Saint Junípero Serra

Saint Junípero Serra was a Spanish Franciscan and professor of philosophy who left his chair on Majorca to preach the Gospel in Mexico and California. He founded nine missions along the California coast, and John Paul II called him the Apostle of California. The Roman Martyrology commemorates him on August 28, the anniversary of his death.

He was born on November 24, 1713, in the town of Petra on Majorca and was baptized the same day, receiving the names Michael Joseph. In Palma he entered the Order of Friars Minor, and in 1731 he made his vows, taking the name Junípero in honor of Brother Juniper, a companion of Saint Francis. He was ordained a priest in 1737. For many years he taught philosophy and theology at the university in Palma.

In 1749, at the age of thirty-five, he set out for the missions in America with his disciple Francisco Palóu. From Veracruz he walked to Mexico City, and on the way he suffered a leg injury that troubled him for the rest of his life. From 1750 to 1758 he worked among the Pame people in the mountains of the Sierra Gorda, learning their languages and customs. He then spent ten years in Mexico City as novice master and preacher of parish missions.

After the Jesuits were expelled from the Spanish dominions, the Franciscans took over their missions in Lower California, and Father Junípero became their superior. In 1769 he reached Upper California and founded the mission of San Diego, followed by others, among them San Carlos Borromeo and San Francisco. Despite his bad leg he crossed California mostly on foot. His motto was “Siempre adelante,” “always forward.”

He often clashed with the Spanish governors and military commanders over the treatment of the Indians. In 1773, after an exhausting journey to Mexico City, he presented to the viceroy a memorandum called the Representación, sometimes described as a bill of rights for the Indians. He died on August 28, 1784, at the mission of San Carlos Borromeo in Carmel near Monterey, and he rests in its church.

The assessment of his work remains disputed. The missions were part of the Spanish colonization, and in 1987 John Paul II acknowledged that the encounter with the Europeans was a harsh and painful reality for the native peoples. Many Indians died in the missions of diseases brought from Europe, corporal punishment was also used there, and some descendants of the Indians opposed his canonization. In his canonization homily Pope Francis said that Junípero defended the dignity of the native community against those who mistreated it, and that those wrongs still cause pain.

John Paul II beatified him on September 25, 1988, in Rome. Pope Francis canonized him on September 23, 2015, in Washington, at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception; it was the first canonization on the soil of the United States. It took place without the second miracle usually required, because of his lasting reputation for graces and his widespread cult.