[3] It was founded by padre Fermín Lasuén on June 12, 1798, the eighteenth of the twenty-one Spanish missions built in the Alta California Province of the Viceroyalty of New Spain.

[14][18][19] Today the mission complex functions as a parish church of the Diocese of San Diego as well as a museum and retreat center.

Mission San Luis Rey De Francia raised about 26,000 cattle as well as goats, geese, and pigs.

[20] In his book, Tac lamented the rapid population decline of his Luiseño people after the founding of the mission: In Quechla not long ago there were 5,000 souls, with all their neighboring lands.

[9]The Mission-born, Franciscan-educated Tac wrote that his people initially attempted to bar the Spaniards from invading their Southern California lands.

Pablo Tac went on to describe the preferential conditions and treatment the padres received: In the mission of San Luis Rey de Francia the Fernandino [sic] father is like a king.

[15] In July 1847, U.S. military governor of California Richard Barnes Mason created an Indian sub-agency at Mission San Luis Rey, and his men took charge of the mission property in August, appointing Jesse Hunter from the recently arrived Mormon Battalion as sub-agent.

In 1998, Gilbert Levine led members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and, with the special permission of Pope John Paul II, the ancient Cappella Giulia Choir of St. Peter's Basilica, the first-ever visit of this 500-year-old choir to the Western Hemisphere, in a series of concerts to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the founding of the mission, broadcast on NPR's Performance Today.