Mission 2000 Database

Notes: Padre Ybañez was the first of five missionaries who came to Tumacácori after the death of Padre Baltazar Carrillo. None of the five, with the exception of Padre Gutiérrez, liked it there. At age 16, Padre Ybañez entered the Franciscan Order at the Convento de Nuestra Señora de Jesús in Zaragosa, Spain. He reached the Americas with the Mission of 1770 to the College of San Fernando in Mexico city. There he excelled in choir and painting choir books. From 1774 to 1781 he served as a choir master and Latin teacher in the Franciscan province of Michoacán. After joining the College of Querétaro in 1783, he came to the Pimería Alta and spent most of his time at Sáric, where he built a church of fired brick and lime mortar. He quarreled with his fellow Priests, and Padre Iturralde of Tubutama tried to have him removed, but was unsuccessful. In December of 1795, Padre Ybañez was minister at Tumacácori. There, he and Padre Gutiérrez did not get along, but they did not have to suffer each other's company for too long. The Father Visitor sent Ybañez to Caborca, and by 1797 he was back at Sáric. On August 12, 1798, Padre Ybañez left the Pimería Alta after 16 years of service. Three years later he showed up at the Port of Monterey in Alta California. At age 60, he had quit the College of Querétaro and rejoined the College of San Fernando. For nineteen more years he lived the life of a missionary at Mission San Antonio and Soledad. He is remembered as a musician and author of nativity plays. He died at Soledad on November 26, 1818 and is buried there in the church.