The first priest the be ordained on the Pacific Coast, Father Doroteo Ambris was educated in Mexico as a student of the Indian Catholic College and came as page with the Right Rev. Francis Garcia Diego y Moreno OSF., the first Bishop of California. The Catholic Indians, then numerous in this State, and especially in the San Antonio Valley, were without a priest to provide for them. To supply this want was the first work of the good Bishop, who, seeing in the youth whom he had with him a good classical scholar and theologian and one manifesting proofs of solid virtue, resolved to ordain him for that mission. Hence Father Ambris could boast of being the first who received holy orders on the Pacific Coast. Shortly after his ordination he repaired to his flock of San Antonio, then comprised in the diocese of Monterey and Los Angeles, where he ministered for thirty five years, until relieved by death at 65 years of age at the Old Mission of San Antonio in Monterey County. His mission was composed of the poorest class of Indians and Californians, who were utterly penniless, and supported entirely, says the San Francisco Monitor, by "the good Padres," who, upon the secularization of Church property, were themselves maintained by the charity of the worthy bishop of the diocese. Father Ambris dwelt in a poor adobe house attached to the church, which is of the like material, and rarely did he leave it save when duty called him forth. Though his sufferings during life were many, few were aware of them, so patiently did he bear them.
The first priest the be ordained on the Pacific Coast, Father Doroteo Ambris was educated in Mexico as a student of the Indian Catholic College and came as page with the Right Rev. Francis Garcia Diego y Moreno OSF., the first Bishop of California. The Catholic Indians, then numerous in this State, and especially in the San Antonio Valley, were without a priest to provide for them. To supply this want was the first work of the good Bishop, who, seeing in the youth whom he had with him a good classical scholar and theologian and one manifesting proofs of solid virtue, resolved to ordain him for that mission. Hence Father Ambris could boast of being the first who received holy orders on the Pacific Coast. Shortly after his ordination he repaired to his flock of San Antonio, then comprised in the diocese of Monterey and Los Angeles, where he ministered for thirty five years, until relieved by death at 65 years of age at the Old Mission of San Antonio in Monterey County. His mission was composed of the poorest class of Indians and Californians, who were utterly penniless, and supported entirely, says the San Francisco Monitor, by "the good Padres," who, upon the secularization of Church property, were themselves maintained by the charity of the worthy bishop of the diocese. Father Ambris dwelt in a poor adobe house attached to the church, which is of the like material, and rarely did he leave it save when duty called him forth. Though his sufferings during life were many, few were aware of them, so patiently did he bear them.
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