Saint JunÃÆ'pero Serra y Ferrer, OFM , ( ; Spanish: Ã, (November 24, 1713 - August 28, 1784) was a Roman Catholic priest. [xu'nipe? o 'sera] , Catalan: JunÃÆ'per Serra i Ferrer and Franciscan friar monks who founded a mission in Baja California and the first nine of 21 Spanish missions in California from San Diego to San Francisco, where Alta California in Las Vegas Province, New Spain, Serra was beatified by Pope John Paul II on September 25, 1988, in Vatican City Pope Francis canonised him on September 23, 2015, at the Basilica of the National Shrine of Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC, during his first visit to the United States.According to Serra's piety combined with his missionary efforts, he was awarded a posthumous title < i> Apostle of California .
Serra's statement as a Catholic saint by the Holy See is controversial with some Native Americans who criticize Serra's treatment of their ancestors and ties it to their cultural oppression.
Video Junípero Serra
Kehidupan awal
Serra (born Miquel Jose Serra , 24 November 1713 - August 28, 1784) was born in the village of Petra on the island of Majorca (Mallorca) off the Mediterranean coast of Spain. A few hours after birth, he was baptized in a village church. The name of the baptism is Miquel JosÃÆ'Ã… © Serra. His father Antonio Nadal Serra and Margarita Rosa Ferrer's mother were married in 1707.
At the age of seven, Miquel was working in the fields with his parents, helping cultivate wheat and beans, and care for livestock. But he showed a special interest in visiting the local Franciscan monastery at San Bernardino church within the Serra family's block. Attending the elementary school of the monks in the church, Miquel studied reading, writing, math, Latin, religion and liturgical singing, especially the Gregorian chant. Gifted with a good voice, he eagerly takes vocal music. Ladies and gentlemen sometimes let him join the community choir and sing at special church parties. Miquel and his father Antonio often visit the monastery for friendly chat with the Franciscans.
At the age of 16, Miquel's parents enrolled him in a Franciscan school in the capital, Palma de Majorca, where he studied philosophy. A year later, he became a beginner in the Franciscan order.
Join the Franciscan order
On September 14, 1730, about two months before his 17th birthday, Serra entered the Franciscan Order in Palma, in particular, the Alcantarine branch of Friars Minor, a reform movement within the Order. Light and weak serra now begins his novitiate, a year of intense preparation for becoming a full member of the Franciscan Order. He was given the religious name of JunÃÆ'pero in honor of Brother Juniper, who was among the first Franciscans and a companion of Saint Francis. Young JunÃÆ'pero, along with his budding friends, vows to scorn property and comfort, and remain celibate. He still has seven years to become an ordained Catholic priest. He immersed himself in careful studies of logic, metaphysics, cosmology, and theology.
The daily routine at the monastery follows a strict schedule: prayer, meditation, choir singing, physical tasks, spiritual readings, and instruction. The monks would wake up every midnight to recite the singing again. Serra's boss does not like letters and visitors. In his spare time, he diligently reads the stories of Franciscan monks roaming the provinces of Spain and around the world to win new spirits to the church, often suffering martyrdom in the process. He followed the news of the famous missionaries winning beatification and sanctity.
In 1737, Serra became a priest, and three years later got an ecclesiastical license to teach philosophy at Convento de San Francisco. His philosophical courses, including more than 60 students, lasted three years. Among his students are fellow future missionaries Francisco PalÃÆ'³u and Juan CrespÃÆ'. When the course ended in 1743, Serra told his students: "I do not want anything from you than this, that when the news of my death will reach your ears I ask you to say for the benefit of my soul: 'May he rest in peace. ' Nor will I neglect to do the same for you so that we will all achieve the goals we have created. "
Serra is considered intellectually intelligent by her friends. He received a doctorate in theology from Lullian College (founded in the 14th century by Ramon Lull for the training of Franciscan missionaries) in Palma de Majorca, where he also held the philosophy of Duns Scotus until he joined the College of San Fernando missionaries. de Mexico in 1749.
During the last five years of Serra on the island of Majorca, drought and plague struck his hometown, Petra. Serra sometimes returns home from Palma for a short visit to her parents - now separated - and gives them financial support. On one occasion he was called home to anoint his father who was seriously ill with the last ceremonies. During one of his last visits to Petra, Serra found his younger sister Juana Mara almost dead.
In 1748, Serra and PalÃÆ'³u told each other their wish to become missionaries. Serra, now 35, is convinced as a prestigious priest and cleric if he lives in Majorca; but he directed his attention to the pagan lands. Applying to the colonial bureaucracy in Madrid, Serra requested that he and PalÃÆ'³u start a foreign mission. After passing through some administrative obstacles, they received permission and sailed to CÃÆ'¡diz, the port of departure for Spanish colonies in America.
While waiting to set sail, Serra wrote a long letter to a colleague in Majorca, urging her to entertain Serra's parents - now in her 70s - for the only delayed son's departure. "They [my parents] will learn to see how sweet his yoke is," Serra writes, "and that He will change for them the sadness they may experience now to be great happiness.Now is the time to contemplate or put aside those events life, but rather to be fully in accordance with the will of God, striving to prepare for a happy death that of all things life is our primary concern. "Serra asked his colleagues to read this letter to his parents, who never went to school.
Maps Junípero Serra
Ministry in the Americas
In 1749, Serra and the Franciscan missionary team landed in Veracruz, on the coast of the Gulf of New Spain (now Mexico). To go from Veracruz to Mexico City, Serra and his Franciscan friends took Camino Real (English: royal road ), rough roads stretching from the sea surface through tropical forests, dry plains , highland and mountain sierra volcano to a height of 7400 feet (2250 meters). Royal officials provided horses for 20 Franciscan friars to ascend to Camino Real. All accepted the offer, except Serra and one associate, a monk from Andalusia. Strictly following the rule of Saint Patron's patron of Assisi that the monks "should not ride horse unless forced by real needs or weaknesses," Serra insisted on walking to Mexico City. He and his cousins ​​go to Camino Real without money or guides, just bring their brevirs. They trusted Providence and the hospitality of the local people along the way.
During the course of Serra's left foot swell, and the burning itching tortured her. Arriving at a farm at the end of the day, he could hardly stand up. He connected the swelling to mosquito bites. Her discomfort kept her at the farm that night, where she scratched her legs and legs excessively, trying desperately to relieve the itchiness. The next morning her legs were bleeding and bleeding. This wound attacked Serra for the rest of her life.
Moving to Mexico City, Serra joins his brothers at San Fernando de Mexico High School, a specialized training center and regional headquarters for Franciscan missionaries. Serra requested that she do her novitiate-regardless of her academic prestige, and the fact that the college students were a much younger man. Despite his request being rejected, Serra insisted on living as a beginner at San Fernando: "This university professor of education... will eat less often to replace students who turn to read to the public or he will humbly carry trays and wait on the table with the lay brother... "
In addition to the routine of prayer, hymns and meditation, everyday life in remote colleges includes classes of Indian Indian languages ​​in Mexico, mission administration and theology. Before finishing the required training year, Serra volunteered for a mission in the fierce Sierra Gorda, to help replace the siblings who had just died there. He was accepted as a superior leader. His fellow volunteer, Friar Francisco PalÃÆ'³u, became Serra's assistant on his first mission. Mission
in Sierra Gorda, Mexico
The Sierra Gorda Indian mission, about 90 miles north of Santiago de QuerÃÆ'Â © taro, lies in a vast area in the jagged mountains, where the Pame Indians live and a cluster of Spanish invaders. The Pames - which, centuries before, had built civilization with temples, idols and priests - lived mainly by gathering and hunting, but also pursuing agriculture. Many groups of them, adopting mobile guerrilla tactics, have avoided conquest by the Spanish military.
Serra and PalÃÆ'³u, arriving in the village of Jalpan, found a mission in turmoil: The parishioners, who number less than a thousand, did not attend the recognition nor the mass. The two missionaries began to learn Pame from a Mexican who had lived among Pames. But Palá³u claims that Serra translated the catechism into the Pame language is questioned, since Serra himself later admitted that he had great difficulty in learning indigenous languages.
Serra involves Pames parishes in a ritual demonstration of Jesus' forced parade of deaths. By setting up 14 stations, Serra led the procession itself, carrying a very heavy cross. At each station, the procession stopped to pray, and in the end Serra preached about the suffering and death of Jesus. On Holy Thursday, 12 Pames parents reenacted the role of the apostles. Serra, in the role of Jesus, washed their feet and then, after the service, ate with them.
Serra also handles the practical side of mission administration. Working with the San Fernando college, he has cattle, goats, sheep, and farm tools brought to the Sierra Gorda mission. PalÃÆ'³u oversees farm workers from Indian mission men; the women learn to spin, sew and knit. Their products are collected and rationed to mission residents, according to personal needs. Christian Pames sells their surplus products at the nearest trading center, under the patronage of fathers to protect them from fraudsters. Pames who successfully adapted to missionary life received their own plots of land to grow corn, beans and pumpkin, and occasionally received oxen and seeds as well.
In two years, Serra has made a breakthrough against Pames' traditional belief system. In 1752 his visit from the Sierra Gorda mission to the San Fernando campus in Mexico City, Serra gladly brought the goddess statue presented to him by Christian Pames. The statue, which shows the face of Cachum, the mother of the sun, has been erected at a shrine on a hilltop where some of Pame's leaders are buried.
Back in Sierra Gorda, Serra faces a conflict between the Spanish army, settlers, and Indian missionaries. After the Spanish military victory over Pames in 1743, the Spanish authorities had sent not only Franciscan missionaries, but also Spanish/Mexican soldiers and their families to the Sierra Gorda. The soldiers have a duty to chase the runaway Indians and secure the territory to win the Spanish crown. But the army land claims clashed with mission land by Christian Pames.
Several families of soldiers tried to build a city, and the officers responsible for their placement approved their plans. The Pames object, threatening to defend their land by force if necessary. Soldiers and settlers let their animals graze on Christian Pames farms and bully Pames to work for them. Serra and the College of San Fernando sided with Pames - citing the Law of the Indies, which forbade colonial settlements in mission territory.
The Young King, the highest Spanish official in Mexico, suspended a disturbing colony. But the townspeople protested and stayed behind. The government arranges commissions and looks at alternative sites for the colony. It instructs the settlers to keep their cattle out of the Pames field, and pay Pames fairly for their work (with the brothers overseeing the payments). After a protracted legal struggle, the settlers moved in, and in 1755 the Pames family and brothers took back their land.
Bridging the Sierra Gorda mission, Serra oversaw the construction of a beautiful church in Jalpan. Collecting masons, carpenters, and other skilled craftsmen from Mexico City, Serra employs Christian Pames in a seven-year seasonal construction work to finish the church. Serra pitched inside, carrying wooden beams and applying mortars between the rocks that formed the church wall.
Serra's Work for the Inquisition
During a 1752 visit to Mexico City, Serra sent a request from the San Fernando college to the local Spanish Inquisition headquarters. He asked an inquisitor appointed to lead the Sierra Gorda. The next day, Inquisition officials appointed Serra himself as an inquisitor for the whole region - adding that he could exercise his authority wherever he undertook missionary work in New Spain, as long as there were no regular Inquisition officials in the region.
In September 1752, Serra filed a report to the Spanish Inquisition in Mexico City from Jalpan, about "the evidences of magic in the Sierra Gorda mission." He denounced some non-Indian Christians living in and around the mission for "the most heinous and terrible crimes of witchcraft, magic and demons... If it were necessary to determine one of those guilty of the crime, I was accused by the name Melchora de Los Reyes Acosta, a married Mulattress, a resident of the mission... In these last days a certain Cayetana, a very clever Mexican woman of the mission, married a PÃÆ' Â © rez, a mulatto, having confessed - he, who was observed and accused of a similar crime, has been detained by us for the past few days - that in his mission there is a large [non-Indian] congregation, although some Indians also join them, and that these men, fly in the air at night, in habit of meeting in a cave on a hill near a farm called El Saucillo, at the mission center, where they worship and sacrifice for the evil spirits that are clearly present in the guise of the goats and our young vario other things of that nature... If such crimes are not attacked, terrible corruption will spread among these poor neophytes who are responsible for us. "
According to modern Franciscan historians, the report by Serra to the Inquisition is his only surviving letter of eight years of missionary work in the Sierra Gorda. Serra's first biographer, Francisco PalÃÆ'³u, writes that Serra, in his role as an inquisitor, must work in many parts of Mexico and travel long distances. However the Archivo General de la Nación in Mexico City, with more than a thousand volumes of index documents on the Inquisition, appears to contain only two references to Serra's work for the Inquisition after the 1752 appointment: his preaching in Oaxaca in 1764, and his partial handling of the case of a Sierra Gorda mulatto accused magic in 1766.
In 1758, Serra returned to the College of San Fernando. For the next nine years he worked in the college administration office, and as a missionary and inquisitor in the diocese of Mexico, Puebla, Oaxaca, Valladolid, and Guadalajara. In his missionary journey, Serra often travels on foot, even though his legs are sore and leg wounds.
Physical punishment
By imitating a Franciscan missionary and saint, Francisco Solano, Serra makes a habit of physically punishing himself, to purify his spirit. He was wearing a sack with feathers, or a coat woven with pieces of wire, under his gray outer garment. In his hard cell, Serra kept a sharply pointed iron chain connection that hung on the wall beside his bed, to flog himself at night when sinful thoughts clouded his mind. The night-night revolt on the San Fernando campus caught the ears of several of his brothers. In his letters to the Franciscan friends, Serra often refers to himself as a "sinner" and "the most unworthy minister."
In one of his sermons in Mexico City, while urging his listeners to repent of their sins, Serra took out his chains, shouldered his shoulders and started whipping himself. Many parishioners, awakened by the spectacle, begin to cry. Finally, a man climbs into the pulpit, takes the chain from Serra's hand and starts to whip it, declaring: "I am a sinless, sinless man who has to do penance for many of my sins instead of padre [Serra], who is a person holy. "The man continued whipping himself until he passed out. After receiving the final sacrament, he later died of the ordeal.
During another sermon on the theme of repentance, Serra would raise a large stone in one hand and, holding the cross in the other hand, smashed the stone on his chest. Many of his listeners fear that he will commit suicide. Then, Serra suffered chest pain and shortness of breath; PalÃÆ'³u suggests that the bruises that Serra suffered were the cause. In preaching hell and curse, Serra will burn her flesh with a four-by-four candle flame - imitating a famous Franciscan preacher, Saint John of Capistrano. PalÃÆ'³u describes this as "loud enough, painful, and dangerous to injure his chest."
Serra does not stand alone among the Catholic missionaries in presenting her own punishment in the pulpit. The more enthusiastic Franciscan and Jesuit missionaries also did the same. But few take it to the extreme of Serra. San Fernando's college rules say that self-punishment should not be taken to the point of permanently paralyzing itself. Some of Serra's associates chided him for going too far.
King Carlos expels Jesuits
On June 24, 1767, the new Spanish vicar Carlos Francisco de Croix read the decree of the Spanish kingdom to the Mexican archbishop and church officials gathered: "Fix with armed force to the house of the Jesuits, capture the people of them all, and, in 24 hours, transporting them as prisoners to the port of Veracruz, for sealing records of homes and records of such persons without allowing them to remove anything but their brevis and clothing that is absolutely necessary for their journey. an embarkation must have a Jesuit in the district, even if sick or dying, you will suffer the death penalty. "
The Spanish king Carlos III had planned the expulsion of the Jesuits throughout his empire five months earlier. Within days of his great envoy reading the exile decree to high-ranking Catholic officials in Mexico, the Spanish royal soldiers removed the Jesuits - who offered no resistance - from all their stations within ready reach of communication in Mexico City. Many Jesuit priests died along the steep mountain roads to Veracruz, where overloaded ships were waiting to bring survivors across the Atlantic to the Papal States on the Italian peninsula.
On the Baja California peninsula, the new governor, Gaspar de PortolÃÆ'¡ must inform and remove the Jesuits from the mission chains they have developed in the forbidden area for more than 70 years. In February 1768, PortolÃÆ'¡ gathered 16 Jesuit Missionaries in Loreto, from where they sailed to mainland Mexico to be deported. In sympathy with the Jesuits, PortolÃÆ'¡ treats them well even when he removes them under the king's orders.
Mission president of Baja California
In the vacuum created by the expulsion of the Jesuits from Mexico, the Franciscan missionaries stepped up. In July 1767, the guardian of San Fernando college appointed Serra's president from the Baja California mission, leading a group of 15 Franciscan monks; Francisco PalÃÆ'³u served as his second commander. Jesuit priests have developed 13 missions on the long, dry peninsula for seven decades. Two Jesuits had died at the hands of the Indians in the rebellion of 1734-6.
In March 1768, Serra and his missionary team boarded a Spanish boat in San Blas, on the Pacific coast of Mexico. Sailing over 200 miles to the Gulf of California, they landed in Loreto two weeks later. Gaspar de PortolÃÆ'¡, the governor of Las Californias, greeted them at the Loreto mission, established by the Jesuits in 1697. When he gave control of the church to Serra, PortolÃÆ'¡ controlled the residence and rented food to the monks, charging them for the mission.
Serra and PalÃÆ'³u find - for their unpleasant surprise - that they are only in charge of spiritual things: the day-to-day mission management remains in the hands of the military, who have occupied the Baja mission since expelling the Jesuits. In August 1768, the new general inspector General JosÃÆ'Â © de GÃÆ'¡lvez, unhappy with the military administration of the careless mission of Steel, ordered them to surrender fully to the Franciscan monks.
Serra began to assign his siblings to missions scattered along the Baja peninsula, with water sources and rare food. He stayed for a year at Loreto's mission while his colleagues tried to turn the Indians on the mountain and the desert nearby. Where missionary workers can stem small streams, they succeed in growing wheat, corn, beans, fruits and cotton - always dependent on water availability.
The Franciscans found that Indians in the Baja California mission region had shrunk to about 7,150. By the time the Franciscans had moved north and changed the mission to the Dominican monks in 1772, the Indian population had been reduced to about 5,000. "If it continues like this," writes PalÃÆ'³u, "in a short time Baja California will end." The epidemic, especially the syphilis introduced by the Spanish forces, wasted the Indians. But the PalÃÆ'³u attributes the destruction of syphilis to God's vengeance for the killing of Indians against two Jesuit priests more than 30 years earlier.
Travel to San Diego
In 1768 JosÃÆ'Â © de GÃÆ'¡lvez, inspector General of New Spain, decided to send explorers and find missions in Alta (upon) California. GÃÆ'¡lvez aims to Christianize India's vast population and serve Spain's strategic interests by preventing Russian exploration and possible claims to the Pacific coast of North America. GÃÆ'¡lvez chose Serra to head up a missionary team on a California expedition. Serra, now 55 years old, eagerly takes the opportunity to harvest thousands of pagan souls on land previously untouched by the church.
But when the expedition gathered in Loreto, Serra's foot and foot infection became almost paralyzing. The commander, Gaspar de PortolÃÆ'¡, tried to dissuade him from joining the expedition, and wrote to GÃÆ'¡lvez about Serra's condition. Serra's brother and former student Francisco PalÃÆ'³u are also concerned, gently suggesting to Serra that she lives in Baja California and allow the younger and stronger Palá³u to travel to San Diego instead. Serra rejects doubts PortolÃÆ'¡s and PalÃÆ'³u. He has denounced PalÃÆ'³u for his suggestion: "Let's not talk about it.I have put all my faith in God, whose goodness I hope that He will give me to reach not only San Diego to raise the standard of the Holy Cross in that port, but also Monterey. "
Serra suggests that PortolÃÆ'¡ departs without him; he will follow and meet them on his way to Alta California. He then commissioned the abbey of Miguel de la Campa as a chaplain for the expedition of PortolÃÆ'Â ©, which departed from Loreto on 9 March 1769. Spent the holy week at Loreto mission, Serra departed on 28 March. "From my Loreto mission," Serra writes, "I no longer have lunch for a much longer trip than a loaf of bread and a slice of cheese, because I was there [on Loreto's mission] all year, on economic issues, as an ordinary guest to receive the crumbs of the royal army commander, whose freedom on my departure did not go beyond the articles mentioned above. "
Two servants - one named JosÃÆ'Â © MarÃÆ'a Vergerano, 20 years old from Magdalena, another an army guard - accompanied Serra on his way from Loreto, as he rode a weak donkey. On April 28, 1769, Serra arrived at the mission of San Borja, where he received a warm welcome from fermar FermÃÆ'nn LasuÃÆ' Â © n. Established just seven years earlier by the Jesuit Wenceslaus Linck, the San Borja mission sits in the remarkably dry area of ​​Baja California. Continuing north, Serra stops on May 5 to read the Mass celebrating the Feast of Ascension in a deserted church in CalamajuÃÆ'Â ©, almost more than a broken shack. The next morning he arrived in Santa Mara, where he met with PortolÃÆ'¡, friar Miguel de la Campa and some members of their party. In this arid region, where the ground is against cultivation, live the "poorest of all" that the Serra Indians meet in Mexico. On Sunday, May 7, Serra sang a great Mass and delivered a sermon at the mission church on the Spanish Catholic border.
Founding Mission VelicatÃÆ'¡
After leaving the Santa MarÃÆ'a Mission, Serra urges PortolÃÆ'¡ to move forward from the slow pack carriage, so they can reach VelicatÃÆ'¡ in time for Pentecost the next day. PortolÃÆ'¡ agrees, so the small group traveled all day 13 May to reach VelicatÃÆ'¡ late afternoon. The followers of the party welcome them there.
On the day of Pentecost, May 14, 1769, Serra established his first mission, Mission San Fernando Rey de Espaà ± a de VelicatÃÆ'¡, in a mud hut that had functioned as an emergency church when the fermar FermÃÆ'n LasuÃÆ'Â| n had traveled on Easter to read the sacrament -the sacrament for the Fernando Rivera expedition, a land party that had preceded the PortolÃÆ'¡ party. The celebration of the establishment takes place "with all neatness of holy poverty," in the words of Serra. Smoke from army rifles, fired into repetitive shots, serves as incense.
The new mission has no Indian to convert. A few days later, the friar Miguel de la Campa told Serra that some native people had arrived. Serra happily rushes to welcome twelve Indians, men and boys. "Then I see what I can hardly believe when I read it," Serra writes. "... that is, that they went completely naked like Adam in heaven before the fall... We were treated with them for a long time, and although they saw us all dressed, they still showed no shame in the way they were naked. "Serra placed both hands above their heads as a sign of a father's affection. He then handed the figs, which they ate immediately. One Indian guy gave Serra roasted agave rod and four fish. In return, PortolÃÆ'¡ and its soldiers offer tobacco leaves and a variety of foods.
Through an Indian Christian translator, Serra told the Indians that de la Campa would stay on mission to serve them. They should encourage their family and friends to come to the mission. Serra asks them not to harass or kill cattle. PortolÃÆ'¡ announced that their head now has a legal status on behalf of the king of Spain.
​​â € <â €
Back on the road, Serra found it very difficult to keep standing because "my left leg has become very inflamed, the painful condition that I have suffered for a year or more.Now this inflammation has reached half of my feet..." PortolÃÆ'¡ again tried to persuade Serra to retreat from the expedition, offering to "have you been taken back to the first mission where you can recover, and we will continue our journey." Serra replied that "God... has given me the strength to come this far... Though I have to die on the way, I will not go back.They can bury me wherever they want and I will gladly be left among the disbelievers, if that is the will of God. "PortolÃÆ'¡ has a litter prepared, Christians traveling on an expedition can take Serra along the path.
Not wanting to burden his companies, Serra departed from his habit of avoiding drugs: He asked one man, Juan Antonio Coronel, if he could prepare a medicine for Serra's legs and feet. When Coronel objected that he only knew how to heal animal wounds, Serra rejoined, "Well then, son, just imagine I'm an animal... Make me the same medicine you'll apply to animals." Coronel then destroyed some of the fat between the stones and mixed it with a green desert potion. After heating the mixture, he applied it to Serra's legs and feet. The next morning, Serra feels "much better and I celebrate Mass.... I am allowed to travel daily as if I have no illness... No swelling but just the itchiness I feel at any time.."
Fishing trade for fish
The expedition still has 300 miles (480 kilometers) to travel to San Diego. They pass through the desert area to savanna oak in June, often camping and sleeping under big oak trees. From the high hill on June 20, the scouts had previously seen the Pacific Ocean in the distance. Reaching the beach that night, the party was called Ensenada de Todos Santos (All Saints' Cove, today only Ensenada). They now have less than 80 miles (130 kilometers) to reach San Diego.
Holding north, they remain close to the ocean. On June 23, they arrive at a large village in India where they enjoy a pleasant stopover. The natives seemed healthy, strong and friendly, immediately repeating the Spanish words they heard. Some dance for the party, offering them fish and shellfish. "We are all attracted to them," wrote Serra. "In fact, all the unbelievers have delighted me, but this has particularly stolen my heart." The next morning, the army traded with the Indians, changing the handkerchiefs and bigger pieces of cloth to fish in the midst of a bargain that lived.
Indians now encountered by seaside parties seemed well fed and more eager to receive cloth than food. On June 25, as the party struggled to cross a series of ravines, they saw many Indians following them. When they camped for the night, the Indians approached. Whenever Serra puts his hand on their heads, they place him on his head. Hooking the fabric, some begged Serra for the habit of the monk he wore. Some women passed Serra's glasses happily from hand to hand, until a man raced with them. Serra's friends rushed to restore them, Serra's only spectacles.
Arrive in San Diego
On June 28, Sergeant JosÃÆ'Â © Ortega, who had gone ahead to meet Rivera's party in San Diego, returned with the animals and fresh letters to Serra from the brothers of Juan CrespÃÆ' and Fernando ParrÃÆ'³n. Serra knows that two Spanish galleons sent from Baja to supply a new mission have arrived in San Diego Bay. One of the ships, San Carlos , has sailed nearly four months from La Paz, passing its destination nearly 200 miles before returning south to reach San Diego Bay. When the ship crashed anchor on April 29, scabies had destroyed its crew so they had no power to bring down the boat. The men on the beach from San Antonio, who arrived three weeks earlier, had to board the San Carlos ship to help the survivors on the ground.
The PortolÃÆ'¡/Serra party, having traveled 900 miles (1450 kilometers) from Loreto and suffered a declining supply of food along the way, arrived in San Diego on July 1, 1769. "It was a day full of joy and excitement for everyone , "Serra writes," for although each of them on their respective journeys has experienced the same difficulties, their meeting... is now a material for sharing their experiences... "
Between ground expeditions and seafaring expeditions, about 300 people have embarked on a journey from Baja California. But no more than half of them reach San Diego. Most Christian Christians recruited to land parties are either dead or abandoned; military officers have rejected their rations when food is running low. Half of those who made it to San Diego spent several months unable to continue the expedition, because of illness. Doctor Pedro Prat, who had also sailed in San Carlos as an expedition surgeon, struggled to treat sick people, weakened by scurvy. Friar Fernando ParrÃÆ'³n, who had sailed in San Carlos as a pastor, has become weak with scurvy as well. Many of the men who had sailed in San Antonio, including captain Juan PÃÆ'Â © rez, also suffered from scabies. Apart from the efforts of Doctor Prat, many sick people died in San Diego.
Mission San Diego de AlcalÃÆ'¡
On July 16, 1769, Serra established the San Diego Mission to honor Santa Didacus of AlcalÃÆ'¡ at a modest shelter in Presidio Hill serving as a temporary church. Tension with local Kumeyaay people makes it difficult to attract converts. The Indians received the trinkets that Serra offered as a reward for visiting a new mission. But their desire for Spanish clothing irritated the soldiers, who accused them of stealing. Some Kumeyaay teased and mocked the sick soldiers. To warn them, soldiers fired their weapons into the air. The Christian Indians from Baja who lived with the Spaniards did not know the Kumeyaay language.
Indian attack new mission
On August 15, the Feast of Assumption, Serra and the banner of Juan VizcaÃÆ'no uttered Mass at a new mission chapel, to which some Hispanics had gone for confession and Holy Communion. After Mass, four soldiers took to the beach to bring the handler Fernando ParrÃÆ'³n back from San Carlos , where he had delivered the Mass.
Observing their rarely sheltered mission and shantyhouses, a group of more than 20 Indians attacked with bows and arrows. The remaining four soldiers, assisted by blacksmiths and carpenters, returned fire with rifles and pistols. Serra, clutching the statue of Jesus in one hand and Mary's statue in the other, praying to God to save both sides from the victim. Blacksmith, ChacÃÆ'³n, ran around Spanish shacks unprotected by a leather jacket, shouting: "Live the faith of Jesus Christ and may these dogs, the enemy of that faith, die!"
The young servant Serra JosÃÆ'Â © MarÃÆ'a Vergerano ran to Serra's hut, his neck pierced by an arrow. "Father, let me go," he pleaded, "because the Indians have killed me." "He entered my little hut with so much blood flowing from his temples and his mouth, shortly after that, I gave him absolution and helped him to die well," Serra wrote. "... He died at my feet, bathed in his blood." Padre VizcaÃÆ'no, the ChacÃÆ'³n blacksmith, and an Indian Christian from San Ignacio suffered minor injuries. That night Serra buried Vergerano quietly, hiding his death from the Indians.
The Indian soldiers, who suffered several people dead and wounded, retreated with newly found respect for the power of Spanish firearms. When the local Indians cremate their deaths, their laments are heard from the local villages. But Serra wrote six months later, in a letter to the guardian of San Fernando college, that "both our people and they were injured" - without mentioning the deaths of Indians. He added: "It seems that none of them died so they could still be baptized." Security tightening, the soldiers built a defense fortress around the mission building, forbidding the Indians from entering.
Baptism
A teenage boy from the village of Kumeyaay from Kosa'aay (Cosoy, now known as the Old City, San Diego) who often visits missions before the outbreak of hostilities, continues his visit with the monks. He soon learns Spanish for Serra to see it as a messenger to help transform Kumeyaay. Serra urges the boy to persuade some parents to take their child to the mission so Serra can give Catholic baptism to the child by pouring water over her head.
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 baptize the boy. Serra covered the boy with some clothes and asked the guardian corporal to sponsor the baptism. Dressed in surplice and stole, Serra reads the initial prayers and performs the ceremony to prepare for baptism. But when he raised the baptismal shell, filled it with water and prepared to pour it over the baby's head, some Indians took the child from the corporal's arm and ran to their village in fear. The other Kumeyaay visitors followed them, laughing and mocking. The frustrated Serra never forgets this; telling it many years later brought tears to his eyes. Serra associates the behavior of Indians with their own sins.
Delivery on time
More than six months continued without an Indian convert to a San Diego mission. On January 24, 1770, 74 people who were exhausted from the PortolÃÆ'Â © á expedition returned from their exploratory trip to the coast to San Francisco. They survived by slaughtering and eating their donkeys all the way home south. Commander Gaspar de PortolÃÆ'¡, engineer and cartographer Miguel CostansÃÆ'³, and friar Juan CrespÃÆ' all arrived in San Diego with their travel diary. They report large populations of Indians living along the coast who look friendly and benign, ready to embrace the gospel. Serra writes passionately to the guardian of San Fernando college, asking more missionaries who are willing to face difficulties in Alta California.
Food remains rare because the San Diego post is awaiting the return of the San Antonio supply ship. Considering the risk of his soldiers dying of starvation, PortolÃÆ'¡ sets a deadline of March 19, the sacred feast of Joseph, the protector of his expedition: If no ship arrives that day - PortolÃÆ'¡ says Serra - he will march his southerners the next morning. The suffering Serra, along with friar Juan CrespÃÆ', insisted to stay in San Diego on the departure of the Portolá group. Ride to San Carlos (still anchored in San Diego Bay), Serra informs Captain Vicente Vila of PortolÃÆ'¡ plans. The villa agrees to stay at the harbor until the aid ship arrives - and to welcome Serra and CrespÃÆ' on board if they are stranded by PortolÃÆ'¡ departure.
On the morning of March 19, Serra sang the Mass and preached on a miserable mission at Presidio Hill. No ship appeared at bay that morning. But around 3 pm, the sailing ship - San Antonio - appears on the horizon. It sailed past San Diego Bay, heading for Monterey. Upon arriving at Santa Barbara Channel, the sailors made a landing to fetch fresh water. There they learn from the Indians that the expedition PortolÃÆ'Â © has returned to the south. So San Antonio also turned south, anchored in San Diego Bay on March 23rd.
Monterey: northern outpost
Supported by food dismantled from San Antonio, PortolÃÆ'¡ and his men turned their views back north to Monterey, defined by JosÃÆ'Â © de GÃÆ'¡lvez as the northern part of the Spanish empire in California. Friar Juan CrespÃÆ' prepares to accompany the PortolÃÆ' 2 expedition to Monterey. Leaving the San Diego mission in the hands of brother Fernando ParrÃÆ'³n and Francisco GÃÆ'³mez, Serra launches to board the San Antonio ships. He and CrespÃÆ' will meet in Monterey. Since Serra plans to establish a mission there while CrespÃÆ' builds the San Buenaventura mission, two monks will live apart more than 200 miles. "Verily," Serra writes to the PalÃÆ'³u, "this state of loneliness will be... the greatest of my troubles, but God in his infinite mercy will see me through."
On April 16, 1770, San Antonio sailed from San Diego Bay, carrying Serra, Pedro Prat doctors, engineers Miguel CostansÃÆ'³ and crew of sailors under captain Juan PÃÆ' Â © rez. The opposite wind blew the ship back south to the Baja peninsula, then north as far as the Farallon Islands. When the ship turned against the strong winds, PÃÆ'Ã… © rez, Serra and the sailors recited daily prayers, promised to make novena and celebrate the High Mass on their safe arrival in Monterey. Some sailors fall ill with scurvy. Serra described the six-week voyage as "somewhat uncomfortable."
Meanwhile, the ground expedition departed from San Diego on April 17 under the command of PortolÃÆ'¡. His group included Friar CrespÃÆ', captain Pedro Fages, twelve Catalan volunteers, seven leather-jacketed troops, two muleteers, five Christian Indian Minas, and Portolá servants. Following the same route they traveled the previous year, the expedition reached Monterey Bay on May 24th, without losing a single person or suffering from a serious illness. With San Antonio invisible, PortolÃÆ'¡, CrespÃÆ' and a guard walked over the hills to Point Pinos, then to a coastal hill to the south where their party had put up a big cross five months earlier on the way back from San Francisco Bay. They found a cross surrounded by feathers and broken arrows pushed to the ground, with fresh sardines and meat placed before the cross. No Indians in sight. The three men then walked along the rocky shore south to Carmel Bay. Some Indians approached them, and both groups exchanged gifts. On May 31, San Antonio sailed to Monterey Bay and anchored, reuniting survivors from land and sea expeditions.
On Sunday Pentecost, June 3, 1770, Serra, PortolÃÆ'¡ and the entire expedition held a ceremony at an emergency chapel set up beside a large oak by Monterey Bay, to discover the mission of San Carlos Borromeo. "People from land and sea expeditions come from different directions meet here at the same time," Serra writes, "we sing the divine praise in our launch, while the landlords sing in their hearts." After the raising and planting of the great cross, blessed by Serra, "the standard of our Catholic monarch is also established, a ceremony... accompanied by the cry of 'Long Faith!' and the other by 'Long life of the King!' Added to this are clangors of bells, musket shots, and cannonading from ships. "Both the king Carlos III and viceroy Carlos de Croix have chosen to name the new mission after the saint Carlo Borromeo. The body of a sailor, Alexo NiÃÆ' Â ± o, who died a day earlier aboard the San Antonio ships, was buried at the foot of the newly erected cross.
Serra realized from the start that the new mission needed relocation: While the Law of the Indies required a mission to be placed near Indian villages, there was no Indian settlement near a mission recently baptized by Monterey Bay. "It may be necessary," Serra wrote to the San Fernando college trustee, "to change the location of the mission to the Carmel region, a region that is more fun and appropriate because of its vastness and exceptional soil quality, and the water supply needed to produce a very high yield overflow. "
On July 9, San Antonio sailed from Monterey, heading for Mexico. The ship is PortolÃÆ'¡ and Miguel CostansÃÆ'³, along with several letters from Serra. Forty people, including two monks and five Baja Indians, continue to develop missions on the Monterey peninsula. In San Diego, 450 miles (725 kilometers) south, 23 people live to develop missions there. Both groups had to wait a year before receiving supplies and news from Mexico.
Established mission
When the party reached San Diego on July 1, Serra stayed to start the Mission San Diego de AlcalÃÆ'¡, the first of 21 California missions (including the closest Visita de la Presentación, also founded under Serra).
Junipero Serra moved to what is now Monterey in 1770, and founded Mission San Carlos BorromÃÆ'Â o de Carmelo. He remains there as "Mr. President" of the California Alta mission. In 1771, Serra moved his mission to Carmel, which came to be known as the "Carmel Mission" and served as its headquarters. Under his presidency established:
- Mission Basilica of San Diego de AlcalÃÆ'¡, July 16, 1769, now San Diego, California.
- Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo, June 3, 1770, now Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.
- Mission of San Antonio de Padua, July 14, 1771
- Mission San Gabriel ArcÃÆ'¡ngel, September 8, 1771, now San Gabriel, California.
- Mission of San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, September 1, 1772, the city of San Luis Obispo, California today.
- Mission San Juan Capistrano, November 1, 1776, now San Juan Capistrano
- Mission of San Francisco de AsÃÆ's, 29 June 1776, San Francisco, California's current mission network.
- The Mission of Santa Clara de AsÃÆ's, January 12, 1777, the city of Santa Clara, California at this time, and
- Mission San Buenaventura, 31 March 1782, now Ventura, California.
Serra also attended the founders of Presidio Santa Barbara (Santa Barbara, California) on April 21, 1782, but was prevented from finding a mission there because of feuding Governor Felipe de Neve.
He started in San Diego on July 16, 1769, and set up his headquarters near Presidio Monterey, but soon moved a few miles south to establish the San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo Mission in Carmel, California today.
The missions were primarily designed to bring the Catholic faith to the natives. Another goal is to integrate neophytes into Spanish society, to provide a framework for organizing indigenous people into a productive workforce to support the expansion of new Spanish powers, and to train them to take ownership and management of the land. As head of the order in California, Serra dealt not only with church officials but also with Spanish officials in Mexico City and with local military officers who led garrisons nearby.
In 1773, difficulties with Pedro Fages, the military commander, forced Serra to travel to Mexico City to argue in the presence of Viceroy Antonio MarÃÆ'a de Bucareli y UrsÃÆ'ºa for the dismissal of Fages as California Governor Nueva. In the Mexican capital, on Viceroy Bucareli's orders, he scored RepresentaciÃÆ'³n in 32 articles. Bucareli decided to support Serra on 30 of the 32 indictments filed against Fages, and removed him from office in 1774, after which Serra returned to California. In 1778, Serra, though not a bishop, was given a dispensation to administer the sacrament of confirmation to the faithful in California. After he exercised his privileges for a year, Governor Felipe de Neve directed him to suspend the administration of the sacrament until he could present a papal summary. For almost two years, Serra restrained himself, and then Viceroy Majorga gave instructions that Serra was in his right.
The Franciscans saw the Indians as God's children deserving opportunities for salvation, and would be good Christians. The converted Indians are separated from Indians who have not embraced Christianity, lest there be a recurrence. To understand the impetus behind missionary efforts in the eighteenth century, we must take into account the views of the age on the safety of unbaptized babies. Despite the many controversies in Church history, the fate of an unbaptized baby has never been a serious point of contention, which is why the Church has not yet considered it necessary to settle this issue definitively.
Therefore Catholics are free to speculate and hold various opinions on the matter. In the 18th century, much of the Catholic speculation about the ending of unbaptized babies was still in line with early Church fathers such as St. Augustine of Hippo, who believed that unbaptized babies would receive the lightest punishment in Hell, but no rewards. While some theologians from the 12th century onwards (especially Peter Abelard) have suggested that unbaptized babies will spend eternity in natural happiness in Limbo, and some mystics like Mary of Agreda and Marcel Van have asserted that unbaptized children finally going to Heaven, it is only recently that personal speculation of Catholic theologians has been inclined to this position.
For Serra and his friends, therefore, instructing the natives so that their children may also be saved will most likely be of great concern. From this came the hard effort of missionaries to harm the indigenous culture, which today will agree. Discipline is strict, and the converts are not allowed to come and go as they please. The baptized Indians are required to live in mission and conscription into forced labor as hijackers, shepherds, cattle herders, blacksmiths, and carpenters on missions. Illness, hunger, excessive labor, and torture destroy these tribes. Serra successfully rejected the efforts of Governor Felipe de Neve to bring the Enlightenment policy to missionary work, because those policies would subvert the Franciscan economic and religious goals.
Serra uses this kind of influence because his mission serves economic and political goals as well as religious objectives. The number of civilian occupiers in Alta California has never exceeded 3,200, and missions with their Indian population are essential to maintaining the territory in Spanish political orbit. Economically, the mission produced all the cattle and seeds of the colony, and in the 1780s even produced enough surplus to trade with Mexico for luxury goods.
In 1779, the Franciscan missionaries under the direction of Serra planted California's first vineyard in Mission San Diego de AlcalÃÆ'¡. Therefore, he is referred to as "The Father of California Wine". The variety he planted, probably of Spanish origins, was known as Mission wines and dominated California wine production until about 1880.
Native California Care
Serra has the sole purpose of saving, in his mind, the native souls of America. He believed that the death of an unconverted infidel is tragic, while the death of the baptized is the reason to rejoice. He maintains a patriarchal or paternal attitude toward Native Americans. He wrote, "The spiritual father must punish their sons, the Indians, with the blows seemingly as old as the conquest of America, so common in the fact that the saints do not seem to be the exception to the rule." The punishment made clear to the natives "that we, every one of us, come here for the sole purpose of doing their eternal good and salvation."
Modern observations on the treatment of Indigenous Peoples
The New York Times notes that some "Indian historians and writers blame Father Serra for their cultural oppression and premature death on the mission of thousands of their ancestors." George Tinker, an Osage/Cherokee and professor at Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado, cites evidence that Serra requires the Indians who were replaced to work to support the mission. Tinker writes that while Serra's intentions in evangelism are honest and sincere, much of the evidence shows that "indigenous communities refuse to intervene from Spain early".
While managing the Mission of San Carlos Borromeo in Monterey, California, Serra has a continuing conflict with Pedro Fages, who is Alta California's military governor. Fages trained his men very hard and was seen as a tyrant. Serra intervened on behalf of the army, and the two did not get along. The soldiers raped the Indian women and made them a concubine. Serra moved the mission to Carmel because of the better soil for agriculture, due to his conflict with the Fages, and partly to protect the Indian neophytes of the Spanish army.
Mark A. Noll, a professor at Wheaton College in Illinois, wrote that Serra's attitude - that missionaries can, and should, treat their environment as children, including the use of corporal punishment - was common at the time. Tinker argues that it is more appropriate to assess the beatings and lashes perpetrated by Serra and others from the point of view of Native Americans, who are victims of violence, and who do not punish their children with physical discipline. Salvatore J. Cordileone, the current archbishop of San Francisco, acknowledged Native American concerns about Serra's lashings and coercive treatment, but argued that missionaries also teach school and agriculture.
Iris Engstrand, a history professor at the Catholic University of Rome San Diego, described Serra as:
much better than the Indians, even from the governors. He does not get along well with some military people, you know. His attitude was, 'stay away from the Indians'. I think you really come with a kind, hard-working man who is rigid in many doctrinal tendencies and things like that, but not the one who enslaved the Indians, or beat them, ever.... He is a man who very caring and forgiving. Even after the burning mission in San Diego, he did not want the Indian to be punished. He wants to make sure that they are treated fairly.
Deborah A. Miranda, an American literature professor in Washington and Lee University and Native American, declared that "Serra not only brings us Christianity, he impels it, does not give us choice in this matter, he does countless damage to the whole culture. ".
Professor Edward Castillo, a Native American and director of Native American Studies at Sonoma State University in California, said in an episode of Firing Line with William F. Buckley Jr. that, "... you show [that] in my work I have not mentioned Serra as an oppressor You can not put a whip in her hand You can not put a smoking gun in her hand And that's right.
Corine Fairbanks of the American Indian Movement stated that "For too long the mission system has been glorified as the beautiful moments of the golden age of California.It is not true.They are concentration camps, they are the place of death."
Against criticism of missionary activity Junipero Serra, Catholics cite a fundamental principle of Catholic faith that it is the duty of every believer to evangelize all members of society. Pope Francis in particular has asked Catholics to "start a new chapter of evangelization." Catholics complain that the attacks against Serra impose modern judgments on the appropriateness of Christian non-Christian evangelizers, and that many of the criticisms directed against Serra result from the assessment of historical value and of ideologies that deny the validity of Christianity and Catholicism as social legitimate and cultural forces.
Support for canonization
Despite these concerns, thousands of Native Americans in California defend their Catholic faith, and some support efforts to canonize Serra. James Nieblas - the first Native American priest ordained of JuaÃÆ'Â Â ± eno Acjachemen Nation, the tribe evangelized by Serra - was chosen to meet with Pope Francis during his visit to Washington DC Nieblas, a longtime proponent of the Serra canonization, declared during 1986 an interview with > Los Angeles Times that "Father Serra is bringing our people to this day, I think Serra will be proud... the canonization has the full support and support of the Juaneno people."
Other tribal members associated with the mission system also expressed support for Serra canonization. "Our people are directly involved with the Carmel Mission," said Tony Cerda, tribal chief of Costanoan Rumsen Carmel. "We support the canonization... The land of mission is our ancestral home, our ancestors are buried in missions."
On the official Costanoan Rumsen Carmel Tribe website, the community released a bilingual statement to support the Serra canonization shortly after a visit between Chief Cerda and Pope Francis, who stated:
Saint Junipero Serra Baptized and Married to our ancestors Simon Francisco (Indian name "Chanjay") and Magdalena Francisca on April 1, 1775 at the Mission of San Carlos De Borromeo Del Rio Carmelo... We wholeheartedly support the canonization of Saint Junipero Serra as he protects we are people and support their full human rights towards politicians and the military with total neglect of his own life and salvation.
Two members of the Ohlone California tribe played a role in the canonization Mass by placing the Serra relics near the altar and reading the scriptures in Chochenyo. One of the participants, Andrew Galvan, a member of the Ohlone Tribe and the Dolores Mission Curator in San Francisco, stated before the ceremony that the canonization "will be the culmination of the work of life for me... It will be a door-opening ceremony that will 'let us Indians in. , 'for a moment I really do not think I'll live to see.'
Ruben Mendoza, a Mexican archaeologist Mestizo and a descendant of Native Yaqui who has conducted a quarry mission in California, stated during a March 2015 interview with Los Angeles Times that "Serra has great difficulty evangelizing native Californians." In the process, he organized the development of a mission chain that helped give birth to modern California.... When I was not in line with the idea that the mission was a concentration camp and that Spain tortured every Indian they met, I was 'I was seen as an enemy.'
In July 2015, Mendoza testified at the hearing on a proposal to remove the Junipero Serra statue from the US Capitol. In his speech, he stated, "What symbol of empowerment is greater than that offered by Fray JunÃÆ'pero Serra itself that we can offer to our youth? I request that this legislature seriously reconsider this political effort to minimize and eliminate any of Hispanic and Latin substantive contribution to our nation's history. "
Biographer Gregory Orfalea writes of Serra: "I see his devotion to the native Californians as sincere, speaking simple and born through sustained examples."
0 Comments