The Apostle of California

Very often, at crucial moments in human affairs, God raises up men and women whom he thrusts into roles of decisive importance for the future development of both society and the Church. Although their story unfolds within the ordinary circumstances of daily life, they become larger than life within the perspective of history. We rejoice all the more when their achievement is coupled with a holiness of life that can truly be called heroic. So it is with Junípero Serra, who in the providence of God was destined to be the Apostle of California, and to have a permanent influence over the spiritual patrimony of this land and its people, whatever their religion might be. This apostolic awareness is captured in the words ascribed to him: “In California is my life and there, God willing, I hope to die.” Through Christ’s Paschal Mystery, that death has become a seed in the soil of this state that continues to bear fruit “thirty - or sixty - or a hundred-fold.”

-Saint John Paul II, 1987

Blessed Junípero Serra, soon to be canonized, please pray for us on this day of your feast!

A Hero Of Evangelization

In celebration of his upcoming canonization, Columbia Magazine dedicated their most recent issue to Blessed Junípero Serra, who was beatified by Saint John Paul II in 1988. In his article about the life of the soon-to-be-saint, Msgr. Francis J. Weber wrote:

One year before he beatified Fray Junípero Serra in 1988, St. John Paul II made a pilgrimage to the grave of the Franciscan priest at Mission San Carlos Borroméo in Carmel, Calif. Standing on the site of Serra’s former missionary headquarters, the pope reflected on the historical impact of the friar’s Christian witness.

“At crucial moments in human affairs, God raises up men and women whom he thrusts into roles of decisive importance for the future development of both society and the Church,” the pope said. “We rejoice all the more when their achievement is coupled with a holiness of life that can truly be called heroic. So it is with Junípero Serra, who in the providence of God was destined to be the Apostle of California.”

Read more here.

Bl. Junípero Serra, please pray for the American Church, that she may be full of heroic 

evangelizers, just like you!

Blessed Junípero Serra, Pray for Us

Today the American Church celebrates the feast of the “Father of California Missions,” Blessed Junípero Serra. This Spanish Franciscan founded a number of missions, including Santa Clara and Santa Barbara, and worked to confirm over 5,000 native peoples in the Catholic faith. Despite a number of injuries and illnesses, he evangelized with courage, always trusting in the Providence of God.

During Junípero Serra’s beatification, Blessed John Paul II said that Fr. Serra:

…sowed the seeds of Christian faith amid the mountainous changes wrought by the arrival of European settlers in the New World…In fulfilling this ministry, Fr. Serra showed himself to be a true son of St. Francis.

On this day of your feast, Blessed Junípero Serra, pray for the Church as she continues with the mission of the New Evangelization.

Information from Matthew and Margaret Bunson’s John Paul II’s Book of Saints.