Pedro Estévan Tápis

Father Pedro Estévan Tápis (August 25 1754 – November 3 1825) was a Spanish missionary to the Americas.

He was born at Santa Coloma de Farnes in Catalonia, Spain and joined the Franciscan order at Genoa on 22 January 1778. [CathEncy|wstitle=Esteban Tapis] Father Tápis travelled to Mexico in 1786, then on to California in 1790 where he worked at the following missions:

* Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa (1790-1793)
* Mission Santa Barbara (1793-1806)
* Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo (1806-1811)
* Mission La Purísima Concepción (1812-1813)
* Mission Santa Inés (1813-1814)
* Mission San Juan Bautista (1815-1825)

When Father Lasuén died in 1803, Father Tápis took over as acting Father-President of the California mission chain (a post he was elected to three times, holding the office from 1803-1812). During his tenure, Father Tápis directed the founding of Mission Santa Inés in 1804. Father Tápis (who had a special talent for music) retired in 1812, and joined Father de la Cuesta at Mission San Juan Bautista in 1815 to teach singing to the Indians. He created a system using colorsfor different types of music notes which made it easier for the novices to follow, and his choir of Native American boys performed for many visitors, earning the San Juan Bautista Mission the nickname "Mission of Music." Two of his handwritten choir books are preserved at the San Juan Bautista Museum.

When Father Tapis died in 1825 he was buried on the Mission San Juan Bautista grounds.

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