Monsignor John O'Sullivan
The existence of Mission San Juan Capistrano in California today and the legend of its famous swallows are greatly due to a Kentuckian.
Born in Louisville in 1874, Monsignor John O’Sullivan was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest in 1904. After being diagnosed with tuberculosis, he was sent west to Texas, then Arizona and eventually southern Orange County, California. He served and renovated the Capistrano Mission and its Serra Chapel from 1910 until his death in 1933.
He is known as “The Great Restorer” and is buried outside the chapel he worked so hard to salvage.
According to the legend surrounding the cliff swallows, O’Sullivan, upon seeing a village shopkeeper knocking down the birds’ cone-shaped nests, called out, “Come on, swallows, I’ll give you shelter. Come to the Mission. There’s room enough there for all.”
The next morning, O’Sullivan found the swallows building the nests to which they migrated from Argentina each March. To this day, they continue their migration, leaving San Juan Capistrano in October to travel 6,000 miles south on their return journey.