When the Sisters of Mercy sent three sisters to Peter Dana Point in 1879 to provide education and religious instruction to the children, they were impressed with the fact that the Native American community still knew the prayers of the Mass and Vespers that had been translated into the Abenaki language by Jesuit missionaries some 200 years before. In the late 1920's a full-time priest was assigned to the reservation, and by 1929, the parish was officially called St. Ann Church.