Life of Ven. Padre Junípero Serra

Dedication

MOST UEV. ARCHBISHOP:

To whom could I dedicate this book on the life of Father Junipeeo Seera more appropriately than to Your Grace, who for thirty-four years has held the Episcopal Staff? To-day, the thirtieth of June, 1884, Your Grace celebrates the thirty-fourth anniversary of your Consecration as Bishop, Your Grace was the first to bear the title of Bishop of Monterey. To you then belongs the dedication of these pages, consecrated to the memory of Padre Junipeeo Serra, who planted the Cross at Monterey, and who labored and died but a few miles from it in his Mission of Carmelo. Besides, as Your Grace has been Metropolitan of this Ecclesiastical Province since 1853, it is but just that on that account, without any reference to your many virtues and merits, which of themselves merit the distinction, I should thus dedicate my humble labors. Permit me therefore to offer you these pages as a token of affection and esteem.

Yours in Christ,

Preface

Nowadays it is the common practice to publish the lives not only of saints and heroes, but even of persons of very little or no merit, whose promotion from deserved obscurity is calculated to injure rather than benefit the world. I do not deem it necessary to make any apology for presenting to the public a translation of the life of Padre Junipero Serra, the original of which was written in Spanish by his companion, Father Palou. Though there may be a few copies of this work translated into English, I have been unable to find any. In fact Fr. Serra's life by Palou is so scarce in the mother tongue that the few copies extant are estimated at the highest value. It is true that the principal facts of our hero's life have been published now and again by many California authors, but a full account of his career cannot be found except in the Spanish edition published in Mexico in 1787.

As it is proposed during the current year to celebrate the first centennial of the death of Padre Juniperro Serra, I thought it might not be amiss to contribute my mite in this endeavor to perpetuate the glories of the founder of the Missions of Upper California.

While abler pens than mine are preparing long and elaborate essays on the life and apostolic labors of the humble son of Saint Francis, let the people of California with forebearing generosity pass over the many deficiencies they will find in this translation, and remember only the cordial afi'ection with which it is offered.

t Imprimatur,

FKANCISCUS MOEA,

LIFE OF

Ven.FatherJuniperoSerra

FIRST APOSTLE OF CALIFORNIA.

CHAPTEK I.

Among the saintly sons of the Seraphic St. Francis, there are few more remarkable than the first Apostle and evangelizer of California, the Yen. Fr. Junipero Serra. This holy priest and fervent religious was born on the 24th of November in the year 1713, in the town of Petra, in the Island of Majorca. His parents were Antonio Serro and Margarita Ferrer. From the pious training they gave the young Junipero we may judge they were good christians, who loved and served God. Antonio was a farmer and the worthy couple were noted among the villagers for their industry and uprightness.

Junipero^ was baptized the very day of his birth and received the names of Michael and Joseph, which names he retained in confirmation. It is a general custom in Spain to confirm children while they are quite young and accordingly Junipero received this sacrament on the 26th of May, 1715, in the parish church where he had been baptized.

At an early age Junipero was well instructed by his parents in the rudiments of the holy Catholic faith; they took care to take him to hear mass at the convent church of St. Bernardino where the Franciscanvfathers resided ; at the convent he learned among other things, latin and the gregorian chant.

From his attention to his studies, and still more from his pietj and docility the parents of Junipero concluded that God had blessed their son with a vocation to the priesthood. To foster his piety they took Junipero to Palma, the Capital of Majorca, and placed him under the charge of a Beneficiary priest of the Cathedral. As time passed on, the ardent wish to be a religious took possession of the soul of Junipero, and faithful to the inspirations of grace he presented himself to the Yery Kev. Fr. Anthony Perello, the Provincial of the Franciscans who, seeing that he was small and delicate, postponed his reception for a time. However, as he was over the canonical age, Junipero received the Franciscan habit, on the 14th of September, 1730, and was admitted, as a novice, into the convent of Jesu, outside the city walls.

During the year of his novitiate, Junipero studied carefully the austere rules of the Franciscans and read the lives of the many saints, which that glorious Order has given to the church; like another Ignatius of Loyola, this reading inflamed his heart with love and zeal for souls; he particularly delighted in the lives of those saintly men who were employed on the missions among pagan and savage nations. On one occasion, with tears in his eyes, he remarked, "During my studies I had a most ardent desire to leave my country and go among the Indians; I took a resolution to that effect." How this desire was fulfilled, we shall see in the following chapter. The year of probation being ended, Fr. Junipero was professed on the 15th of September, 1731. On account of his great devotion to one of the first companions of St. Francis — Friar Juniper — he took that name in holy profession ; such was his spiritual joy on that solemn day, that each year he renewed his vows on the anniversary and when occasion offered he would assist at the profession of a novice with pious emotion, saying with fervor : "All good came to me on the blessed day of my holy profession." The good Father continues — "while I was a novice I was so small, that I could not read at the chorister's desk, so I was employed to serve mass. I was sickly during my novitiate, but scarcely had I been professed when I recovered my health and strength and grew to a manly height." After' his profession Fr. Junipero was transferred to another convent of the Order, to study philosophy and theology, and he made such rapid progress in these branches that, even before he was ordained, he was made professor of philosophy, and before the end of the philosophical curriculum received the title of Doctor of Divinity. As a teacher he was most successful, and many of his pupils received, later the highest honors in this branch of science. Teaching, however, did not prevent Fr. Junipero excelling as a sacred orator. His sermons were listened to with the greatest attention, even by literary men; his last sermon in Palma was so much appreciated, that a famous orator, not friendly to our Apostle, whispered at the close: "this sermon is worth being printed in letters of gold." The humble Fr. Junipero however, did not seek the applause of men in large cities, his only ambition was to preach the christian doctrine in small towns to a rude peasantry, and still more did he desire to go and bury his brilliant talents amongst the uncivilized children of the forest.

Numerous were the conversions of great sinners, which followed the preaching of the Lenten sermons by Father Junipero.

On one occasion a woman, possessed by the evil spirit, arose in the midst of the audience and said : ' ' shout ! shout ! as much as you wish, for you will not finish this Lent." The Yen. Serra writing to his friend Father Palou said: "thanks to God I enjoy good health and in spite of the assertion, of the father of lies, to the contrary, I hope to finish well this season of Lent."