Monastery of the Cross there, where he presented his request for volunteers among the Dominican Sisters. He had one recruit, Sister Mary of the Cross Goemaere, O.P., a Belgian novice. Alemany soon set sail with her and a fellow Dominican friar, Francis Sadoc Vilarrasa, O.P., arriving in San Francisco on December 6, 1850. Goemaere then founded a community in Monterey which was to become the Dominican Sisters of San Rafael. San Francisco Leaving Rome immediately, he brought to his new see religious of both sexes, with whose aid he founded various institutions of learning in California. When the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco was erected July 29, 1853, Alemany was appointed by Pope Pius as its first archbishop. Alemany arrived in San Francisco finding three established Catholic parishes Mission Dolores (San Francisco de Asís) (1776), St. Francis of Assisi (1849) and St. Patrick (1851). As Archbishop of San Francisco, Alemany presided over what became a multinational diocese, owing to the influx of people during the California Gold Rush, and parishes were established for San Francisco's Italian, Irish, French, German and Mexican communities. Catholic religious institutes were also active during his tenure, with the Society of Jesus establishing Santa Clara University and the University of San Francisco, the De La Salle Christian Brothers taking over the diocesan Saint Mary's College, and the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur establishing in San Jose the Notre Dame de Namur University, and the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary establishing in Oakland the Holy Names University. He and Vilarosa also founded the Dominican Province of the Most Holy Name in 1851, and the Dominican Sisters of San Rafael and Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose were established in the archdiocese in 1851 and 1876, respectively. As Bishop of Monterey Alemany had filed a petition with the Public Land Commission on February 19, 1853, for the return of all former mission lands in California. As Archbishop of San Francisco he sought Fee Ownership of 1,051.44 acres (for all practical intents being the exact area of land occupied by the original mission buildings, cemeteries, and gardens) was subsequently conveyed to the Church, along with the Cañada de los Pinos (or College Rancho) in Santa Barbara County comprising , and La Laguna in San Luis Obispo County, consisting of . The scope of his authority was large, as the Diocese of Monterey originally