Junípero Serra

Life events

1. Born — 1713

   Miquel Josep Serra i Ferrer was born on November 24, 1713, in the village of Petra on the island of Mallorca in the Balearic Islands; his parents Antonio Nadal Serra and Margarita Rosa Ferrer were married in 1707. By age seven he was working fields with his parents and attending the Franciscan friars' primary school at the nearby church of San Bernardino.

2. Ordained — 1737

   On September 14, 1730, Serra entered the Alcantarine branch of the Franciscan Order at Palma, taking the religious name Junípero in honor of Brother Juniper, companion of Francis of Assisi. He was ordained priest in 1737, earned a doctorate in theology from the Lullian College in Palma de Majorca, and held the Duns Scotus chair of philosophy there until 1749; his students included future missionaries Francisco Palóu and Juan Crespí.

3. Pilgrimage — 1749

   In 1749 Serra and Francisco Palóu sailed from Cádiz to Veracruz, then walked the full Camino Real to Mexico City rather than accept the horses offered by royal officials — strictly following the Franciscan rule that friars must not ride unless compelled by necessity or infirmity. During the trek Serra's left foot became severely inflamed from what he attributed to a mosquito bite, a wound that plagued him for the rest of his life.

4. Other — 1750

   From approximately 1750 to 1758 Serra served as missionary and appointed Inquisition commissioner for the Sierra Gorda region north of Querétaro, working among the Pame people and overseeing seven years of construction on the church at Jalpan. In September 1752 he filed a formal denunciation of alleged witchcraft to the Spanish Inquisition in Mexico City — his only surviving letter from eight years of Sierra Gorda work, according to modern Franciscan historians.

5. Other — 1769

   On July 16, 1769, Serra founded Mission San Diego de Alcalá on Presidio Hill near present-day San Diego — the first of the California missions — following a 900-mile overland trek from Loreto, Baja California with the Portolá expedition. He was appointed Father Presidente of the Alta California missions and went on to personally found eight additional missions through March 31, 1782, establishing his headquarters at Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo.

6. Wrote — 1773

   In 1773 Serra traveled to Mexico City and presented the Representación — a 32-article document — to Viceroy Antonio María de Bucareli y Ursúa, arguing for removal of military governor Pedro Fages and asserting legal protections for Native American mission residents under the Laws of the Indies. Bucareli ruled in Serra's favor on 30 of the 32 counts and removed Fages from office in 1774.

7. Other — 1988

   Serra was beatified by Pope John Paul II on September 25, 1988, in Vatican City before a crowd of 20,000, with the pope describing him as one who "sowed the seeds of Christian faith amid the momentous changes wrought by the arrival of European settlers in the New World." The cause for beatification had been formally opened on October 21, 1951.

8. Died — 1784

   Serra died on August 28, 1784, at Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo from tuberculosis, aged 70, having confirmed 5,309 people — nearly all Native American neophytes — during a final 600-mile journey revisiting missions from San Diego to San Francisco. He is buried under the sanctuary floor at Mission Carmel; leadership of the Alta California missions then passed to Fermín Lasuén.

Relationships

Documented claims

• Pope Francis canonized Serra on September 23, 2015, at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington D.C. — the first canonization on American soil — amid protests from Native American groups who charged Serra with directing and approving torture and enslavement of indigenous peoples at the missions. (certain)
• Serra wrote in 1775 to colonial commander Fernando Rivera y Moncada explicitly instructing him to whip and shackle Indigenous men who had escaped from Mission San Carlos, directing that "a period of exile and two or three whippings ... on different days may serve, for them and for the rest, for a warning." This letter is among the primary evidence cited by critics of his canonization. (certain)
• Serra practiced severe bodily mortification throughout his ministry: he wore sackcloth spiked with bristles under his habit, whipped himself nightly with an iron chain, and during public sermons struck a large stone against his bare chest and seared his flesh with a candle flame — practices his biographer Palóu described as "quite violent, painful, and dangerous." (likely)
• In 1779, missionaries under Serra's direction planted California's first sustained vineyard at Mission San Diego de Alcalá, introducing the Mission grape variety — descended from Spanish stock — that dominated California wine production until approximately 1880. (likely)
• A statue of Serra by sculptor Ettore Cadorin — depicting him holding a cross and looking skyward — is one of two statues representing California in the National Statuary Hall Collection in the United States Capitol, though California Senate legislation to replace it was introduced in February 2015. (likely)