About San Felipe de Jesus · Thermal, California
San Felipe de Jesus is a Catholic mission in Thermal, California, in the eastern Coachella Valley, under the Diocese of San Bernardino. It serves the local farm-working and rural community of the unincorporated Thermal area along Highway 86. As a mission (not a parish), it is spiritually a chapel of nearby Our Lady of Soledad in Coachella, with weekend Mass celebrated by Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity (S.T.), who took on pastoral care of the broader Coachella Valley cluster in 2010. The mission is named for Saint Philip of Jesus (Felipe de Jesús), the Mexican-born Franciscan martyr and patron of Mexico City whose feast is February 5.
- Established
- 1987
- Patron
- Saint Philip of Jesus (San Felipe de Jesús)
- Rector
- Rev. Guy Wilson, S.T. (Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity)
- Diocese
- Diocese of San Bernardino
Why belong here
San Felipe de Jesus is a small, bilingual-feeling Catholic mission at 67305 Hwy 86 in Thermal that brings the Sunday Eucharist to the rural eastern Coachella Valley, a region long served from Our Lady of Soledad in Coachella. Weekend Mass is celebrated on Sunday morning by the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity, a religious order whose stated mission is preserving the Faith and forming lay ministers in places of greatest need. For Catholics living or working between Coachella and the Salton Sea — including farmworkers, families on the Torres-Martinez Reservation corridor, and travelers along Highway 86 — it offers a familiar place to worship close to home without driving to the larger parish churches of the valley.
Mass times at San Felipe de Jesus
Weekly Mass schedule
Identity & Background
San Felipe de Jesus is a Catholic mission in the unincorporated community of Thermal, California, in the eastern Coachella Valley of Riverside County. It is one of several dependent missions and chapels served from Our Lady of Soledad Parish in Coachella, the historic 'Mother Church of the Coachella Valley.' Like the other missions in this cluster — the Chapel of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary on the Torres-Martinez Indian Reservation and Misión del Señor de la Misericordia — it exists to bring Sunday Mass and basic pastoral care to rural communities that lie outside the footprint of a full parish church.
History
Catholic life in the southern Coachella Valley traces back to the 1920s, when Franciscan missionaries began traveling from Banning by train to evangelize the Cahuilla and other Indigenous communities and Mexican-American settlers of the region. Our Lady of Soledad in Coachella, dedicated in 1924, became the mother church from which smaller chapels and missions were branched out as the valley's farms and towns grew. San Felipe de Jesus Mission was established in 1987 to serve Catholics in the Thermal reach of Highway 86. In 2010, the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity (S.T.) accepted pastoral care of the Our Lady of Soledad cluster, including this mission.
- Established: 1987
- Mother church: Our Lady of Soledad, Coachella (dedicated 1924)
- Tied to Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary Chapel, Torres-Martinez Reservation (est. 1904)
Religious Order & Pastoral Care
Since 2010, San Felipe de Jesus and its sister missions have been served by the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity (Societas Trinitaria, abbreviated S.T.), a congregation of religious priests and brothers founded in the United States in 1929. The order's stated mission is directed toward the formation of lay ministry and the preservation of the Faith in places of greatest need — a description that fits the rural, agricultural communities of the eastern Coachella Valley well.
- Order: Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity (S.T.)
- Founded in the U.S. in 1929
- Accepted pastoral care of the Coachella Valley cluster in 2010
Patron Saint
The mission is named for Saint Philip of Jesus (San Felipe de Jesús, 1572–1597), a Mexican-born Franciscan missionary who traveled to the Philippines and was killed in Nagasaki as one of the Twenty-six Martyrs of Japan. He was beatified in 1627 by Pope Urban VIII and canonized on 8 June 1862 by Pope Pius IX, becoming the first Mexican Catholic saint. He is the patron saint of Mexico City and several other places in Mexico and Central America. His liturgical feast day is 5 February.
- First Mexican Catholic saint
- Feast day: 5 February
- One of the Twenty-six Martyrs of Japan
Visit, Contact & Location
The mission sits directly on Highway 86, the main north-south corridor through the eastern Coachella Valley. It is a short drive east from Coachella and west from the Salton Sea, making it a natural stopping point for Catholics traveling between the Imperial Valley and the greater Palm Springs area.
- Address: 67305 Highway 86, Thermal, CA 92274
- Phone: (760) 398-5577
- Fax: (760) 501-0039