María Concepción Argüello

Concepción Argüello was the daughter of José Darío Argüello, the Spanish governor of Alta California and Presidio Commandante.

She was born on February 19, 1791 at the Presidio of San Francisco and at 15 she fell in love with Nikolai Rezanov, head of Russian expedition to Alaska. His expedition had hard times in California and his involvement with Argüello was first motivated by practical considerations since the Spanish Crown did not permit any help to Russians. But later on all practical considerations went away and Nikolai went to Russia to ask permission of the tsar for him to be able to marry Concepción. But during his trip he fell from horseback, became sick and died. He is buried in Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk.

Argüello never learned his fate and continued to wait for him till the end of her life, rejecting all other men. Later she became a nun in Monterey, California and remained in the sisterhood until her death, afterwards moving to Benicia, California.

By other source of information, Argüello was waiting for permission of Pope to get married. She found out about the death of Nikolai Rezanov. In 1808, a year after Resanov's death of cold in Krasnoyarsk, head of Russian American Company Alexander Baranov wrote to brother of Argüello about that and freed her from the engagement, but she chose to stay celibate and became a nun.

Argüello died on December 23, 1857 and is now buried in Saint Dominic's Cemetery, Benicia, where her remains were moved from St Catherine Covent cemetery in 1894. A monument marks her grave.

Source: Wikipedia