The holy man of Santa Clara; or, Life, virtues and miracles of Fr. Magin Catala, O.F.M.

Front matter

THE

Holy Man of Santa Clara

OR

Preface

It is with much diffidence that the author offers this Httle volume to the reading public. There is vastly more in the life of a saint than appears on the surface. In order that it receive just treatment it should be written by a saint. Gladly would the author have left the task to a worthier pen, but obedience decreed otherwise. He, therefore, decided to take purely historical ground, and herewith presents the facts obtained through long and critical research. He believes that this course will after all best serve the cause of Fr. Magin Catala. May the holy servant of God forgive what was written amiss.

In compliance with the Decree of Pope Urban VIII., the author hereby declares that he claims only human belief for the miracles, revelations, graces, and other incidents attributed to Fr. Magin Catala; that the terms holy, saintly, and similar expressions, as applied to the servant of God, are employed in a wider sense, and not in the sense bestowed upon the servants of God already canonized by the Holy Roman Church ; that he professes himself an obedient son of the same Holy Roman Church ; and that he reverently submits to her decision whatever he has written in this book.

The Author.

Chapter I

California. — Discovery of Gold. — The Missions and Missionaries. — Fr. Magin Catala's Birth, Baptism, Parents. — Enters the Franciscan Order.

EVER since the discovery of gold in Northern California, men of almost every nation under the sun flocked to the Pacific Coast. Some braved the hardships of the deserts and the cruelties of the savages by making their way through the country afoot, on horseback, or in wagons of every description ; others took passage on the Atlantic Coast to cross the continent at the Isthmus of Panama, or sailed around Cape Horn to reach the Golden Gate. All came animated with the one desire of improving their temporal fortunes. The country was new to them and to the world at large, yet it was not a new country. Others had preceded the fortune-hunters. It had been discovered three hundred years before the little town at the entrance of the famous bay changed its Spanish name Yerba Buena to that of the glorious Saint of Assisi. Carmelite friars, accompanying Sebastian Vizcaino, had celebrated the Holy Sacrifice on the shores of Monterey Bay in December, 1602. Eighty years before the region of the Sacramento began to surrender its metallic treasures, Franciscan friars, vowed to poverty and to contempt for that same metal, had commenced Christianizing the degraded natives of the coast and were developing a system of civilization which has since forced the admiration of the shrewdest statesmen as well as the approbation of the most sentimental humanitarians, and has afforded an inexhaustible theme for the bard as well as the traveler.

The period of eighty years immediately preceding the arrival of the gold-diggers marks the golden age of the California natives. During this time, through the combined efforts of the voluntarily poor Catholic friars and the naturally poor Indians, twenty-one missionary establishments arose and dotted the coast region from San Diego to Sonoma. One hundred and forty-six Franciscan priests, without any worldly compensation whatsoever, there devoted themselves to the arduous task of raising the savages to the plane of Christian manhood and womanhood. Nearly one-half of this faithful band of apostolic laborers fell at their post among their dusky wards as victims of Catholic zeal for the salvation of immortal souls.

Among those that volunteered for this life of hardship and self-denial in the missions of California Fr. Magin Catala stands conspicuous for zeal, sanctity, and an uncommonly long term of missionary activity in one place. This servant of God was born on the 29th or the 30th of January, 1761, at Montblanch, in the province of Catalonia and the archdiocese of Tarragona,

FACHADA OF THE CHURCH AT MONTBLANCH.

Spain. His parents, ]\Iatias Catala, a notary, and Francisca Catala y Guasch, were exemplary Christians. An uncle was a secular priest and beneficiary of the church at Montblanch. In baptism, which was administered on Saturday, January 31st, by the Rev. Jose Montaiiez y Murtra, parish priest of St. Mary Major at Montblanch, the child received the names Magin,* Jose, Matias. The sponsors were Raimundo and Josefa Catala. On August 7th, 1767, when little more than six years of age, Magin received the Sacrament of Confirmation in the same parish church at the hands of the Most Rev. Juan Lario Lanzis, Archbishop of Tarragona. This is all we know of Fr. Magin's childhood.

Matias and Francisca Catala must have trained their child in the path of virtue ; for, at the early age of sixteen years, Magin sought refuge from the allurements of the world in the Order of Friars Minor by taking the habit of St. Francis at the monastery of Barcelona on April 4th, 1777. One year later he pronounced the vows of obedience, chastity, and poverty, without taking another name on that occasion as is customary in Spanish countries. When he had finished the usual classical and higher studies, the young cleric was elevated to the priesthood, probably in the year 1785. Neither the date nor the year

*■ Vide Appendix A.

could be ascertained from the archives of the Spanish monastery, owing to the fact that the religious houses in Spain have at different times been subjected to the rapacity of unscrupulous politicians, who under one pretext or another despoiled the convents of their archives and libraries as well as of everything else that appeared valuable.

CHAPTER 11.

Dearth of Missionaries. — Fr. Magin Goes to America. — Vandalism of the Liberal Politicians. — Chaplain on the Nootka Ship. — Arrives at Monterey. — Reaches Santa Clara.

AT the period when Fr. Magin became priest there was much need of apostolic laborers in the missions of the Friars Minor in America. After the unjust and cruel expulsion of the Jesuits from the Spanish dominions, the government had directed the Franciscans to take charge of the deserted establishments. Though already employed to the limit of their numbers among the Indians of New Mexico, Florida, Texas, and many parts of Mexico, they accepted the trust with all its hardships, and sent their religious into Lower California, Sinaloa, Sonora, and Arizona. Later the missions of Upper California were founded. This increased the sore need of more missionaries. Frequent appeals were sent to the friars in Spain to come to the assistance of their brethren in America, and there were always found those that expressed willingness to sacrifice their beloved solitude for the privilege of toiling in the vineyard of the Lord. Life in the Indian missions at its best was wearisome and full of trials. Generally it taxed virtue as well as mind and body, and martyrdom could be expected even in California. Nevertheless a great many religious volimteered. From among these the most suitable and most solidly virtuous were selected to join their brethren in the Western Hemisphere ; for, while no one, as St. Francis himself had commanded, could be sent out who in the opinion of the superiors seemed unsuitable, no one was to be refused permission whose piety and fitness appeared evident.

Among the friars whom zeal for immortal souls prompted to apply for the American missions in 1786 were Fathers Jose de la Cruz Espi and Magin Catala, the latter but recently ordained. After receiving the blessing of the Fr. Guardian and the embrace of their brethren, both sailed from Cadiz in October, 1786. As soon as they reached the City of Mexico, probably at the close of the year, they were incorporated into the missionary college or Franciscan seminary of San Fernando, which institution trained and supplied the apostolic men that spent their lives in the midst of the California natives. Whilst Fr. Jose Espi was at once sent as chaplain with a ship in the Pacific ocean, Fr. Magin Catala, it seems, was employed in the seminary or in preaching missions to the Mexicans. At all events, we read nothing about him until six years later, and the reason is the same that prevents us from obtaining particulars regarding the early youth of the servant of God. As in Portugal, Spain, Italy and France, so also in Mexico the monasteries and convents, raised and furnished through the abstemiousness of their inmates, at different periods were looted or confiscated by the respective anti-Christian governments that succeeded one another. Some officials, not satisfied with plundering the homes of peace, prayer, and charity, wantonly destroyed what they could not utilize. Thus in 1864 the rabid Juarez faction made bonfires of the archives of the famous San Fernando College, so that there are no records left to enlighten us with regard to the life of Fr. Magin in Mexico.

Fortunately the Archives of Santa Barbara, California, contain a letter addressed by Fr. Francisco Pangua, the guardian of San Fernando College, to Fr. Fermin Francisco de Lasuen, the superior of the California missions, which gives some information about Fr. Magin's coming to the Pacific Coast. It seems that the servant of God urged his superiors to permit him to labor for the conversion of the savages, that his petition was at last granted, and that the Fr. Guardian only waited for an opportunity to transfer the zealous volunteer to California. The opportunity arrived in 1793.

At this period Spanish vessels plied between Mexico and the great Northwest Coast as far as Nootka Sound on the western shore of what is now Vancouver Island, in forty-nine and one-half degrees north. This bay had been discovered in the forepart of August, 1774, by Captain Juan Perez, who had sailed from Monterey on June 11th, accompanied by the Franciscans Fr. Juan Crespi and Fr. Tomas de la Pena. Spain, therefore, claimed the territory by right of discovery, and Spanish ships frequently visited Nootka Sound until the king abandoned the region in 1794. The Spanish government generally insisted that chaplains should accompany the sailors on these voyages. Religious Orders were unwilling to furnish priests for such expeditions, because this kind of employment was foreign to their objects and hazardous for the spiritual well-being of the individual religious. When secular priests, however, could not be secured, the government called upon some religious community which then found it advisable to yield. Such a demand brought Fr. Magin to the Pacific Coast. In his communication Fr. Guardian Francisco Pangua under date of November 21st, 1792, notified Fr. Lasuen that two religious would soon set out for California, Fr. Jose de la Cruz Espi, a native of Valencia, who in years past had acted as chaplain on an expedition to Nootka, and Fr. Magin Catala. The Fr. Guardian made the additional remark that both were good and peaceful laborers. The two Fathers, it seems, arrived at Monterey in July, 1793. While Fr. Espi was at once assigned to Mission San Antonio, Fr. Magin, after an understanding with the Fr. Presidente and in compliance with the directions of the Fr. Guardian, accompanied the crew of the frigate Aranzazii to Nootka Sound. The vessel was in charge of Captain Juan Kendrick. Of the movements of the vessel we could discover nothing until June the following year. On the fifteenth of that month, 1794, Don Ramon A. Saavedra wrote from Nootka to Governor Jose Joaquin Arrillaga of California, that "the Rev. Fr. Magin Catala, who accompanies the frigate Aranzazu as chaplain, has orders to remain at one of the missions of California. Your Honor will therefore please take the necessary steps that the crew of that vessel be not without spiritual care . and that, with the consent of the Fr. Presidente, one of the missionaries who are retiring to the motherhouse be appointed, or that Fr. Catala himself be bound to continue the voyage as chaplain."

When on July 2d, 1794, the Aranzazu reached Monterey, Fr. Magin declined to act as chaplain any longer, inasmuch as he had been destined for the missions among the Indians. It appears that the governor requested him to make another voyage to Nootka. In reply the servant of God on July 12th, 1794, addressed the following letter to Arrillaga :

"Dear Governor : In response to what you say in your letter of yesterday, I must inform you that to my deep regret I am not able to comply with your request asking me to continue as chaplain of the frigate Aranzazii on her voyage to Nootka, as the captain of that ship desires : for, apart from the hardships of the voyages to that port where I spent thirteen months in the midst of no small difficulties, I have in the present circumstances the weighty reason that I must consider myself one of the missionaries of this New California, for which task I have been designated. In virtue of this appointment I can in no manner dispose of my person without previous orders from the Fr. Presidente of these missions, whose subject I am.

''Notwithstanding all I have said just now, I am desirous, as far as I am concerned, of contributing to the relief of the necessity which Your Honor has explained to me. I have wished to show how much I am interested in the welfare of souls. When I therefore learned that the Rev. Fr. Presidente agreed to comply with the order of Don Ramon Saavedra, commander of the establishment at Nootka, to the extent that the Rev. Chaplain of the frigate Concepcion should go on board the Aranzazu, and that his place should be filled by one of the missionaries about to retire to Mexico, I have taken it upon myself to urge the Rev. Fr. Bartholome Gili (who had expressed his willingness to me of complying with the orders of Saavedra), to gladly exercise the duties of chaplain on the frigate Concepcion, although he has been informed that he would have to make the voyage as far as Acapulco, and from there back to San Bias. I send Your Honor this information to the end that, if it pleases you, you might communicate it to the commander of the Aranzazii, and advise me of your good pleasure."

The difficulty was amicably settled in accordance with Fr. jMagin's proposition. The Rev. Jose Gomez, a secular priest, who had come up from Mexico as chaplain in the Concepcion, took the place of the servant of God in the Aranzazu, which was to return to Nootka, and Fr. Bartholome Gili, one of the Fathers retiring to Mexico, on account of ill-health, filled Rev. Jose Gomez's place on the Concepcion when she sailed for Mexico.

Whether Fr. Magin at once traveled to Santa Clara from Monterey by land or took ship for San Francisco and thence made his way to his destination, is not clear. Certain it is that, as the mission records show, he baptized a child at Mission Dolores, San Francisco, on August 25th, and that he officiated there at burials on August 20th and 30th, 1794. His name appears for the first time in the baptismal record of Santa Clara on Monday, September 1st, 1794, when he baptized a boy infant who holds number 2510 in the register. That many had been received into the

Church of God there since January 12th, 1777, when Fr. Junipero Serra founded the mission.

From that day on Fr. Magin labored zealously and without interruption at Santa Clara for thirty-six years. Nor did he leave the boundaries of the mission except a few times in the first years of his ministry. He was present at the founding of Mission San Juan Bautista on June 24th, 1797, and on that occasion Fr. Lasuen took him along to San Carlos. This was the only time, as far as the records show, that he ever saw the headquarters of the California missions after his arrival at Santa Clara. Though the lands of Mission San Jose adjoined those of his own mission, Fr. Magin seems to have made but five visits there, and then only for the purpose of assisting the Fathers in administering baptism to the multitude of converts that applied for admission. After 1798 until his death, a period of thirty-two years, the holy man, as far as we know, never went beyond the limits of Mission Santa Clara, save for the purpose of winning converts among the pagans as far as the San Joaquin River.

Chapter III

State of the Mission. — Fr. Magin's Love of His Rules. — His Mortification. — His Illness. — Asks to be Retired. — His Zeal. — Local Difficulties. — Dullness of the Indians. — Statistics.

WHEN Fr. Magin arrived at Santa Clara he was made assistant to Fr. Francisco Miguel Sanchez, along with Fr. Manuel Fernandez, and from August, 1796, with Fr. Jose Viader, until Fr. Sanchez departed for San Gabriel in October, 1797. Thereafter his only companion for thirty-three years was Fr. Viader. The Indian population of the mission in 1794 consisted of fourteen hundred souls. The livestock numbered 4200 head of cattle, 1000 sheep, 628 horses, and sixteen mules. The harvest during that year amounted to 3300 bushels of wheat, 1100 bushels of corn, 95 bushels of beans, 26 bushels of lentils, etc. Twenty-four cattle were slaughtered every Saturday to furnish meat for the members of the Indian community. The converts and catechumens were employed in the fields, among the livestock, and at various kinds of mechanical labor. There were rooms in one part of the mission buildings for spinning wool, for weaving cloth, making clothes, shoes, candles and soap. In other parts carpenters, blacksmiths, saddlers, tanners, etc., pHed their trade. Thus, for instance, in 1792 as many as 2000 hides were tanned. Almost everything used or consiimed by the Indians and Fathers was produced or manufactured by the natives under the supervision of the missionaries.

Though the constant soHcitude for the spiritual and temporal welfare of the Indians, learning the language, preaching, instructing, administering the sacraments, visiting the sick, searching for converts in the mountains and plains, and bearing patiently with the dullness and rudeness of his wards, taken altogether required a spirit of selfsacrifice, Fr. Magin continued to observe the Rules of his Order and of his missionary college in every particular. To the prescribed fasts and abstinences and other penitential practices he added other austerities and long hours of prayer and contemplation. Very soon he contracted chronic inflammatory rheumatism, which afflicted him throughout his missionary life. At times his maladies hampered his work to such an extent that he felt in duty bound to ask to be retired as one unfit for the arduous task. Under the rules issued by the Spanish kings, a religious that volunteered for the Indian missions had to serve laudably at least ten years, or until he was disabled, before he could retire with the permission of the superior and the consent of the governor. The time of service was computed from the day of incorporation into the missionary college. Fr. Magin, having served more than ten years in

America, though only six years in CaHfornia, in 1800 apphed for a permit on the ground of continuous ill-health. Fr. Lasuen, the Presidente or superior, granted the request. Whether his health somewhat improved, or whether some other potent consideration moved him to postpone his departure, we do not know; at all events he did not avail himself of the license to retire. Four years later, having completed the ten years' service in California, and being withal more broken in health than ever, he again asked permission to leave for the mother college in Mexico. Fr. Estevan Tapis, the superior of the missions, reluctantly granted the request ; but once more the zealous man allowed himself to be persuaded, and then resolved, come what might, to sacrifice himself for the good of his dusky wards, and to continue suffering for them, if perchance he should not be able to do more.

Thus it was that Fr. Magin limped along for twenty-six years more, bereft of all comforts or conveniences. In addition he mortified his poor, ailing body by various means which only a most penitential spirit could suggest. From a letter of his companion, Fr. Jose Viader, dated April 6th, 1812, and addressed to Fr. Presidente Tapis, we learn that another malady afflicted Fr. Magin. *T am well," he writes, ''but Fr. Magin is troubled with catarrh, though it is nothing alarming, thanks be to God. He is in bed . . . He is infirm and disabled." Though his afflictions increased with the years, the venerable Father would insist on preaching to the people and visiting the sick. During the last four years of his life he found it impossible to administer baptism or attend funerals, as he could not stand on his feet. Hence it is that no baptisms were entered in the records by him after October 27th, 1827. Fr. Viader had managed the temporal affairs for many years, though not without consulting his senior companion, as he states in a letter to the governor; after October, 1827, he alone had also to administer the sacraments. Though Fr. Magin could neither walk nor stand in the last two years of his life, he would instruct the Indians and preach to the people in general. For this purpose he would sit before the Comm_union railing in the sanctuary, and from there address the faithful in his usual forcible and fervent manner. He appeared so weak at times that the audience vvould shed tears of sympathy for their pastor. More frequently, however, they were moved to tears by his vivid descriptions of the truths of religion.

The flock of Fathers Magin and Viader consisted of the Santa Clara Mission Indians and of the settlers of San Jose, three miles distant. After 1804 the town of San Jose had a chapel of its own. On Sundays and holydays of obligation one of the two Fathers had therefore to celebrate holy Mass among the settlers. However, the main work of the missionaries lay among the natives. The management of the California Indians was fraught with peculiar difficulties, as we can see from a report which Fathers Catala and Viader drew up in reply to a number of questions forwarded by the viceroy in 1814. The Fathers explained that three Indian languages were spoken at Mission Santa Clara ; two of these were similar to each other, but the third was altogether different from the other two. There was no inclination on the part of the natives to learn reading or writing, wherefore both arts were taught to those only that showed any desire and capacity for them. The virtues especially noticeable among the Indians were love for their relatives, submissiveness, and modesty in dress among the women. Their vices, on the other hand, were lying, stealing, gambling, dancing, immoralities, and infant murder or racesuicide. Superstitions also prevailed, inasmuch as offerings were made to demons and sorcerers were consulted.

The existence of vices and superstitions among the neophytes must have been a source of much grief especially to good Fr. Magin. Hence we need not wonder to find him so insistent on teaching the truths of religion to the carnal, ignorant, and stolid natives. He also insisted that all receive the Sacraments at least during Easter time ;

yet with all his fatherly solicitude, and despite the simplicity and clearness of his instructions, not even he could overcome the dullness of the poor Indians with regard to some mysteries of faith, as for instance the Blessed Sacrament. Comparatively few grasped the significance of this center of Catholic worship. For this reason all missionaries spoke of the California Indians in terms of pity, calling them Los Pohres, or Los ' Miserahles. Nevertheless, Fr. Magin seemed to take special delight in sitting among a number of these poor natives and explaining the several points of faith, the keeping of the Commandments of God and the Church, what reward was in store for the good and what punishment awaited the wicked.

According to the records of the mission, during the thirty-six years of Fr. Magin's administration five thousand persons were baptized, of whom comparatively few were white people. For instance, of the 1628 persons baptized at Santa Clara from 1777 to 1803, only sixty-one are classed as Spaniards. For the same period of thirty-six years the records show 1905 marriages and 5200 burials. Outside the Indian community settled around the mission of Santa Clara there were ten Indian rancherias which lay scattered over the valley.

Chapter IV

Fr, Magin's Inner Life. — Shadows of Mission Destruction. — The Mexican Government Demands Oath of Allegiance. — Fr. Magin's Reply. — His Last Years. — His Precious Death. — Grief of the People. — Burial. — Fr. Jose Viader's Entry In the Records of Santa Clara.

FROM the records and reports still extant we can glean very little or nothing concerning Fr. Magin's private or inner life. This portion of our narrative will, however, be treated on the testimony of eye-witnesses in Part II. The servant of God wrote no letters. He devoted himself solely to instructing the Indians and to watching over their moral conduct. Fr. Jose Viader attended to all temporal affairs, and wrote all official reports and communications. Fr. Magin would merely countersign the papers after ascertaining their contents. There are a great many letters in the Archives of the Archbishop of San Francisco, in the Archives of Mission Santa Barbara, and some in the Archives of the City of San Jose written by Fr. Magin's companion, but not one from the hand of Fr. Catala. Nor does Fr. Viader say anything about his venerable friend, save that he occasionally remarks that Fr. Magin is ill or sends regards. Not till he had the sad duty of entering the death of the servant of God in the burial record, did Fr. Jose Viader express himself regarding the virtues of his brotlier in rehgion. Even then, as we shall see presently, he said very little; yet no one could have drawn a clearer picture of Fr. Magin than his associate in the same house and work for nearly a generation.

Fr. Magin was spared the pain of having to witness the ultimate ruin of the mission, which was brought about by the confiscation of the California missionary establishments through the so-called Act of Secularization of 1834; but the shadows of that most unfortunate event had been gathering about the unhappy neophytes ever since the arrival in 1826 of the first Mexican governor, Jose M. Echeandia. From his first appearance in Lower California this official showed himself an enemy to the religious as missionaries and managers of mission temporalities. He was the chief cause of the insubordination of the Indians and of the disregard displayed by the colonists and the soldiers towards the friars In charge of the missions.

On October 4th, 1824, the new government of Mexico adopted the so-called Acta Constitutiva y Constitucion Federal, and decreed that all male inhabitants should swear allegiance to Mexico and to this Constitucion Federal. The missionaries were at Hberty to act as they thought proper. Being Spaniards, most of the Fathers declared that they judged it wrong to take the required oath until the king of Spain should acknowledge the sovereignty of Mexico. The two Fathers Catala and Viader held this opinion. When, therefore, Governor Echeandia in June, 1826, published the edict in California, and Commandante Ignacio Martinez of the San Francisco Presidio, to whose military jurisdiction Santa Clara belonged, demanded that each missionary should swear allegiance to the Constitution framed in Mexico, Fr. Magin on July 6th replied as follows : "To your communication of the 28th of last month, in w^hich General Jose Maria Echeandia demands in writing my formal decision concerning the oath to observe the Acta Constitutiva y Constitucion Federal of the United Mexican States, I reply that I cannot, and consequently will not, take said oath. In the thirty-three years which I have passed in this mission I have never meddled with politics, and if now they want to distrust me, who burdened with the age of sixty-six years and infirmities hopes or believes to be near his end, I swear to observe fidelity and obedience to the government and appointed authorities. God keep Your Honor many years, which Your Honor's very true chaplain wishes you. Fr. Magin Catala."

Thereupon the good Father and his worthy companion were allowed to continue eschewing politics and to attend to their missionary duties as of yore. It was the first and last time that the servant of God came into conflict with the government.

The last two years of his life were a period of intense sufferings to Fr. Magin. As early as February, 1830, he was thought to be in a dying condition, for Fr. Vincente de Sarria from Soledad reported to the governor that the senior missionary of Santa Clara was about to receive or had received Extreme Unction. The holy man rallied, however, and lingered on, preaching every Sunday and holyday and giving the usual instructions until within a day of his death, nine months later. He could not celebrate holy Mass, but frequently received holy Communion with the greatest fervor. Finally on Monday, November 22nd, 1830, at daybreak, the servant of God quietly passed to his eternal reward in the presence of Fr. Jose Viader and two men who at his request had watched with him through the night.

When the tolling of the bells announced the death of Fr. Magin, immense crowds of people hastened to the mission from every quarter in order to venerate the body of the holy missionary, ^^very one wept as at the death of a father or a mother. The remains were placed in an ordinary coffin made of redwood, borne to the church amid the sobs of the inconsolable multitude, and placed on a bier in front of the sanctuary. Inside and outside the building surging crowds of