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 Blessed Junipero Serra
N 36° 32.579 W 121° 55.199
10S E 596669 N 4044718
Father Junipero Serra, founder of California's first Capital and intiator of California's chain of Franciscan missions.
Waymark Code: WMDYC
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 05/31/2006
Views: 121
Father Junipero Serra arrived in Monterey in 1770 and died here 14 years later. He is buried in what he considered his headquarters: Mission San Carlos Borromeo in Carmel. A small plaque indicates his burial place in the sanctuary of the basilica.
Description:
He wasn’t the first European to set foot on Californian soil (that was Sir Francis Drake in 1577) and he wasn’t the first priest who celebrate a mass in California (that was Carmelite friar Antonio de la Ascension, a member of Sebastian Vizcaino’s expedition in 1602). But Drake, Vizcaino and de la Ascension came and left again and after Vizcaino’s visit, no European was seen in California for another 167 years.
The Franciscan friar Junipero Serra came to stay. On 3 June 1770, he and Gaspar de Portola founded the first settlement in Alta California – Monterey. Serra was superior of the Franciscan Missions in Baja California since 1767 and now expanded the mission chain into Alta California. Eventually, a total of 21 missions was established, eight of them under Serra’s direct supervision.
Junipero Serra’s main achievement is considered to be secular, that’s why we checked “Religion” as the area of notoriety, but he was evenly notable as an explorer. California’s history would have taken a different turn without him. After a failed expedition in 1769, Portola wrote in his report to the Spanish king that , “…if the Russians wanted California, Spain should let her have it.” Just imagine the Russians would have gotten California and 200 years later there would have been a Soviet empire stretching over three continents. Junipero Serra pushed for another expedition and in 1770, his ships sailed into Monterey Bay and joined with Portola’s land expedition and for the next 52 year California was under Spanish rule – for better or worse.
Politically, Serra’s achievements may be controversial (considering the fait of the California Indians after the establishment of the mission system) but as an explorer he can be ranked at the same level as Lewis & Clark.
Date of birth: 09/24/1713
Date of death: 08/28/1784
Area of notoriety: Religion
Marker Type: Crypt (below ground)
Setting: Indoor
Visiting Hours/Restrictions: Mission is open for tourists from 10-5, and the basilika is part of the tour, except during mass.
Fee required?: Yes
Web site: [Web Link]
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