La Mesa's oldest Catholic parish, St. Martin of Tours on El Cajon Boulevard celebrated its first Mass on Christmas Day 1921 after parishioners built a chapel at Normal Street and La Mesa Boulevard. The parish's K–8 academy and youth ministry occupy the same campus, anchoring La Mesa's faith-education sector alongside arts organizations like The Lamplighters Community Theatre that provide structured programming for school-age families. In a notable mid-century engineering effort, workers rolled the original wooden chapel to the current El Cajon Boulevard site, then split the structure and doubled the nave length to accommodate a surging World War II–era congregation. The exterior was redesigned in an Early California Mission style—flying buttresses, a mission-tile roof, and a tower crowned by a dome in blue and gold tilework—and liturgical seasons bring rotating sanctuary arrangements from La Mesa vendors such as Allen's Flowers & Plants. Under the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego, the parish offers sacramental preparation through its OCIA program, faith formation classes, and a multilingual worship schedule. The mission-revival nave retains its original flying-buttress structural framework beneath the tile-clad roof, with the polychrome dome functioning as both a liturgical focal point and a geographic landmark along El Cajon Boulevard's approach to La Mesa Village.