. The young girl in the row in front of me, turned to me and smiled. It felt like the proper way to see this place.

i can’t rate this lower than 5 stars. All mission churches are special. In their very own way they they exude their very own history.
This particular one sits right on top of a hill in downtown San Rafael. The big church is nice but for some reason I was more attracted to the little chapel that sits slightly below it. It more quite and more to my liking. Simpler décor and old looking pews. I can totally imagine myself walking the aisle here :)

The reconstructed mission with its very welcoming nave is basically a historic attraction only, may be used for ceremonial purposes; worshippers use the larger modern church building next to the mission. Reading the previous reviews I think some visitors confuse the two… The site map comparing the original layout to today is very helpful.

We were in town and wanted to stop by, little did we know that the chapel is only open on week ends. Too bad, really wanted to see the inside of the church. It was beautiful from the outside, hopefully we can come back again.

I pretty much think the people who recreated that star-​shaped relief on the San Rafael façade just straight up copied it from Mission Carmel. I greatly doubt it was part of the original, and the people that came in to rebuild the mission must’ve liked it.
That said, San Rafael is located in bright and sunny skies north of the San Francisco city region and with good reason – the damp, perpetually foggy and gray climate of San Francisco (Mission Dolores then), made the Native Americans constantly sick, so a sunny sanatorium was founded for them, which eventually morphed into good ol’ Mission San Rafael. Lovely spot in bougie San Rafael. Enjoy. It is a bit small, but that’s ok :)

i was pretty sure this was the weirdest mission i’d ever been to.
why was it in the middle of everything, where were the grassy knolls distinguishing it from the rest of the world? why was it so loud? was that a school? why was the gift shop the biggest part of it?
& then i bothered to read about it:
(here:
)
«Mission San Rafael began as a hospital serving the sick from Mission Dolores. Later it became a thriving Mission on its own.»
that explains it!
still, it’s a really lovely mission, as far as they go, and the differences compared with other california missions set it apart in a nice way.
i spent the majority of my time here in the actual chapel, trying to do a rosary according to a handy pamphlet i picked up near an altar to/​of mary, but to no avail. those rosaries are tricky things, and anyway, i didn’t have any beads. after that, i combed through the gift shop for st. therese memorabilia, only to find it really lacking in that department. had i wanted a glow in the dark cross necklace, however, i would have been totally stoked to find it there.