{"id":17900,"date":"2021-03-10T13:49:38","date_gmt":"2021-03-10T21:49:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=17900"},"modified":"2021-03-10T13:52:11","modified_gmt":"2021-03-10T21:52:11","slug":"bio-junipero-serra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2021\/03\/10\/bio-junipero-serra\/","title":{"rendered":"Bio: Jun\u00edpero Serra"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Saint<\/a>
Jun\u00edpero Serra
O.F.M.<\/a><\/th><\/tr>
<\/a>A portrait of Serra<\/td><\/tr>
Apostle of California<\/th><\/tr>
Born<\/th>Miguel Jos\u00e9 Serra Ferrer
November 24, 1713
Petra<\/a>, Majorca<\/a>, Spain<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
Died<\/th>August 28, 1784
Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo<\/a>, Las Californias<\/a>, New Spain<\/a>, Spanish Empire<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
Beatified<\/a><\/th>September 25, 1988, Saint Peter’s Square<\/a>, Vatican City<\/a> by Pope John Paul II<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
Canonized<\/a><\/th>September 23, 2015, Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception<\/a> by Pope Francis<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
Major shrine<\/a><\/th>Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo<\/a>, Carmel-by-the-Sea, California<\/a>, United States<\/td><\/tr>
Feast<\/a><\/th>August 28; July 1 in United States[1]<\/a><\/sup>[2]<\/a><\/sup>[3]<\/a><\/sup><\/td><\/tr>
Attributes<\/a><\/th>Franciscan habit, wearing a large crucifix<\/a>, or holding a crucifix accompanied by a young Native American boy<\/td><\/tr>
Patronage<\/a><\/th>VocationsHispanic Americans<\/a>[4]<\/a><\/sup>California<\/a>[5]<\/a><\/sup><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n

Jun\u00edpero Serra y Ferrer<\/strong>, O.F.M.<\/a> (\/hu\u02d0\u02c8ni\u02d0p\u025b\u02ccro\u028a \u02c8s\u025br\u0259\/<\/a>; Spanish: [xu\u02c8nipe\u027eo \u02c8sera]<\/a>, Catalan<\/a>: Jun\u00edper Serra i Ferrer<\/em>; November 24, 1713 \u2013 August 28, 1784), was a Roman Catholic<\/a> Spanish priest<\/a> and friar<\/a> of the Franciscan Order<\/a>. He is credited with establishing the Franciscan Missions in the Sierra Gorda<\/a>, a UNESCO World Heritage Site<\/a>. He later founded a mission in Baja California<\/a> and the first nine of 21 Spanish missions in California<\/a> from San Diego<\/a> to San Francisco<\/a>, in what was then Spanish-occupied Alta California<\/a> in the Province of Las Californias<\/a>, New Spain<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Serra was beatified<\/a> by Pope John Paul II<\/a> on 25 September 1988 in the Vatican City<\/a>. Amid denunciations from Native American tribes who accused Serra of presiding over a brutal colonial subjugation,[6]<\/a><\/sup>[7]<\/a><\/sup>[8]<\/a><\/sup> Pope Francis<\/a> canonized<\/a> Serra on 23 September 2015 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception<\/a> in Washington, D.C.<\/a>, during his first visit to the United States<\/a>.[9]<\/a><\/sup> Serra’s missionary efforts earned him the title of “Apostle of California”.[10]<\/a><\/sup>[11]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both before and after his canonization, Serra’s reputation and missionary work during the Spanish occupation have been condemned by critics, who point to mandatory conversions to Catholicism, followed by abuse of the Native American converts.[12]<\/a><\/sup>[13]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early life<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Serra’s birthplace in Petra<\/a> on the island of Mallorca<\/a>, in the Balearic Islands<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Serra was born Miquel Josep Serra i Ferrer<\/strong> (this name is Catalan<\/a>, in Castilian<\/a> it is Miguel Jos\u00e9 Serra Ferrer) in the village of Petra<\/a> on the island of Mallorca<\/a> in the Balearic Islands<\/a> off the Mediterranean coast of Spain.[14]<\/a><\/sup> His father Antonio Nadal Serra and mother Margarita Rosa Ferrer were married in 1707.[15]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By age seven, Miquel was working the fields with his parents, helping cultivate wheat and beans, and tending the cattle. But he showed a special interest in visiting the local Franciscan<\/a> friary<\/a> at the church of San Bernardino within a block of the Serra family house. Attending the friars<\/a>‘ primary school at the church, Miquel learned reading, writing, mathematics, Latin, religion and liturgical song<\/a>, especially Gregorian chant. Gifted with a good voice, he eagerly took to vocal music. The friars sometimes let him join the community choir and sing at special church feasts. Miquel and his father Antonio often visited the friary for friendly chats with the Franciscans.[16]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At age 16, Miquel’s parents enrolled him in a Franciscan school in the capital city, Palma de Majorca<\/a>, where he studied philosophy. A year later, he became a novice<\/a> in the Franciscan order.[17]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joins Franciscan order<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Memorial to Serra’s baptism at the Church of Sant Pere de Petra<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On September 14, 1730, some two months before his 17th birthday, Serra entered the Franciscan Order at Palma,[18]<\/a><\/sup>[19]<\/a><\/sup> specifically, the Alcantarine<\/a> branch of the Friars Minor, a reform movement in the Order. The slight and frail Serra now embarked on his novitiate period, a rigorous year of preparation to become a full member of the Franciscan Order. He was given the religious name<\/a> of Jun\u00edpero in honor of Brother Juniper<\/a>, who had been among the first Franciscans and a companion of Francis of Assisi<\/a>.[20]<\/a><\/sup> The young Jun\u00edpero, along with his fellow novices, vowed to scorn property and comfort, and to remain celibate<\/a>. He still had seven years to go to become an ordained<\/a> Catholic priest<\/a>. He immersed himself in rigorous studies of logic, metaphysics, cosmology, and theology.[21]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The daily routine at the friary followed a rigid schedule: prayers, meditation, choir singing, physical chores, spiritual readings, and instruction. The friars would wake up every midnight for another round of chants. Serra’s superiors discouraged letters and visitors.[22]<\/a><\/sup> In his free time, he avidly read stories about Franciscan friars roaming the provinces of Spain and around the world to win new souls for the church, often suffering martyrdom<\/a> in the process. He followed the news of famous missionaries winning beatification<\/a> and sainthood<\/a>.[citation needed<\/a><\/em>]<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Monument to Serra in Palma de Mallorca<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1737, Serra became a priest, and three years later earned an ecclesiastical license to teach philosophy at the Convento de San Francisco. His philosophy course, including over 60 students, lasted three years. Among his students were fellow future missionaries Francisco Pal\u00f3u<\/a> and Juan Cresp\u00ed<\/a>.[23]<\/a><\/sup> When the course ended in 1743, Serra told his students: “I desire nothing more from you than this, that when the news of my death shall have reached your ears, I ask you to say for the benefit of my soul: ‘May he rest in peace.’ Nor shall I omit to do the same for you so that all of us will attain the goal for which we have been created.”[24]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Serra was considered intellectually brilliant by his peers. He received a doctorate in theology from the Lullian College (founded in the 14th century by Ramon Lull<\/a> for the training of Franciscan missionaries) in Palma de Majorca, where he also occupied the Duns Scotus<\/a> chair of philosophy until he joined the missionary College of San Fernando de Mexico<\/a> in 1749.[25]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

During Serra’s last five years on the island of Majorca, drought and plague afflicted his home village of Petra. Serra sometimes went home from Palma for brief visits to his parents\u2014now separated\u2014and gave them some financial support. On one occasion he was called home to anoint his seriously ill father with the last rites<\/a>. In one of his final visits to Petra, Serra found his younger sister Juana Mar\u00eda near death.[26]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1748, Serra and Pal\u00f3u confided to each other their desire to become missionaries. Serra, now 35, was assured a prestigious career as priest and scholar if he stayed in Majorca; but he set his sights firmly on pagan lands. Applying to the colonial bureaucracy in Madrid, Serra requested that both he and Pal\u00f3u embark on a foreign mission. After weathering some administrative obstacles, they received permission and set sail for C\u00e1diz<\/a>, the port of departure for Spain’s colonies in the Americas.[citation needed<\/a><\/em>]<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While waiting to set sail, Serra wrote a long letter to a colleague back in Majorca, urging him to console Serra’s parents\u2014now in their 70s\u2014over their only son’s pending departure. “They [my parents] will learn to see how sweet is His yoke,” Serra wrote, “and that He will change for them the sorrow they may now experience into great happiness. Now is not the time to muse or fret over the happenings of life but rather to be conformed entirely to the will of God, striving to prepare themselves for that happy death which of all the things of life is our principal concern.”[27]<\/a><\/sup> Serra asked his colleague to read this letter to his parents, who had never attended school.[28]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ministry in the Americas<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Serra monument in Jalpan de Serra<\/a>, a city named after Serra in Quer\u00e9taro<\/a>, Mexico<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1749, Serra and the Franciscan missionary team landed in Veracruz<\/a>, on the Gulf coast of New Spain (now Mexico). To get from Veracruz to Mexico City, Serra and his Franciscan companions took the Camino Real (English: royal path), a rough road stretching from sea level through tropical forests, dry plains, high plateaus and volcanic sierra mountains to an altitude of 7400 feet (2250 meters). Royal officials provided horses for the 20 Franciscan friars to ride up the Camino Real. All accepted the offer, except for Serra and one companion, a friar from Andalusia<\/a>. Strictly following the rule of his patron saint Francis of Assisi<\/a> that friars “must not ride on horseback unless compelled by manifest necessity or infirmity,” Serra insisted on walking to Mexico City. He and his fellow friar set out on the Camino Real with no money or guide, carrying only their breviaries<\/a>. They trusted in Providence and the hospitality of local people along the way.[citation needed<\/a><\/em>]<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the trek Serra’s left foot swelled up, and a burning itch tormented him. Arriving at a farm at day’s end, he could hardly stand. He attributed the swelling to a mosquito bite. His discomfort caused him to stay over at the farm another night, during which he scratched his foot and leg to excess, desperately trying to relieve the itch. The next morning his leg was raw and bleeding. This wound plagued Serra for the rest of his life.[29]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hobbling into Mexico City, Serra joined up with his fellow friars at the College of San Fernando de Mexico<\/a>, a specialized training center and regional headquarters for Franciscan missionaries. Serra requested that he do his novitiate year again\u2014despite his academic prestige, and the fact that the college’s novices were far younger men. Though his request was declined, Serra insisted on living as a novice at San Fernando: “This learned university professor … would often eat more sparingly in order to replace the student whose turn it was to read to the community. Or he would humbly carry trays and wait on tables with the lay brothers.”[30]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besides the routine of prayers, hymns and meditations, daily life at the secluded college included classes on the languages of Mexico’s native peoples, mission administration and theology. Before completing his required year of training, Serra volunteered for a mission in the rugged Sierra Gorda, to help replace friars who had recently died there. He was accepted as mission superior. His fellow volunteer, Friar Francisco Pal\u00f3u, became Serra’s assistant in his first mission.[citation needed<\/a><\/em>]<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mission in the Sierra Gorda<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Serra founded the five Missions of the Sierra Gorda<\/a> in Quer\u00e9taro<\/a>, Mexico between 1750-60. (Santa Mar\u00eda del Agua de Landa pictured).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sierra Gorda Indian missions<\/a>, some 90 miles north of Santiago de Quer\u00e9taro<\/a>, were nestled in a vast region of jagged mountains, home of the Pame people<\/a> and a scattering of Spanish colonists. The Pames\u2014who centuries earlier had built a civilization with temples, idols and priests\u2014lived mainly by gathering and hunting, but also pursued agriculture. Many groups among them, adopting mobile guerrilla tactics, had eluded conquest by the Spanish military.[citation needed<\/a><\/em>]<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Serra and Pal\u00f3u, arriving at the village of Jalpan<\/a>, found the mission in disarray: The parishioners, numbering fewer than a thousand, were attending neither confession nor Mass<\/a>.[31]<\/a><\/sup> The two missionaries set about learning the Pame language from a Mexican who had lived among the Pames. But the claim by Pal\u00f3u that Serra translated the catechism into the Pame language is questionable, as Serra himself later admitted he had great difficulties learning indigenous languages.[32]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Serra involved Pames parishioners in the ritual reenactment of Jesus’ forced death march. Erecting 14 stations, Serra led the procession himself, carrying an extremely heavy cross. At each station, the procession paused for a prayer, and at the end Serra sermonized on the sufferings and death of Jesus. On Holy Thursday<\/a>, 12 Pames elders reenacted the roles of the apostles<\/a>. Serra, in the role of Jesus, washed their feet and then, after the service, dined with them.[33]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Serra also tackled the practical side of mission administration. Working with the college of San Fernando, he had cattle, goats, sheep, and farming tools brought to the Sierra Gorda mission. Pal\u00f3u supervised the farm labor of men of the mission; the women learned spinning, sewing and knitting. Their products were collected and rationed to the mission residents, according to personal needs. Christian Pames sold their surplus products in nearby trading centers, under the friars’ supervision to protect them from cheaters. Pames who adapted successfully to mission life received their own parcels of land to raise corn, beans and pumpkins, and sometimes received oxen and seeds as well.[34]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Within two years, Serra had made inroads against the Pames’ traditional belief system. On his 1752 visit from the Sierra Gorda mission to the college of San Fernando<\/a> in Mexico City, Serra joyfully carried a goddess statue presented to him by Christian Pames. The statue, showing the face of Cachum, mother of the sun, had been erected on a hilltop shrine where some Pame chiefs lay buried.[35]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Azulejos<\/a> depicting the Sierra Gorda Missions<\/a>, which Serra founded between 1750-60.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back in the Sierra Gorda, Serra faced a conflict between Spanish soldiers, settlers, and mission natives or “Indians”. Following a Spanish military victory over the Pames in 1743, Spanish authorities had sent not only Franciscan missionaries, but also Spanish\/Mexican soldiers and their families into the Sierra Gorda. The soldiers had the job of pursuing runaway mission Indians and securing the region for the Spanish crown. But the soldiers’ land claims clashed with mission lands that Christian Pames were working.[citation needed<\/a><\/em>]<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the soldiers’ families tried to establish a town, and the officer in charge of their deployment approved their plan. The Pames objected, threatening to defend their lands by force if necessary. Soldiers and settlers let their cattle graze on Christian Pames’ farmlands and bullied Pames into working for them. Serra and the College of San Fernando sided with the Pames\u2014citing the Laws of the Indies<\/a>, which banned colonial settlements in mission territories.[citation needed<\/a><\/em>]<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The viceroy<\/a>, Spain’s highest official in Mexico, suspended the intrusive colony. But the townspeople protested and stayed put. The government set up commissions and looked into alternative sites for the colony. It ordered the settlers to keep their cattle out of the Pames’ fields, and to pay the Pames fairly for their labor (with the friars supervising payment). After a protracted legal struggle, the settlers moved out, and in 1755 the Pames and friars reclaimed their land.[36]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crowning his Sierra Gorda mission, Serra oversaw the construction of a splendid church in Jalpan<\/a>. Gathering masons, carpenters, and other skilled craftsmen from Mexico City, Serra employed Christian Pames in seasonal construction work over the course of seven years to complete the church. Serra pitched in himself, carrying wooden beams and applying mortar between the stones forming the church walls.[37]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Work for the Inquisition<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Engraving depicting Serra’s as an evangelizer from 1787.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During his 1752 visit to Mexico City, Serra sent a request from the college of San Fernando<\/a> to the local headquarters of the Spanish Inquisition<\/a>. He asked that an inquisitor be appointed to preside over the Sierra Gorda. The next day, Inquisition officials appointed Serra himself as inquisitor for the whole region\u2014adding that he could exercise his powers anywhere he did missionary work in New Spain, as long as there was no regular Inquisition official in the region.[38]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In September 1752, Serra filed a report to the Spanish Inquisition<\/a> in Mexico City from Jalpan<\/a>, on “evidences of witchcraft in the Sierra Gorda missions.” He denounced several Christian non-Indians who lived in and around the mission for “the most detestable and horrible crimes of sorcery, witchcraft and devil worship. … If it is necessary to specify one of the persons guilty of such crimes, I accuse by name a certain Melchora de los Reyes Acosta, a married mulattress, an inhabitant of the said mission. . … In these last days a certain Cayetana, a very clever Mexican woman of said mission, married to one P\u00e9rez, a mulatto, has confessed\u2014she, being observed and accused of similar crimes, having been held under arrest by us for some days past\u2014that in the mission there is a large congregation of [Christian non-Indians], although some Indians also join them, and that these persons, … flying through the air at night, are in the habit of meeting in a cave on a hill near a ranch called El Saucillo, in the center of said missions, where they worship and make sacrifice to the demons who appear visibly there in the guise of young goats and various other things of that nature. … If such evil is not attacked, the horrible corruption will spread among these poor [Indian] neophytes who are in our charge.”[39]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to modern Franciscan historians, this report by Serra to the Inquisition is the only letter of his that has survived from eight years of mission work in the Sierra Gorda.[40]<\/a><\/sup> Serra’s first biographer, Francisco Pal\u00f3u<\/a>, wrote that Serra, in his role of inquisitor, had to work in many parts of Mexico and travel long distances. Yet the Archivo General de la Naci\u00f3n in Mexico City, with over a thousand volumes of indexed documents on the Inquisition, apparently contains only two references to Serra’s work for the Inquisition following his 1752 appointment: his preaching in Oaxaca in 1764, and his partial handling of the case of a Sierra Gorda mulatto accused of sorcery in 1766.[41]<\/a><\/sup>[42]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1758, Serra returned to the College of San Fernando. Over the next nine years he worked in the college’s administrative offices, and as a missionary and inquisitor in the dioceses of Mexico, Puebla, Oaxaca, Valladolid, and Guadalajara.[citation needed<\/a><\/em>]<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Physical self-punishment<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Plaque honoring Serra at Mission San Miguel Conc\u00e1<\/a> in Arroyo Seco<\/a>, Quer\u00e9taro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emulating an earlier Franciscan missionary and saint, Francisco Solano<\/a>, Serra made a habit of punishing himself physically, to purify his spirit. He wore a sackcloth spiked with bristles, or a coat interwoven with broken pieces of wire, under his gray friar’s outer garment.[43]<\/a><\/sup> In his austere cell, Serra kept a chain of sharp pointed iron links hanging on the wall beside his bed, to whip himself at night when sinful thoughts ran through his mind. His nightly self-flagellations at the college of San Fernando<\/a> caught the ears of some of his fellow friars. In his letters to his Franciscan companions, Serra often referred to himself as a “sinner” and a “most unworthy priest.”[citation needed<\/a><\/em>]<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In one of his sermons in Mexico City, while exhorting his listeners to repent their sins, Serra took out his chain, bared his shoulders and started whipping himself. Many parishioners, roused by the spectacle, began sobbing. Finally, a man climbed to the pulpit, took the chain from Serra’s hand and began whipping him<\/em>self, declaring: “I am the sinner who is ungrateful to God who ought to do penance for my many sins, and not the padre [Serra], who is a saint.” The man kept whipping himself until he collapsed. After receiving the last sacraments, he later died from the ordeal.[44]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Plaza de Jun\u00edpero Serra in Petra, Mallorca<\/a>, Spain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During other sermons on the theme of repentance, Serra would hoist a large stone in one hand and, while clutching a crucifix in the other, smash the stone against his chest. Many of his listeners feared that he would strike himself dead. Later, Serra suffered chest pains and shortness of breath; Pal\u00f3u suggests that Serra’s self-inflicted bruises were the cause. While preaching of hell and damnation, Serra would sear his flesh with a four-pronged candle flame\u2014emulating a famed Franciscan preacher, John of Capistrano<\/a>.[45]<\/a><\/sup> Pal\u00f3u described this as “quite violent, painful, and dangerous towards wounding his chest.”[46]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Serra did not stand alone among Catholic missionaries in displaying self-punishment at the pulpit. The more zealous Franciscan and Jesuit missionaries did likewise. But few took it to the extremes that Serra did. The regulations of the college of San Fernando<\/a> said that self-punishment should never be carried to the point of permanently incapacitating oneself.[47]<\/a><\/sup> Some of Serra’s colleagues admonished him for going too far.[citation needed<\/a><\/em>]<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

King Carlos expels the Jesuits<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Plaque at Serra’s house in San Juan, Puerto Rico<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On June 24, 1767, the Viceroy of New Spain, Carlos Francisco de Croix<\/a>, read a Spanish royal decree to Mexico’s archbishop and assembled church officials: “Repair with an armed force to the houses of the Jesuits. Seize the persons of all of them and, within 24 hours, transport them as prisoners to the port of Veracruz. Cause to be sealed the records of said houses and records of such persons without allowing them to remove anything but their breviaries and such garments as are absolutely necessary for their journey. If after the embarkation there should be found one Jesuit in that district, even if ill or dying, you shall suffer the penalty of death.”[48]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spain’s king Carlos III<\/a> had plotted the expulsion of Jesuits<\/a> throughout his empire five months earlier. Within days of his viceroy reading the expulsion decree to Mexico’s top Catholic officials, Spanish royal soldiers removed the Jesuits\u2014who offered no resistance\u2014from all their stations within ready communication range of Mexico City. Many Jesuit priests died along the rugged mountain trail to Veracruz, where overloaded ships waited to carry the survivors across the Atlantic to the Papal States<\/a> on the Italian peninsula.[citation needed<\/a><\/em>]<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the Baja California peninsula<\/a>, newly appointed governor Gaspar de Portol\u00e1<\/a> had to notify and remove the Jesuits from the chain of missions they had developed in forbidding territory over 70 years. By February 1768, Portol\u00e1 gathered the 16 Baja Jesuit missionaries in Loreto<\/a>, from where they sailed to mainland Mexico for deportation. Sympathetic to the Jesuits, Portol\u00e1 treated them kindly even as he removed them under the king’s orders.[49]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

President of missions of the Californias<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Gaspar de Portol\u00e1<\/a>‘s appointment as Governor of the Californias<\/a> in 1767 coincided with Serra’s appointment as chief of the missions in the Californias<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Into the vacuum created by the Jesuits’ expulsion from Mexico<\/a>, stepped Franciscan missionaries. In July 1767, the guardian of the college of San Fernando<\/a> appointed Serra president of the missions of Baja California<\/a>, heading a group of 15 Franciscan friars; Francisco Pal\u00f3u<\/a> served as his second in command.[50]<\/a><\/sup> Jesuit priests had developed 13 missions on that long and arid peninsula over seven decades. Two Jesuits had died at the hands of Indians in the revolt of 1734\u20136.[citation needed<\/a><\/em>]<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In March 1768, Serra and his missionary team boarded a Spanish sloop<\/a> at San Blas<\/a>, on Mexico’s Pacific coast. Sailing over 200 miles up the Gulf of California<\/a>, they landed at Loreto<\/a> two weeks later. Gaspar de Portol\u00e1<\/a>, governor of Las Californias, welcomed them at the Loreto mission<\/a>, founded by Jesuits in 1697. While he gave control of the church to Serra, Portol\u00e1 controlled the living quarters and rationed out food to the friars, charging their costs to the mission.[51]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Serra and Pal\u00f3u found\u2014to their unpleasant surprise\u2014that they ruled only on spiritual matters: everyday management of the mission remained in the hands of the military, who had occupied the Baja missions since evicting the Jesuits. In August 1768, New Spain’s inspector general Jos\u00e9 de G\u00e1lvez<\/a>, displeased with the sloppy military administration of the Baja missions, ordered them turned over fully to the Franciscan friars.[52]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Serra started assigning his fellow friars to the missions scattered up the length of the Baja peninsula, with its scarce water and food sources. He stayed over a year at the Loreto mission while his colleagues tried to convert Indians in the nearby mountains and deserts. Where mission workers could dam small streams, they managed to grow wheat, corn, beans, fruits and cotton\u2014always depending on the availability of water.[citation needed<\/a><\/em>]<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Franciscans found that the Indian population in the Baja California mission territories had dwindled to about 7,150. By the time the Franciscans had moved north and turned the missions over to Dominican friars in 1772, the Indian population had decreased to about 5,000. “If it goes on at this rate,” wrote Pal\u00f3u, “in a short time Baja California will come to an end.” Epidemics, especially syphilis introduced by Spanish troops, were wasting the Indians.[53]<\/a><\/sup> But Pal\u00f3u attributed the ravages of syphilis to God’s retribution for the Indians’ murder of the two Jesuit priests over 30 years earlier.[54]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1768 Jos\u00e9 de G\u00e1lvez<\/a>, inspector general of New Spain, decided to send explorers and locate missions in Alta (upper) California. G\u00e1lvez aimed both to Christianize the extensive Indian populations and serve Spain’s strategic interest by preventing Russian explorations and possible claims to North America’s Pacific coast.[55]<\/a><\/sup> G\u00e1lvez chose Serra to head the missionary team in the California expedition. Serra, now 55, eagerly seized the chance to harvest thousands of pagan souls in lands previously untouched by the church.[citation needed<\/a><\/em>]<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Monument to Serra in Quer\u00e9taro City<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But as the expedition gathered in Loreto<\/a>, Serra’s foot and leg infection had become almost crippling. The commander, Gaspar de Portol\u00e1<\/a>, tried to dissuade him from joining the expedition, and wrote to G\u00e1lvez<\/a> about Serra’s condition. Serra’s fellow friar and former student Francisco Pal\u00f3u<\/a> also became concerned, gently suggesting to Serra that he stay in Baja California and let the younger and stronger Pal\u00f3u make the journey to San Diego in his place. Serra rebuffed both Portol\u00e1’s and Pal\u00f3u’s doubts. He chided Pal\u00f3u for his suggestion: “Let us not speak of that. I have placed all my confidence in God, of whose goodness I hope that He will grant me to reach not only San Diego to raise the standard of the Holy Cross in that port, but also Monterey.”[56]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Serra suggested that the Portol\u00e1 party set off without him; he would follow and meet up with them on the way to Alta California. He then assigned friar Miguel de la Campa as chaplain to the Portol\u00e1 expedition<\/a>, which set out from Loreto<\/a> on March 9, 1769. Spending holy week at mission Loreto<\/a>, Serra set out on March 28. “From my mission of Loreto,” wrote Serra, “I took along no more provisions for so long a journey than a loaf of bread and a piece of cheese. For I was there [at mission Loreto] a whole year, in economic matters, as a mere guest to receive the crumbs of the royal soldier commissioner, whose liberality at my departure did not extend beyond the aforementioned articles.”[57]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two servants\u2014one named Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Vergerano, a 20-year-old from Magdalena<\/a>, the other a soldier guard\u2014accompanied Serra on his journey from Loreto, as he rode on a feeble mule. On April 28, 1769, Serra arrived at mission San Borja<\/a>, where he received a warm welcome from friar Ferm\u00edn Lasu\u00e9n<\/a>. Founded just seven years before by the Jesuit Wenceslaus Linck<\/a>, mission San Borja sat in an unusually arid region of Baja California. Continuing north, Serra stopped on May 5 to celebrate a Mass<\/a> for the feast of the Ascension<\/a> in the deserted church at Calamaju\u00e9<\/a>, scarcely more than a ruined hut. The next morning he arrived at Santa Mar\u00eda<\/a>, where he met up with Portol\u00e1<\/a>, friar Miguel de la Campa and several members of their party. In this arid region, whose alkaline land resisted cultivation, lived the “poorest of all” the Indians Serra had encountered in Mexico. On Sunday May 7, Serra celebrated high Mass and preached a sermon at the mission church on the frontier of Spanish Catholicism.[58]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Founding Mission Velicat\u00e1<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Serra prepared his evangelizing mission of Alta California<\/a> at Mission Loreto<\/a>, in Baja California<\/a>, in 1768-9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After leaving Mission Santa Mar\u00eda<\/a>, Serra urged Portol\u00e1<\/a> to move ahead of the slow pack train, so they could reach Velicat\u00e1 in time for Pentecost<\/a> the next day. Portol\u00e1 agreed, so the small group traveled all day May 13 to reach Velicat\u00e1 by late evening. The advanced guard of the party greeted them there.[59]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Pentecost day, May 14, 1769, Serra founded his first mission, Misi\u00f3n San Fernando Rey de Espa\u00f1a de Velicat\u00e1<\/a>, in a mud hut that had served as a makeshift church when friar Ferm\u00edn Lasu\u00e9n<\/a> had traveled up on Easter to conduct the sacraments for the Fernando Rivera<\/a> expedition, the overland party that had preceded the Portol\u00e1 party. The founding celebration took place “with all the neatness of holy poverty,” in Serra’s words. Smoke from the soldiers’ guns, fired in repeated volleys, served as incense.[60]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new mission lacked Indians to convert. A few days later, friar Miguel de la Campa notified Serra that a few natives had arrived. Serra joyously rushed out to welcome twelve Indian, men and boys. “Then I saw what I could hardly begin to believe when I read about it,” wrote Serra. “… namely, that they go about entirely naked like Adam in paradise before the fall. … We treated with them for a long time; and although they saw all of us clothed, they nevertheless showed not the least trace of shame in their manner of nudity.” Serra placed both hands upon their heads as a token of paternal affection. He then handed them figs, which they ate immediately. One of the Indian men gave Serra roasted agave<\/a> stalks and four fishes. In return, Portol\u00e1 and his soldiers offered tobacco leaves and various food items.[61]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through a Christian Indian interpreter, Serra told the Indians that de la Campa would stay at the mission to serve them. According to Stephen Hyslop, “[Serra’s] goal and that of his fellow friars was not to confirm Indians [sic] in their seeming innocence, like ‘Adam in the garden, before sin’, but to make them aware of their sins and move them to repent.”[62]<\/a><\/sup> The motive behind gifts of food, tobacco, and the like was, “in the words of Serra’s colleague and biographer, Father Francisco Pal\u00f3u, spiritual conquest meant enticing Indians [sic] with food and clothing, by which means they could be indoctrinated as Christians and ‘gradually acquire a knowledge of what is spiritually good and evil’ “.[63]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A statue of Serra by Douglas Tilden<\/a> formerly installed in Golden Gate Park<\/a>, San Francisco<\/a> before it was removed during the George Floyd protests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back on the road, Serra found it very difficult to stay on his feet because “my left foot had become very inflamed, a painful condition which I have suffered for a year or more. Now this inflammation has reached halfway up my leg.” Portol\u00e1 again tried to persuade Serra to withdraw from the expedition, offering to “have you carried back to the first mission where you can recuperate, and we will continue our journey.” Serra countered that “God … has given me the strength to come so far. … Even though I should die on the way, I shall not turn back. They can bury me wherever they wish and I shall gladly be left among the pagans, if it be God’s will.” Portol\u00e1 had a stretcher prepared, so that Christian Indians traveling with the expedition could carry Serra along the trail.[64]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not wishing to burden his traveling companies, Serra departed from his usual practice of avoiding medicines: he asked one of the muleteers<\/a>, Juan Antonio Coronel, if he could prepare a remedy for his foot and leg wound. When Coronel objected that he knew only how to heal animals’ wounds, Serra rejoined: “Well then, son, just imagine that I am an animal. … Make me the same remedy that you would apply to an animal.” Coronel then crushed some tallow<\/a> between stones and mixed it with green desert herbs. After heating the mix, he applied it to Serra’s foot and leg. The next morning, Serra felt “much improved and I celebrated Mass. … I was enabled to make the daily trek just as if I did not have any ailment. … There is no swelling but only the itching which I feel at times.”[65]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The expedition still had 300 miles (480 kilometers) to travel to San Diego. They passed through desert terrain into oak savanna in June, often camping and sleeping under large oaks. From a high hill on June 20, their advance scouts saw the Pacific Ocean in the distance. Reaching its shores that evening, the party called the spot Ensenada de Todos Santos (All Saints’ Cove, today simply Ensenada<\/a>). They now had less than 80 miles (130 kilometers) to reach San Diego.[citation needed<\/a><\/em>]<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pressing north, they stayed close to the ocean. On June 23, they came upon a large Indian village where they enjoyed a pleasant stopover. The natives appeared healthy, robust and friendly, immediately repeating the Spanish words they heard. Some danced for the party, offering them fish and mussels. “We were all enamored of them,” wrote Serra. “In fact, all the pagans have pleased me, but these in particular have stolen my heart.”[66]<\/a><\/sup> The next morning, soldiers traded with the Indians, swapping handkerchiefs and larger pieces of cloth for fish amidst lively bargaining.[citation needed<\/a><\/em>]<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Indians now encountered by the party near the coast appeared well-fed and more eager to receive cloth than food. On June 25, as the party struggled to cross a series of ravines, they noticed many Indians following them. When they camped for the night, the Indians pressed close. Whenever Serra placed his hands on their heads, they placed theirs on his. Coveting cloth, some begged Serra for the friar’s habit he wore. Several women passed Serra’s spectacles around with delight from hand to hand, until one man dashed off with them. Serra’s companions rushed to recover them, the only pair of spectacles Serra possessed.[67]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arrival in San Diego<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Jun\u00edpero Serra Museum<\/a> at the Presidio of San Diego<\/a>, California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On June 28, sergeant Jos\u00e9 Ortega<\/a>, who had ridden ahead to meet the Rivera<\/a> party in San Diego, returned with fresh animals and letters to Serra from friars Juan Cresp\u00ed<\/a> and Fernando Parr\u00f3n. Serra learned that two Spanish galleons<\/a> dispatched from Baja to supply the new missions had arrived at San Diego Bay<\/a>. One of the ships, the San Carlos<\/em>, had sailed almost four months from La Paz<\/a>, bypassing its destination by almost 200 miles before doubling back south to reach San Diego Bay.[68]<\/a><\/sup> By the time it dropped anchor on April 29, scurvy<\/a> had so devastated its crew that they lacked the strength to lower a boat. Men on shore from the San Antonio<\/em>, which had arrived three weeks earlier, had to board the San Carlos<\/em> to help its surviving crew ashore.[69]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Portol\u00e1\/Serra party, having trekked 900 miles (1450 kilometers) from Loreto<\/a> and suffered dwindling food supplies along the way, arrived in San Diego<\/a> on July 1, 1769. “It was a day of great rejoicing and merriment for all,” wrote Serra, “because although each one in his respective journey had undergone the same hardships, their meeting … now became the material for mutual accounts of their experiences.”[70]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between the overland and seafaring parties of the expedition, about 300 men had started on the trip from Baja California. But no more than half of them reached San Diego. Most of the Christian Indians recruited to the overland parties had died or deserted; military officers had denied them rations when food started running low. Half of those who made it to San Diego spent months unable to resume the expedition, due to illness.[71]<\/a><\/sup> Doctor Pedro Prat, who had also sailed on the San Carlos<\/em> as the expedition’s surgeon, struggled to treat the ill men, himself weakened from scurvy. Friar Fernando Parr\u00f3n, who had sailed on the San Carlos<\/em> as chaplain, had become weak with scurvy as well. Many men who had sailed on the San Antonio<\/em>, including captain Juan P\u00e9rez<\/a>, had also taken ill with scurvy.[72]<\/a><\/sup> Despite the efforts of Doctor Prat, many of the ill men died in San Diego.[citation needed<\/a><\/em>]<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mission San Diego de Alcal\u00e1<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Statue of Junipero Serra at Mission San Diego de Alcal\u00e1<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On July 16, 1769, Serra founded mission San Diego<\/a> in honor of Didacus of Alcal\u00e1<\/a> in a simple shelter on Presidio Hill serving as a temporary church. Tensions with the local Kumeyaay people<\/a> made it difficult to attract converts. The Indians accepted the trinkets Serra offered as rewards for visiting the new mission. But their craving for Spanish cloth irritated the soldiers, who accused them of stealing. Some of the Kumeyaay teased and taunted the sick soldiers. To warn them away, soldiers fired their guns into the air. The Christian Indians from Baja who remained with the Spaniards did not know the Kumeyaay language.[73]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On August 15, the Feast of the Assumption<\/a>, Serra and padre Sebastian Vizca\u00edno celebrated Mass at the new mission chapel, to which several Hispanics had gone for confession and Holy Communion<\/a>. After Mass, four soldiers went down to the beach to bring padre Fernando Parr\u00f3n back from the San Carlos<\/em>, where he had been celebrating Mass.[citation needed<\/a><\/em>]<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Observing the mission and its neighboring huts sparsely protected, a group of over 20 Indians attacked with bows and arrows. The four remaining soldiers, aided by the blacksmith and carpenter, returned fire with muskets and pistols. Serra, clutching a Jesus figurine in one hand and a Mary figurine in the other, prayed to God to save both sides from casualties. The blacksmith, Chac\u00f3n, ran about the Spanish huts unprotected by a leather jacket, shouting: “Long live the faith of Jesus Christ and may these dogs, enemies of that faith, die!”[74]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Illustration of Serra celebrating as the resupply ships the San Antonio<\/em> and the San Carlos<\/em> arrive at San Diego Bay<\/a> on March 19, 1770.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Serra’s young servant Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Vergerano ran into Serra’s hut, his neck pierced by an arrow. “Father, absolve me,” he beseeched, “for the Indians have killed me.” “He entered my little hut with so much blood streaming from his temples and mouth that, shortly after, I gave him absolution and helped him to die well,” wrote Serra. “He passed away at my feet, bathed in his blood.”[75]<\/a><\/sup> Padre Vizca\u00edno, the blacksmith Chac\u00f3n, and a Christian Indian from San Ignacio<\/a> suffered wounds. That night Serra buried Vergerano secretly, concealing his death from the Indians.[citation needed<\/a><\/em>]<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Indian warriors, suffering several dead and wounded, retreated with a new-found respect for the power of Spanish firearms. As local Indians cremated their dead, the wailing of their women sounded from local villages. Yet Serra wrote six months later, in a letter to the guardian of the college of San Fernando<\/a>, that “both our men and theirs sustained wounds”\u2014without mentioning any Indian deaths. He added: “It seems none of them died so they can still be baptized.”[76]<\/a><\/sup> Tightening security, the soldiers built a stockade of poles around the mission buildings, banning Indians from entering.[citation needed<\/a><\/em>]<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A teenage boy from the Kumeyaay<\/a> village of Kosa’aay<\/a> (Cosoy, known today as Old Town, San Diego<\/a>) who had often visited the mission before the outbreak of hostilities, resumed his visits with the friars. He soon learned enough Spanish for Serra to view him as an envoy to help convert the Kumeyaay. Serra urged the boy to persuade some parents to bring their young child to the mission, so that Serra could administer Catholic baptism<\/a> to the child by pouring water over his head.[citation needed<\/a><\/em>]<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few days later, a group of Indians arrived at the mission carrying a naked baby boy. The Spaniards interpreted their sign language as a desire to have the boy baptized. Serra covered the child with some clothing and asked the corporal of the guard to sponsor the baptism. Dressed in surplice<\/a> and stole<\/a>, Serra read the initial prayers and performed the ceremonies to prepare for baptism. But just as he lifted the baptismal shell, filled it with water and readied to pour it over the baby’s head, some Indians grabbed the child from the corporal’s arms and ran away to their village in fear. The other Kumeyaay visitors followed them, laughing and jeering. The frustrated Serra never forgot this incident; recounting it years later brought tears to his eyes. Serra attributed the Indians’ behavior to his own sins.[77]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Monument marking the landing place of Serra in Monterey, California<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over six months dragged on without a single Indian convert to mission San Diego. On January 24, 1770, the 74 exhausted men of the Portol\u00e1 expedition<\/a> returned from their exploratory journey up the coast to San Francisco. They had survived by slaughtering and eating their mules along the return trek south. Commander Gaspar de Portol\u00e1<\/a>, engineer and cartographer Miguel Costans\u00f3<\/a>, and friar Juan Cresp\u00ed<\/a> all arrived in San Diego with detailed diaries of their trip. They reported large populations of Indians living along the coast who seemed friendly and docile, ready to embrace the gospel. Serra fervently wrote to the guardian of the college of San Fernando<\/a>, requesting more missionaries willing to face hardships in Alta California.[78]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Food remained scarce as the San Diego outpost awaited the return of the supply ship San Antonio<\/em>. Weighing the risk of his soldiers dying of starvation, Portol\u00e1 set a deadline of March 19, the feast of saint Joseph<\/a>, patron of his expedition: If no ship arrived by that day\u2014Portol\u00e1 told Serra\u2014he would march his men south the next morning. The anguished Serra, along with friar Juan Cresp\u00ed, insisted on staying in San Diego in the event of the Portol\u00e1 group’s departure. Boarding the San Carlos<\/em> (still anchored in San Diego Bay), Serra told captain Vicente Vila of Portol\u00e1’s plan. Vila agreed to stay in the harbor until the relief ship arrived\u2014and to welcome Serra and Cresp\u00ed aboard if they got stranded by Portol\u00e1’s departure.[citation needed<\/a><\/em>]<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the morning of March 19, Serra celebrated Mass and preached a sermon at the forlorn mission on Presidio Hill. No ship appeared in the bay that morning. But around 3 o’clock in the afternoon, the sails of a ship\u2014the San Antonio<\/em>\u2014came into view on the horizon. It sailed past San Diego Bay, destined for Monterey. When it got to the Santa Barbara Channel, its sailors made landfall to fetch fresh water. There they learned from Indians that the Portol\u00e1 expedition had returned south. So the San Antonio<\/em> also turned south, anchoring in San Diego Bay on March 23.[79]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monterey<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Father Serra Celebrates Mass at Monterey<\/em>; painting by L\u00e9on Trousset<\/a>, 1877.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bolstered by the food unloaded from the San Antonio<\/em>, Portol\u00e1 and his men shifted their sights back north to Monterey<\/a>, specified by Jos\u00e9 de G\u00e1lvez<\/a> as the northern stake of Spain’s empire in California. Friar Juan Cresp\u00ed<\/a> prepared to accompany the second Portol\u00e1 expedition to Monterey. Leaving mission San Diego in the hands of friars Fernando Parr\u00f3n and Francisco G\u00f3mez, Serra rode a launch out to board the San Antonio<\/em>. He and Cresp\u00ed would meet in Monterey. Since Serra planned to establish the mission there while having Cresp\u00ed establish mission San Buenaventura<\/a>, the two friars would be living over 200 miles apart. “Truly,” wrote Serra to Pal\u00f3u<\/a>, “this state of solitude shall be … the greatest of my hardships, but God in His infinite mercy will see me through.”[80]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On April 16, 1770, the San Antonio<\/em> set sail from San Diego Bay, carrying Serra, doctor Pedro Prat, engineer Miguel Costans\u00f3<\/a> and a crew of sailors under captain Juan P\u00e9rez<\/a>. Contrary winds blew the ship back south to the Baja peninsula<\/a>, then as far north as the Farallon Islands<\/a>. As the ship heaved against heavy winds, P\u00e9rez, Serra and sailors recited daily prayers, promising to make a novena<\/a> and celebrate High Mass upon their safe arrival in Monterey.[81]<\/a><\/sup> Several sailors fell sick with scurvy. Serra described the six-week voyage as “somewhat uncomfortable.”[82]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, the land expedition departed from San Diego on April 17 under the command of Portol\u00e1<\/a>. His group included friar Cresp\u00ed<\/a>, captain Pedro Fages<\/a>, twelve Spanish volunteers, seven leather-jacketed soldiers, two muleteers<\/a>, five Baja Christian Indians, and Portol\u00e1’s servant. Following the same route they had taken the year before, the expedition reached Monterey Bay on May 24, without losing a single man or suffering any serious illness.[83]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Vizca\u00edno-Serra Oak<\/a>, in Monterey<\/a>, where Sebasti\u00e1n Vizca\u00edno<\/a> celebrated mass in 1602 and Serra celebrated mass in 1770.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the San Antonio<\/em> nowhere in sight, Portol\u00e1, Cresp\u00ed and a guard walked over the hills to Point Pinos, then to a beachside hill just south where their party had planted a large cross five months before on their journey back from San Francisco Bay. They found the cross surrounded by feathers and broken arrows driven into the ground, with fresh sardines and meat laid out before the cross. No Indians were in sight. The three men then walked along the rocky coast south to Carmel Bay<\/a>. Several Indians approached them, and the two groups exchanged gifts.[84]<\/a><\/sup> On May 31, the San Antonio<\/em> sailed into Monterey Bay<\/a> and dropped anchor, reuniting the surviving men of the land and sea expeditions.[citation needed<\/a><\/em>]<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Pentecost<\/a> Sunday, June 3, 1770, Serra, Portol\u00e1 and the whole expedition held a ceremony at a makeshift chapel erected next to a massive oak tree by Monterey Bay, to found mission San Carlos Borromeo<\/a>. “The men of the land and sea expeditions coming from different directions met here at the same time,” wrote Serra, “we singing the divine praises in our launch, while the gentlemen on land sang in their hearts.” After the raising and planting of a large cross, which Serra blessed, “the standards of our Catholic monarch were also set up, the one ceremony … accompanied by shouts of ‘Long live the Faith!’ and the other by ‘Long live the King!’ Added to this was the clangor of the bells, the volleys of the muskets, and the cannonading from the ship.”[85]<\/a><\/sup> Both king Carlos III<\/a> and viceroy Carlos de Croix<\/a> had chosen to name the new mission after Carlo Borromeo<\/a>.[86]<\/a><\/sup> The body of a sailor, Alexo Ni\u00f1o, who had died the day before aboard the San Antonio<\/em>, was buried at the foot of the newly erected cross.[87]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Serra realized from the start that the new mission needed relocation: While the Laws of the Indies<\/a> required missions to be located near Indian villages, there were no Indian settlements near the newly christened mission by Monterey Bay. “It might be necessary,” wrote Serra to the guardian of the college of San Fernando<\/a>, “to change the site of the mission toward the area of Carmel<\/a>, a locality indeed more delightful and suitable because of the extent and excellent quality of the land and water supply necessary to produce very abundant harvests.”[88]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On July 9, the San Antonio<\/em> set sail from Monterey, bound for Mexico. Aboard were Portol\u00e1<\/a> and Miguel Costans\u00f3<\/a>, along with several letters from Serra. Forty men, including the two friars and five Baja Indians, remained to develop the mission on the Monterey peninsula<\/a>. In San Diego, 450 miles (725 kilometers) south, 23 men remained to develop the mission there. Both groups would have to wait a year before receiving supplies and news from Mexico.[89]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Missions founded<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mission San Diego de Alcal\u00e1<\/a> was founded by Serra in 1769, as the first of the California missions<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mission San Carlos Borromeo del R\u00edo Caramelo<\/a>, where Serra died, was founded in 1770.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the party reached San Diego<\/a> on July 1, Serra stayed behind to start the Mission San Diego de Alcal\u00e1<\/a>, the first of the 21 California missions[25]<\/a><\/sup> (including the nearby Visita de la Presentaci\u00f3n<\/a>, also founded under Serra’s leadership).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Junipero Serra moved to the area that is now Monterey<\/a> in 1770, and founded Mission San Carlos Borrom\u00e9o de Carmelo<\/a>. He remained there as “Father Presidente” of the Alta California<\/a> missions. In 1771, Serra relocated the mission to Carmel<\/a>, which became known as “Mission Carmel” and served as his headquarters. Under his presidency were founded:[citation needed<\/a><\/em>]<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n