The History of Father Junipero Serra Bl. Junipero Serra: Case for the Friars

Apr 20, 2015

Editor's note: This is part 18 in a series on the life of Bl. Junipero Serra in anticipation of his canonization. To read other articles in the series, click here.

BY the time Fray Junípero Serra left San Diego, it had become evident in California, Mexico and even in Spain itself that the strained relations between the military and religious in that faraway province had resulted in an embarrassing and dangerous impasse.

Governor Pedro Fages was young, gruff, rigid and new to America. He was inexperienced in governing a mission territory. Zealous in the service of the king and in upholding the dignity of the military profession, he was a disciplinarian whose methods, instead of improving his men, often made them worse.

For his part, Serra was zealous, dynamic and seasoned in mission experience. Position and preferment he voluntarily cast aside. A naturally impatient man, the Presidente was frustrated by imperfect conditions.
Serra felt that conversions would not be unnecessarily delayed if the agencies of conquest were really interested in souls. Optimistic, courageous and willing to take chances, Serra had great faith in the providence of God. Delays, vexations and disappointments weighed heavily on him.

Some of the soldiers were lazy, inept, disorderly and scandalous. The lack of food supplies, sufficient mules and personnel and of Christianized Indians as helpers prevented a more rapid development of the missions.
While Galvez had determined the salient features of the conquest and its manner of operation thereafter, too much was left to individual caprice, especially with the rapid change of personnel in high places. Antonio Maria Bucareli recognized the problems in California and on March 18, 1772, he suggested to Fages that he, "preserve harmony with the missionary Fathers and let them freely perform their apostolic work, assisting them with all means possible so that they may attain, as soon as possible, the reduction of those to whom they desire to preach."

Disharmony between the agencies of conquest was apparent at all levels of the governmental hierarchy. And, at that psychological moment, Serra decided that the atmosphere could be cleared only by a personal conference. This turned the tide. His decision to go to Mexico was one of the wisest of his life.

There is no doubt that the core of the entire California enterprise was the establishment of missions for the conversion and civilization of the Indians, even though a political consideration had been the occasion of effecting the conquest. The Christianization process was to be implemented by tried missionary methods; the friars became the principal agents of the peaceful conquest. Their rule over the Indians was to be complete, except in certain criminal matters.

"What soldiers are closer to the arrows than we?" wrote Serra in 1773. The development of the soil, the furtherance of animal husbandry, the teaching of the trades, the development of the arts, the introduction of European social and domestic habits, the gradual formation of towns, the propagation of religion and morality, all of this was the work of the missionary. For these ends, the government provided wide jurisdiction and often generous help, for his labors were recognized as a benefit to the state as well as to the Church.

What Serra was seeking in Mexico City was not so much new laws and methods, but rather a return to the smoother, non confrontational approach used so successfully in the Sierra Gorda, Texas and other areas.