08/26/2026
Saint Junípero Serra
Priest of the Order of Friars Minor (OFM)
“Always forward, never backward.”
This was the motto of Junípero Serra, whose intellectual gifts, missionary zeal, goodness, and patience bore fruit in his native Mallorca, in Mexico, and in the United States.
Born in Petra, Mallorca, on November 24, 1713, Miguel José was the son of Antonio Serra and Margarita Ferrer, farmers. After receiving his primary education from the Franciscans of Petra, Miguel went to Palma, the capital, and entered the Order of Friars Minor in 1730, taking the name Junípero in honor of one of the first followers of Saint Francis. Ordained a priest in 1737, Serra was assigned to teach philosophy. Among his students were two who would later become his closest collaborators in the New World, Francisco Palou and Juan Crespí. After earning a doctorate in Theology from the University of Blessed Ramon Llull in 1742, Serra continued teaching philosophy and theology and gained great renown as a preacher.
In 1749, together with Palou, he departed for the College of San Fernando in Mexico City. Fearing that he would cause his parents pain by telling them about his imminent departure, Serra asked a fellow friar to inform them. “I wish I could fill them with the great joy that fills my heart,” he said. “If I could do this, surely they would urge me to go forward and never turn back.” He asked them to understand his missionary vocation and promised to remember them in prayer.
Shortly after his arrival in Mexico, Serra suffered an insect bite that caused his foot to swell and produced an ulcer on his leg, leaving him with a limp for the rest of his life. After several months at the College of San Fernando, Serra was assigned to the missions of the Sierra Gorda, northeast of Mexico City. He worked there for eight years, three of them as president of the missions. Called back to Mexico City, he served as master of novices for nine years and continued preaching in the areas surrounding the capital. In 1767, the Jesuits were expelled from Mexico, and their missions in Baja California were entrusted to the College of San Fernando. Serra was appointed president of those missions, whose headquarters were at Mission Loreto.
In 1769, the Spanish Crown decided to colonize Alta California, today the State of California in the United States. Serra was again appointed president and oversaw the founding of nine missions: San Diego (1769), San Carlos Borromeo (1770), San Antonio de Padua (1771), San Gabriel Arcángel (1771), San Luis Obispo (1772), San Francisco de Asís (1776), San Juan Capistrano (1776), Santa Clara de Asís (1777), and San Buenaventura (1782).
In 1773, Junípero went to Mexico City to meet with Viceroy Bucarelli and seek solutions to the problems that had arisen between the missionaries and the representatives of the King in California. Serra’s Representación (1773) has been called the “Bill of Rights” of the Indians. One section stated that “the government, control, and education of the baptized Indians would belong exclusively to the missionaries.” During this visit to Mexico City, Serra wrote to his nephew, Father Miguel Ribot Serra, telling him: “My life is in California, and there, if God wills, I hope to die.”
Not even the martyrdom of Father Luis Jaime at Mission San Diego in 1775 extinguished Serra’s desire to add new missions to the chain already established along the California coast. In all these missions, Junípero and the friars taught the Indians more effective methods of cultivation and how to domesticate the animals necessary for food and transportation. When the Indian leader of the rebels at Mission San Diego was captured, Serra wrote to the Viceroy asking him to spare the man’s life. Those who had been captured were eventually pardoned. In the same letter to the Viceroy, Serra asked that “if the Indians, whether pagans or Christians, should wish to kill me, they too should be pardoned.” Serra explained: “The murderer should be made to understand, after a moderate punishment, that he has been forgiven, and thus we shall fulfill the Christian law that commands us to forgive injuries and not seek the death of the sinner, but rather his eternal salvation.”
Serra spent the final years of his life occupied with administrative duties, the need to write many letters to the other missions and to the Church and government officials in Mexico City, and the desire to establish the missions that were still needed. Nevertheless, he worked with great faith and perseverance, even as his strength diminished. The Indians nicknamed him “the old man,” because he was 56 years old when he arrived in Alta California. Yet Serra continued working tirelessly until his death on August 28, 1784, at Mission San Carlos Borromeo, which had been his headquarters and became his final resting place. The Indians and soldiers mourned Serra’s death and called him “Blessed Father.” Many took a piece of his habit as a keepsake; others touched medals and rosaries to his body.
Shortly after Serra’s death, the Guardian of the College of San Fernando wrote to the Provincial of the Franciscans in Mallorca:
“He died as a just man, in such circumstances that all who were present shed tender tears and thought that his blessed soul had immediately ascended to heaven to receive the reward for his intense and uninterrupted labor of 34 years, sustained by our beloved Jesus, whom he always kept in his mind, enduring those inexplicable sufferings for our redemption. So great was the charity he manifested that it inspired admiration not only among ordinary people but also among persons of high standing, all proclaiming that this man was a saint and that his works were those of an apostle.”
On September 14, 1987, Pope John Paul II met with Native Americans in Phoenix, Arizona, during which he praised Serra’s efforts to protect the Indians from exploitation. Three days later, the Pope visited Serra’s tomb at Mission San Carlos Borromeo and recalled Serra’s 1773 Representación in defense of the Indians of California. John Paul II said that Serra and his missionaries shared the conviction that “the Gospel is a matter of life and salvation. They considered that by offering Jesus Christ to the people, they were doing something of immense value, importance, and dignity.” This conviction sustained them “in the face of every difficulty, discouragement, and opposition.”
Saint John Paul II beatified him in 1988, and he was proclaimed a saint on September 23, 2015, by Pope Francis in the United States.
