The History of Father Junipero Serra Bl. Junipero Serra: Sierra Gorda Missions

Mar 12, 2015

Editor's note: This is part 7 of a series on the life of Bl. Junipero Serra in anticipation of his canonization. To read other articles in the series, click here.

AFTER some months of intensive missionary preparation at San Fernando, Serra and a number of other friars were appointed to the Sierra Gorda region of Mexico, located in the heart of the Sierra Madre Oriental. In that vast mountainous area lived the half-wild Pames Indians. The valleys there are few and small and the arable land is studded with rocks. Then and now life in the Sierra Gorda is rugged and unpredictable, day or night, the year around.

At the time of Serra's arrival, Christianity had touched the Pamas but little. Those few who had been baptized were poorly instructed. The economic and spiritual conditions that Fray Junípero Serra found in Jalpan were anything but promising. Serra found about one thousand "practicing" Catholics in the region. With Fray Francisco Palóu, his assistant, he set out to learn the language of the Pames - a challenge that taxed the Mallorcan's intellectual talents.

When he was sufficiently proficient, Serra translated the body of Christian doctrine and a number of traditional prayers into Pame. Before long, he was able to preach in the language and this together with his gentle example won them over to a more civilized and Christian form of life.
Serra had a sense of the dramatic and he used it to good advantage.

Occasionally, for example, he would go to confession in the sanctuary of the Church in full view of the congregation, an action that had a telling effect on even the simplest mind. By example, persuasion and eloquent preaching, Fray Junípero succeeded in bringing the Indians around to their Catholic obligations so that nearly all complied with the minimum duty of the Paschal precept.

Serra motivated the Indians to worship God by providing for them the splendor of the liturgy. The major feasts were solemnized with ceremonies and devotions. Christmas was celebrated in the Franciscan fashion by a mystery play similar to those of his native Petra, enacted by the children whom he trained for the purpose. And so on throughout the whole liturgical season.

With this untutored people of the hills, Serra realized that visual expression of religion in dramatic form was of prime importance. If such expression was of significance in Mallorca after nearly a thousand years of Christianity, it was still more important in the sierra where the faith was only taking root.

Fray Junípero began his ministry in the Sierra Gorda as missionary pastor of Jalpan. In 1751, he was named presidente of the Sierra Gorda missions, a position he held for three years. During his tenure, Serra visited the missions of his area, to comfort and sustain the friars, to oversee the general progress and to chide or encourage as the case warranted. Several times during that time he was required to visit Mexico City on business.

Ever so gradually, the friar put into operation the rules drawn up by Fray Pedro Perez de Mezquia and those regulations were to become the blueprint for all the missions sponsored by the colleges of Querétaro, San Fernando and Zacatecas. Their influence was to reach as far as San Francisco in Alta California.