“Silent film actress Mary Pickford first visited Mission San
Juan Capistrano in 1910 to film the D.W. Griffith movie, “Two Brothers.” Set against the scenic Mission, the
movie helped launch Pickford’s career while garnering attention for the old Mission.
Pickford returned to the Mission five years later to serve as a witness for a friend’s wedding, and while there
she celebrated an impromptu renewal of her own marriage vows to then-husband Owen Moore. Father
O’Sullivan performed both ceremonies in the Serra Chapel on April 24, 1915, with the post-ceremony scene
forever captured in a painting by artist Charles Percy Austin.
The oil on canvas painting, which underwent conservation in the 1980s, is on display in the Mission’s
ongoing exhibit, “Mission Treasures: Historical Collection Revealed.” The marriage renewal is also
recorded in one of the Mission’s historic registrars, also on display in the exhibit.”