The sign is made of painted glazed tile and reads:
"On the 28th of August, 1984 all of the
Bishops of Alta and Baja Californias
assembled in the memorial
garden to commemorate the
200th anniversary of the death
of Fray Junipero Serra, the
apostle of California.
To mark this historic occasion
the original mission fountain
which had been lost since
the period of the mission's
abandonment was re-erected
here.
It was returned to the
mission through the generosity of
H.Louis Scott & John I. Keller of
Carmel.
This Serra Memorial Garden
with its fountain and shrine
was dedicated this day by
Cardinal Timothy Manning,
Arch-Bishop of Los Angeles,
assisted by most reverend
Thaddeus Shubsda, Bishop of Monterey.
Sponsored by the Junipero Serra
State Bicentennial Commission,
Rev. Msgr. FrancisWeber, Exec. Sec.&
Rev. Msgr.Edward MacMahon,
Pastor, Carmel Mission."
Wikipedia (
visit link) informs us:
"Junípero Serra y Ferrer, O.F.M.,... Catalan: Juníper Serra i Ferrer) (November 24, 1713 – August 28, 1784) was a Roman Catholic Spanish priest and friar of the Franciscan Order who founded a mission in Baja California and the first nine of 21 Spanish missions in California from San Diego to San Francisco, in what was then Alta California in the Province of Las Californias, New Spain.
Serra was beatified by Pope John Paul II on September 25, 1988, in Vatican City. Pope Francis canonised him on September 23, 2015, at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., during his first visit to the United States. Because of Serra's recorded acts of piety combined with his missionary efforts, he was granted the posthumous title Apostle of California.
The declaration of Serra as a Catholic saint by the Holy See was controversial with some Native Americans who criticize Serra's treatment of their ancestors and associate him with the suppression of their culture."