FATHER JUNIPERO SERRA TO BECOME A SAINT IN 2015

POPE TO CANONISE FATHER JUNIPERO SERRA OF MAJORCA

Juniper Serra was born on November 24th 1713 and named Miguel Jose Serra in Petra in Mallorca..   He became a priest of Mallorca and progressed to the role of Philosophy Professor and distinguished preacher at the Convent of San Francisco in Palma.  At the age of 36 Father Serra became a missionary and started 17 years of work in the Sierra Gorda in Mexico. After working as a missionary in Sierra Gorda and Mexico City, Serra was sent to California.  He made the trip by foot despite having terrible sores on his legs. Once he reached California, Serra established his first mission, San Diego de Alcalá, in 1769. He built eight more missions over the next thirteen years: San Antonio de Padua; San Gabriel, Arcángel; San Luis, Obispo de Tolosa; San Juan Capistrano; San Francisco de Asis; and San Buenaventura. Serra worked tirelessly tirelessly to maintain the missions and is credited with helping the Spanish establish a presence in California.

Junipero Serra died on August 28th 1784 at Mission San Carlos Borroméo de Carmelo located in present-day Carmel, California. The site is now home to the National Shrine to Blessed Junípero Serra, and many visitors go there each year to honour the famous missionary. When Father Serra died in 1784 he had established nine Californiamissions and baptised 6,000 indians.  Those nine missions grew to 21.  Today more than 60% of the state’s 26 million people live in areas surrounding the missions.

Junipero Serra’s birthplace of Petra in the centre of Majorca is a place of pilgrimage and many visit the area each year to learn more of the Priest from Mallorca.  This is set to increase significantly after the announcement made this week (January 2015) that the Pope intends to canonise Father Junipero Serra in September 2015 during the papal visit to the United States.