Historical Heroes

Junipero Serra

Best known as: Spanish priest and missionary

Born: November 24, 1713 in Petra, Majorca, Spain

Died: August 28, 1784 at Mission San Carlos, California

Resting place: Mission San Carlos, California

Alternative name: Miquel Josep Serra i Ferrer

Biography:

The boy who would grow up to be Father Serra was born as Miquel Josep Serra i Ferrer in 1713 in the village of Petra on the island of Majorca off the coast of Spain. His father was named Antonio Nadal Serra and his mother was named Margarita Rosa Ferrer. The family worked as farmers, growing wheat and beans and raising cattle. Miquel helped his parents on the farm, but religion was his true passion from an early age. He attended elementary school at the Church of San Bernardino, located less than a block from his home, where he learned about religion, math, literature, Latin, and music. He was particularly gifted at music and enjoyed learning Gregorian chants and performing at church feasts. Even outside of school hours, Miquel loved visiting and chatting with the friars at the church.

At age 16, Miquel moved to Palma, the capital of Majorca, to further his studies. Shortly thereafter, in 1730, he became a novice in the Franciscan order of friars. He took a vow of poverty and celibacy and adopted the name Junipero in honor of Brother Juniper, a friar from the 1200s who was one of the original followers of St. Francis of Assisi. Life at the friary was strict and regimented. Each day was filled with prayers, singing, meditation, chores, and studies of theology, philosophy, and logic. In his free time, Junipero enjoyed learning even more about religion. He was fascinated by reading about friars who traveled around the world to convert people to Christianity. After 7 years of rigorous study, Serra became a priest in 1737. He also taught philosophy and received his doctorate in theology.

In 1748, at age 35, Serra decided to leave the island of Majorca and travel to America. He would undoubtedly have had a successful career as a priest and scholar, but he felt that he could be of better service to God by going abroad and sharing the teachings of Christianity. In 1749 he and a group of 19 other Franciscan friars landed at Veracruz in what is now Mexico. They traveled along the Camino Real to Mexico City. Most of the group rode on horseback, but Serra and one other friar walked the entire way because the rules of St. Francis of Assisi forbade riding horses unless absolutely necessary. During the arduous trek, Serra received an injury to his left foot that plagued him for the rest of his life.

Serra spent the next year at the College of San Fernando de Mexico, a headquarters and training center for Franciscan missionaries. He took classes on administration, learned the languages of Mexico's native people, and lived humbly, insisting on waiting tables in the dining hall despite his academic prestige. He even occasionally inflicted physical punishment on himself by wearing a coat with bristles or pieces of wire on the inside, whipping himself, or beating himself during sermons.

As his first assignment, in 1750 Serra became the supervisor of a mission in the Sierra Gorda region of Mexico. There he learned the language of the Pame people who were native to the area, organized church services, converted many people to Christianity, and set up and supervised a system of farming and trade. He also supervised and participated in the construction of a beautiful church in the village of Jalpan, a process that took seven years. During Serra's time in the Sierra Gorda area, a conflict took place when Spanish soldiers attempted to set up a village on land that was owned by the Pames and the mission. Serra took the side of the Pames, and the Spanish government eventually ordered the soldiers and their families to move out.

In 1758, Serra returned to the College of San Fernando. He spent the next nine years working in the college's administrative offices and traveling around the area as a missionary. In 1767 he was appointed president of the 13 missions of Baja California, a peninsula in what is now northern Mexico. These missions had previously been run by the Jesuits, but the king of Spain expelled them from Mexico. Serra and his fellow Franciscan missionaries took over leadership of the missions, teaching the natives about religion and helping them to grow wheat, corn, beans, fruit, and cotton, which was challenging because of the scarce supply of water.

In 1768, the inspector general of New Spain (Mexico) sent Serra and other explorers to travel north to the region called Alta California. Although Serra's foot injury had worsened by this point, he eagerly accepted the chance to spread Christianity to new lands. A party of about 300 people set out, with Serra riding on a mule. On May 14, 1769, he founded the Mission San Fernando Rey de Espana de Velicata, located on the northern border of Baja California. Serra left one of his fellow missionaries in charge of the mission - which at that point consisted of a mud hut with 12 Native American converts - and continued north. The party encountered many Native Americans during their journey, and their interactions were for the most part friendly. They exchanged food and cloth, some Native Americans joined the traveling party, and on one humorous occasion some Native Americans admired and even tried to steal Serra's glasses. After a 900-mile journey, the expedition arrived in San Diego. They had lost about half of their number due to a combination of starvation, sickness, and desertion.

There, Serra founded the Mission San Diego de Alcala on July 16, 1769. This was the first mission in present-day California. His time there was marred by conflict between the missionaries and the native Kumeyaay people. The Spanish soldiers accused the Kumeyaay of taunting them and stealing cloth. A battle took place in August, during which several Kumeyaay, as well as Serra's servant, were killed. Holding a figurine of Jesus in one hand and a figurine of Mary in the other, Serra prayed for both sides to be spared bloodshed. Lack of food also made life difficult at the mission, but Serra refused to turn back. On St. Joseph's Day, March 19, 1770, a ship arrived with provisions. Serra left some of his fellow friars to run the Mission San Diego and headed further north, aiming to establish another mission in Monterey, the northernmost point of Spain's territory in Alta California. He traveled by ship, an arduous 6-week voyage that involved being blown far off course several times and which the always stoic Serra described as "somewhat uncomfortable." Upon arriving at their destination on June 3, 1770, Serra and his companions planted a large cross in the ground and founded a new mission, which the king of Spain had instructed them to name the Mission San Carlos Borromeo. They rang bells and fired muskets, and the ship fired its cannons to celebrate. In 1771 Serra decided to move the mission to nearby Carmel in order to be closer to water sources and potential converts.

Over the next decade, Serra founded seven more missions in what is now California: Mission San Antonio de Padua (1771), Mission San Gabriel Arcangel (1771), Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa (1772), Mission San Juan Capistrano (1776), Mission San Francisco de Asis (1776), Mission Santa Clara de Asis (1777), and Mission San Buenaventura (1782). He served as president of the California missions, including these seven and the two he had founded earlier: Mission San Diego and Mission San Carlos. On several occasions, he stood up for the rights of the native people and argued with Spanish government officials about how they should be treated. For example, in 1773 he traveled to Mexico City to complain about the military commander in California, resulting in the commander being removed from office. In later life, he made a 600-mile journey during which he visited all nine missions and administered the sacrament of confirmation to 5,309 people who had been converted to and baptised in the Christian faith.

Serra died of tuberculosis in 1784, at age 70. In 1988 he was beatified by Pope John Paul II, and in 2015 he was canonized by Pope Francis, who called him "one of the founding fathers of the United States."

Physical characteristics:

Father Serra was said to be short and slight and not physically strong. In statues and art, he is depicted with the traditional tonsure haircut of a medieval monk or priest, wearing a Franciscan habit, and either wearing or carrying a cross.

Personality:

In addition to being extremely intelligent and intellectually curious - excelling academically despite coming from a family who never attended school - he was one of the most religiously devout and zealous people ever to live. He left his home and traveled to a faraway land, where he braved hunger, thirst, weather, illnesses, injuries, and armed conflict, all in order to bring the Christian faith to more people. Although one could argue that his philosophy was paternalistic and that he should have just left the Native Americans to live according to their own customs, there is no doubt that he bravely and selflessly dedicated his life to doing what he thought was right.

Fun facts:

Considered the patron saint of California, Hispanic Americans, and religious vocations.
His feast day is celebrated on July 1 and August 28.
Mission San Diego de Alcala, which he founded, was the location of California's first vineyard. Therefore he is sometimes called the "Father of California Wine."