Junipero Serra - San Juan Capistrano, California
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Metro2
N 33° 30.140 W 117° 39.735
11S E 438487 N 3707174
This sculpture is located on the grounds of Mission San Juan Capistrano.
Waymark Code: WMN9J8
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 01/25/2015
Views: 1
The sculpture depicts the founder of California's Missions standing, life-sized in his clerical garments. He raises his right hand as if blessing the boy who has come before him. A cross is set behind him. The work seems to be made from some type of composite material. A plaque indicates that the work was dedicataed November 24, 1914...but it does not provide the name of the artist.
Wikipedia (
visit link) adds:
"Junípero Serra Ferrer, O.F.M., ...(November 24, 1713 – August 28, 1784) was a Spanish Franciscan friar who founded a mission in Baja California and the first nine of 21 Spanish missions in California from San Diego to San Francisco, which at the time were in Alta California in the Province of Las Californias in New Spain. He began in San Diego on July 16, 1769, and established his headquarters near Monterey, California, at Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo.
The missions were primarily designed to convert the natives. Other aims were to integrate the neophytes into Spanish society, and to train them to take over ownership and management of the land. As head of the order in California, Serra not only dealt with church officials, but also with Spanish officials in Mexico City and with the local military officers who commanded the nearby presidios (garrisons).
Serra was beatified by Pope John Paul II on September 25, 1988 and Pope Francis expects to canonize him in September 2015 during his first visit to the United States. This has been controversial with Native Americans, who criticize Serra's brutal treatment of their ancestors and associate him with the suppression of their culture."