Founded: 1919

Location: 185 St. Thomas Drive, Ojai

Santa Barbara Region: Deanery 3

According to the old Chumash Indian word A'hwai, the name of Ojai (pronounced O-high) means either "nest" or "moon." But for most residents of the 10-mile-long and three-mile-wide area off Highway 33 in west Ventura County, it is just "paradise." The town is rich in physical beauty and cultural history.

Its east-to-west alignment among the Sulphur and Topa Topa mountain ranges make Ojai one of the few places in the world to enjoy the "Pink Moment," created when the fading afternoon sunlight casts a brilliant shade of pink on the Topa Topa mountains to the northeast. Ojai also earned a "cinematic trophy" as the setting for the mythical city of Shangri-La in the 1937 film "Lost Horizon."

Like many cities along the California coast, the area was a Spanish land grant that developed into a cattle ranch when it was deeded in 1837 to Fernando Tico. Sixteen years later he sold the land to oil prospectors who had little exploration success. But the area was settled nonetheless and the city of Nordhoff was established in 1874. Charles Nordhoff was a New York writer who had visited California and wrote enthusiastically of the area and influenced many to travel west.

The city's development was boosted by Edward D. Libbey, a wealthy glass manufacturer, who devised a plan to design, finance and build a modern downtown. His first visit in 1908 inspired him to settle in the oak-dotted valley and create a city vision that endures today.

At the same time the beginning of St. Thomas Aquinas Church occurred. In 1903-04 a small mission opened attended by priests from Ventura and Santa Paula. Father Emil Ylla was appointed pastor in April 1919 (two years after the town was officially named Ojai) and celebrated weekly Mass. Other early pastors were Father John Killian, Father W. F. Verhalen and Msgr. John Moclair, a native of County Galway, Ireland. In 1923 the Augustinian Fathers took charge of the parish (whose original chapel was destroyed by a forest fire) and have continued in that ministry for 82 years.

In 1956 Cardinal James Francis McIntyre blessed the new parish school built at Canada and Aliso Streets, the first school in California staffed by the Sisters of Bethany. Father Philip A. Holland was the pastor. The church, school, rectory and hall were all located at that time in downtown Ojai. Father John F. Blethen headed the parish from 1961 to 1968 and in 1963 witnessed the dedication of the new church situated near Meiners Oaks on the 11-acre parish property about a mile from the former site in downtown. It was a modern tilt-up concrete construction with native stone in the panels. Over the main entrance was placed a Carrara marble statue of St. Thomas Aquinas.

The parish's patron saint (feast day Jan. 28) is known as the Universal Teacher, canonized in 1323 and proclaimed Doctor of the Church in 1567. During his lifetime he compared his major work, the Summa Theologica, to "so much straw in the wind compared to the reality of the divine glory." The parish is one of two so named in the archdiocese (the other is in Monterey Park).

Other pastors included Augustinian Fathers Thomas Behan, Thomas J. McLaughlin and Richard Smith (the latter killed in a 1987 airplane crash). In 1988 the parish celebrated its 25th anniversary of the new site when Father James P. Clifford was pastor and three former pastors (Fathers Blethen, Behan and McLaughlin) attended.

In 1989 Father Patrick J. Keane, of San Diego, was named pastor. Prior to his assignment he spent 23 years at St. Augustine's High School in San Diego, 13 as principal, and in 1979 had been elected provincial of the order in the western province and United States.

In 1997 Father William V. Olivas, a native of Ojai, was ordained an Augustinian priest and appointed as associate at the parish. At age 76 it was the culmination of an unusual career --- world-renowned wrestler, World War II soldier, health care worker, widower and permanent deacon for 20 years at the parish. A unique contribution to a church of rich history in the spirit of St. Thomas.