The mission is the seventeenth of the twenty-one missions founded by the Franciscans in California. The original Mission Cemetery is located on the north side of the Mission Church. The first burial was recorded in 1800, with the first interment in the church itself listed as 1798.
The current San Fernando Mission Cemetery was founded in 1952. The total property consists of eighty-six acres with nearly thirty acres undeveloped.
San Fernando Mission Cemetery serves the entire San Fernando Valley as well as the Santa Clarita Valley and surrounding communities.