Founded: 1954
Location: 3175 Telegraph Road, Ventura
Santa Barbara Region: Deanery 3

This parish incorporates three outstanding elements: California history, unique art and religious dogma, plus four pastors in 55 years.

The colorful historical record goes back 240 years when the Gaspar de Portola expedition reached a small Chumash Indian village on their seven-month trip in search of Monterey Bay. This was the first recorded attempt by Spain to explore Alta California by land; the diarist among the group of 64 men was Franciscan Padre Juan Crespi.

The expedition camped at the Indian village (the site of present day Ventura) on August 14, 1769. Before breaking camp the next morning Padre Crespi and Padre Francisco Gomez celebrated Mass for the feast of the Assumption --- naming the area "La Asunción de Nuestra Senora."

Although the Portola group failed to recognize Monterey Bay in their quest, the Indian village named in honor of Mary remained when, 13 years later, Padre Junípero Serra founded a mission on the site and named it for the Franciscan cardinal and scholar, St. Bonaventure, thereby creating the city known as Ventura. San Buenaventura Mission continued as the area's main church from 1782 until the early 1950s when the city's growth required a second parish.

Property was purchased on Telegraph Road a few miles east of the mission; the initial cost for land and first buildings was $175 (eventually, $300,000 was needed for all the future plans and extensions). In 1951, even $175 was a challenge for the young, hard-working, families but contributions and prayers to the Blessed Mother finally resulted in the construction of one of the most artistic churches in the archdiocese. In August of 1954 Cardinal James Francis McIntyre officially dedicated the new Our Lady of the Assumption Church.

That was four years after Pope Pius XII declared the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary a dogma of the universal Church with the feast day of August 15. Since the seventh century, it had been one of the oldest and most solemn feasts of Mary, as the early Franciscans recognized when they named the area.

The founding pastor of the new parish also had a unique background. Msgr. Daniel A. Hurley, a native of County Cork, Ireland, was one of 98 men (most of whom would serve as missionaries) ordained at St. Patrick's College in 1921. A year later he was an assistant at San Buenaventura Mission for five years, the beginning of what would be 38 years of service in Ventura. Before returning as the Mission pastor 12 years later, Msgr. Hurley was also pastor at St. Mary, Escondido; Nativity, Torrance; and St. Aloysius, L.A.

He directed the building of Assumption while it was a mission and then became the first pastor, remaining for 18 years. Msgr. Hurley retired in 1973 but continued as the chaplain at St. Catherine's by the Sea for the Holy Cross Sisters; he died in 1982 at age 88.

His leadership fostered the extraordinary artwork that embellishes Assumption Church. Millard Sheets created both the mural painting of the Assumption above the altar and the tile mural on the façade of the church depicting the first Mass celebrated in 1769. The monumental series of the Stations of the Cross and other statues are the work of Albert Stewart, who like Sheets was a faculty member at Scripps College. Liturgical artists Isabel and Edith Piczek created all the stained glass windows, and in recent years Isabel installed nine windows in the vestibule to commemorate the missions founded by Serra.

Those windows, the Sacred Heart mosaic and others were competed during the term of the next pastor, Msgr. Donal Mulcahy, also from County Cork and ordained in Ireland. He served as pastor for 25 years and in 1986 was responsible for printing a 56-page booklet explaining and illustrating the remarkable sacred art in the church. He retired in 1997 and lives at the parish, continuing pastoral work of visiting the sick, helping in parish activities and serving, as he explained "without the burden of being the pastor."

From 1997 to 2005, Msgr. Michael Jennett, from Burbank, headed the parish after serving for eight years as pastor of St. Joseph in Carpinteria. For 11 years he taught theology classes at St. John's Seminary and for five years worked with the Trappists in Utah. A 1974 ordinand from St. John's Seminary, Msgr. Jennett is now pastor at San Roque, Santa Barbara.

A Pasadena native currently pastors Our Lady of the Assumption: Father Stephen Davoren, who attended St. Christopher School in West Covina and graduated from Bishop Amat High School, La Puente. Father Davoren --- whose dad worked for the L.A. County Sheriff's Department for 35 years --- was himself an L.A. County deputy sheriff and an LAPD officer.

But something in his life, he says, was "missing" until discernment and prayer brought him to St. John's Seminary and ordination to the priesthood in 1996 --- and, today, a fitting ministry at Mary's parish.