Old Mission Santa Inés breaks ground on new public healing garden
Visitors to Old Mission Santa Inés in Solvang will soon have a new place of respite after construction of an on-site healing garden is completed.
Members of the community and parishioners gathered on April 30 at the southside of the mission grounds for a blessing and ground-breaking ceremony conducted by Bishop Slawomir Szkredka, of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
Work now is underway and is expected to be complete by early July, depending on weather, construction and material delays, according to Jackie Yanez, a local resident and church parishioner.
Yanez, who spearheaded the effort, said she was compelled by the idea of a healing garden in her community after attending a regional meeting last summer at the Catechists at Our Lady of Assumption in Ventura. The church at the time had just installed a healing garden of their own, dedicated to victims of abuse.