By Father Bobby Barbato, OFM Cap.
St. Junipero Serra is the name most closely connected with the California Missions. While he founded only nine of these missions, he laid the groundwork for the work of the friars and the Church in California that endures even until today. In this final reflection on the Saint from Mallorca and the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the mission whose name our city and archdiocese bear, I want to highlight certain aspects of the founding of the missions, particularly the Mision San Francisco de Asís, also known as Mission Dolores.
As a young man, Miguel Serra of Petra, Mallorca entered the Order of Friars Minor on his home island and spent much of his time there before becoming a missionary to Nueva España. He brought to his missionary endeavors the attitudes and approaches he had learned as a follower of the Saint of Assisi. These principles influenced the life of the missions, including Mision San Francisco de Asís.
The importance of the heavenly Church in its earthly counterpart
Perhaps we take it for granted that the missions are mostly named for saints, (like our mission of San Francisco). Importantly, the names given to the Missions emphasize the connection between the Church on earth and the Church in heaven. St. Junípero and his friars sought the help of heavenly patrons for their work. Among the nine missions Serra founded, five were named after Franciscan saints: San Diego de Alcalá (St. Didacus), San Antonio (St. Anthony of Padua), San Francisco, and San Buenaventura (St. Bonaventure), and St. Francis’ friend and early disciple, Santa Clara (St. Clare of Assisi). Serra obviously wanted the help of those who had lived the Franciscan life. It is therefore no surprise that he named one of the missions after the founder of the whole order, St. Francis of Assisi. He hoped that St. Francis’ example and fame would help the native peoples come more readily to accept the faith that had transformed Francis’ own life so dramatically.
An Eagerness for the Salvation of Others, by word and example
The Spanish crown may have had the goal of the missions creating good Spanish citizens out of the native people of California. St. Junípero Serra had another goal in mind; one he considered much more important: to make them good citizens of heaven. As a Franciscan, Serra believed in the dignity of each person Jesus came to ransom with His blood. Serra remembered that St. Francis had gone into the presence of the Sultan of Egypt aware that he might be killed but with the hope of converting him. The sultan did not convert but was impressed that Francis came before him with no weapons, no armor, and no letters of protection. Serra wanted to approach the natives of California with the same attitude.
Serra knew that if he wanted to convince the natives of California of the truth and power of the Christian faith, he had to live it faithfully himself. He lived a very simple and humble life. One only has to visit the cell where he died to see how simply he lived. Serra showed those around him the true joy in his heart that God’s grace brought to him and hoped all his friar missionaries would do the same.
Serra recognized that God was already present among the people, even if in a hidden and unknown way. When he saw the simplicity of the natives, he felt that the way to Gospel life would perhaps be easier for them than for those who had grown up in the complex and often very worldly societies of Europe.
The importance of Community/communication
Among Franciscans, there has always been an emphasis on communal life, living out their vocation through mutual support and mutual challenge. Like Francis, Serra knew it was easy to love others from a distance. Francis’ encounter with the leper had taught him that to really love a person, one has to rub shoulders with others and share their lives. Serra hoped to bring this important aspect of community to the missions.
The idea that the recent converts should live together at the missions was not meant as a means of control, so much as a recognition that the new members of the Church needed a solid community life to understand and practice the faith. In a way, the structure of mission life was meant to implement the vision given in the Acts of the Apostles: “The community of believers was of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they had everything in common….There was no needy person among them, for those who owned property or houses would sell them, bring the proceeds of the sale, and put them at the feet of the apostles, and they were distributed to each according to need.” (4:32-35)
This is one reason why the missions were founded as a “chain.” Though not strictly a day’s ride apart, the missions were close enough to lend one another help and mutual support. This is perhaps why Mission San Francisco was the end of the chain for many years. Getting farther north was not easy. Serra hoped each mission might be self-sufficient in some respects, but he didn’t want any one of them to become isolated from the others.
Appreciation for beauty
If we consider the places Serra chose to locate the missions he founded, we see that he had a great appreciation for natural beauty. As St. Bonaventure says of St. Francis: “In beautiful things he saw beauty itself.” Serra had grown up on what is considered one of the most beautiful isles in the Mediterranean. In picking locations for the missions, Serra searched for places with sufficient natural resources to sustain them. However, he also chose sites of great natural beauty. It must be said that this was not hard to do in California.
Perhaps this was why when he heard of the beautiful bay discovered by Seargeant José Ortega not long before, he decided it would be the perfect place to locate a mission named after St. Francis. The bay, which would also be named after the saint, was a locale of exquisite beauty. Serra was pleased by the abundance and variety of wildlife, and since it was said that St. Francis preached to the birds, the variety of these brothers and sisters was a sign to Serra that this was where the saint wanted the mission named after him to be.
Freedom from fear and want
Although some would assert that the growth of the missions was due to forced conversions, there is no evidence that St. Junípero or any of his brothers considered this an option. While it is true that once a native person was baptized, he or she was expected to spend most of their time at the mission (it is interesting to note that these neophytes, or new converts, were allowed time away from the mission to visit family as long they promised to return).
Serra was concerned that the presence of soldiers would be intimidating to the new converts. He knew that soldiers posted far from home without families could be raucous and even violent, setting a bad example. While he accepted that the presence of the military was a mandate of the king of Spain and so to be tolerated, he never wanted the missions to be too close to the military headquarters. That is why the Presidio of San Francisco is so far away from the site of the mission. Because of the need to watch the comings and goings from the sea, the presidio site in San Francisco is more picturesque that the mission. The reverse is true in Monterrey, where the site of Misson Carmel is more tranquil and beautiful.
One of the controversial aspects of mission life introduced by Serra and the Spaniards was the establishment of agriculture and animal husbandry. While the natives of California had learned a rhythm of life that meant they survived on the ecology of what would become the Golden State, Serra and the others felt that a stable agriculture would provide them with a more reliable source of sustenance. This did change the traditional ways of the native peoples, but Serra felt it also gave them the benefits of civilization as he and his compatriots knew it. I know this is controversial, and I don’t defend what might be seen as cultural imperialism, but I do think the motives of Serra and the friars were to benefit the people they were sent to serve. That we would do things differently today does not mean their motives were evil.
Spirit of forgiveness
One of Serra’s goals was to not only preach but also demonstrate the goodness of gospel principles. He was able to show this in a dramatic way several months after the founding of Mission San Francisco. Hundreds of miles to the south, as the first mission, San Diego de Alcalá, there was an attack on the missionaries, and one of them, Fray Luis Jayme, was killed. Serra visited that mission, and one of his first acts was to make a plea to the authorities for those who committed the crime to be pardoned. While he felt the pain of the death of his brother, whom he considered a martyr, he did not want a spirit of vengeance to take root in the still very new Church of California. St. Francis had sung in his Canticle of Brother Sun: “Praised be You, my Lord, for those who forgive.” This was the spirit of the gospel that the Franciscan Junípero Serra hoped to import to the new missions, especially the one named after the poor man of Assisi himself.
In founding Mission San Francisco de Asís, St. Junípero Serra hoped to implant in California the same powerful Gospel vision that St. Francis had brought to the Church of the 13th century and beyond. Serra felt this vision was worth travelling thousands of miles, many on foot, far from his beloved home in Mallorca. Serra was willing to go to “the ends of the earth” if only he could serve God and his brothers and sisters in a concrete way.
We know, of course, that things did not work out totally as Serra had hoped. But the spirit of joy, served and an appreciation of God’s beauty lived beyond him and still exists among those who live in the city named after the Saint of Assisi and beyond.
Father Bobby Barbato, OFM Cap. is the rector of the National Shrine of St. Francis.
