Sainthood for Serra?

Like beads in a great rosary 700 miles long, from San Diego in the south to Sonoma in the north stand 21 missions which in the 18th Century Fray Junipero Serra and his followers built to God's glory in California. Two are in ruins, one has become a museum, the others are partially restored and used for religious services. The Jesuits had evangelized Lower California from the time they appeared in the New World, but by 1767 --six years before the Order was suppressed by the Pope because of secular outcries against it--the black-cassocked fathers and their work in California became unpopular and they were ousted. Their work was taken over by brown-cassocked Franciscans under the leadership of 54-year-old Fray Junipero, who had been born in Majorca, missionized in Mexico, learned the tongue of the Fame Indians and taught at the college of San Fernando.

A preacher of burning zeal, Fray Junipero moved his people to penitential awe with such mortifications as applying a torch to his bare chest and beating it with stones. With a party of 15 he visited the missions of Lower California, then struck north into new and unsaved territory. At San Diego in 1769 he established Upper California's first mission which was, like all the others, a civil as well as a spiritual outpost. A mission consisted of a church, a residence of the fathers, a presidio or military guard, shops and workrooms in which to instruct Indians in the arts of civilization. Continuing northward. Fray Junipero by 1782 completed his rosary of missions and was given the power of confirmation which usually is possessed only by bishops. During three years, despite a crippled leg and an ailment in his much abused chest. Fray Junipero revisited all the California missions, confirmed 5,309 Indians. In 1784 Junipero Serra died, was buried at San Carlos Borromeo mission near Carmel on the fog-swept Monterey peninsula.

Franciscan zeal waned; in 1835 there were but 150 Indian converts at Carmel. Uncared for, the San Carlos Mission fell prey to wind and rain, which destroyed its tiled roof, and to weeds which engulfed Fray Junipero's cell and his grave. Not until 1882 was restoration begun on the mission. Not until last week, which brought the 153rd anniversary of the good Franciscan's death, was the restoration of his simple cell completed. By then, the Franciscans now in charge of the Carmel Mission, and their superior, Bishop Philip George Scher of the Monterey-Fresno diocese, had become convinced that Fray Junipero Serra was a saint.

Saints are discovered by people on earth through prayers. The Roman Catholic Church attests sanctity after rigorous investigation. Hundreds of Catholics during the past year addressed prayers to Fray Junipero to intercede for them, and hundreds wrote Bishop Scher that their prayers had been answered, mostly by cures of ailments. This was enough to set in motion Fray Junipero's cause for beatification, preparatory to which the Church, if it found he had been responsible for miracles, would give him the title "Venerable." Appointed Vice-Postulator, or working advocate of the cause, was Franciscan Father Augustine Hobrecht of Santa Barbara Mission. But Father Augustine may not live to see Fray Junipero's canonization, for sainthood may take from 25 to 100 years.

Last Sunday, Fray Junipero's anniversary, the cause was informally opened with mass celebrated at San Carlos Mission by its present pastor, Father Michael O'Connell. Father Augustine spoke on Fray Junipero's holy life, argued his sanctity. A wreath was laid on his refurbished grave by Excelentisima Maria Antonia Field, descendant of California grandees who was given her title in 1931 by King Alfonso XIII for her work in preserving Spanish California's historical buildings and records. Fray Junipero's cell, restored to look as it did when he prayed, read his missal and scourged himself with a chain therein, was dedicated as a shrine. A handful of Indians, descendants of those whom, Fray Junipero confirmed, were present. And there was a fiesta for the hundreds of Spanish-American Catholics of Monterey peninsula, with plenty of music and dancing.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.