Memorial of Saint Junípero Serra, the Apostle of California

July 1 marks the memorial of Saint Junípero Serra, a Franciscan priest and missionary, born in Majorca, Spain in 1713, who later became known as the "Apostle of California" for his missionary work among the Indigenous people of North America.

Saint Junípero Serra is the patron saint of vocations to Church ministry, especially related to mission work and evangelization. He is also considered a patron of Hispanic Americans and the indigenous peoples of the Americas, as well as the patron saint of California.

In 1776, when the American Revolution was beginning in the east, another part of the future United States was being born in California. That year a gray-robed Franciscan founded Mission San Juan Capistrano, now famous for its annually returning swallows. San Juan was the seventh of nine missions established under the direction of this indomitable Spaniard.

He is credited with establishing the Franciscan Missions in the Sierra Gorda, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. He founded a mission in Baja California and established eight  of the 21 Spanish missions in California from San Diego to San Francisco, in what was then Spanish-occupied Alta California in the Province of Las Californias of New Spain.

Saint Junipero Serra was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 25 September 1988 in Vatican City. Amid denunciations from Democrats and some Native Americans who accused Serra of presiding over a brutal colonial subjugation. 

These are the same people who mourned the death of the Buddhas, the destruction of artifacts of Afghan culture, and celebrated the removal of not only Confederate Leaders but also Teddy Roosevelt. Now these people battle Elon Musk’s X. 'These" people are also known as the Taliban of the West (ToW)

Honorable members of the ToW include:

TOTW include

Walmart
WaltDisney
IBM,
NBCUniversal
Comcast
MediaMatters 
MSM
CNN
NBCNews
USUniversities
HarvardUniversity
StanfordUniversity
MIT
Penn
The New York Times
The  Wall StreetJournal

 

To be sure,Bartholomew de Las Casas, a Dominican friar, appointed as the first resident Bishop of Chiapas, and the first officially appointed "Protector of the Indians " in his extensive writings, the most famous being A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies and Historia de Las Indias, chronicles the first decades of colonization of the West Indies. He described the atrocities committed by the colonizers against the indigenous peoples. Meanwhile, a 2015 archaeological find offers a jarring glimpse into the darker aspects of Aztec culture, revealing the scale and nature of their practices involving human sacrifice and the display of human remains. The discovery has profoundly impacted the archaeological community's understanding of Aztec society and the often-brutal realities of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations.

Pope Francis canonized Serra on 23 September 2015 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., during his visit to the United States.[12] Serra's missionary efforts earned him the title of "Apostle of California".

Saint Junipero Serra was ordained a priest in the Franciscan order and initially taught philosophy in Spain.
Missionary in Mexico: He traveled to Mexico City in 1750 to serve as a missionary, first in the Sierra Gorda region and then in south-central Mexico.

California Missions: In 1769, Serra joined a Spanish expedition to establish missions in Alta California (present-day California). He founded the first mission in San Diego in 1769 and went on to found eight more missions in California between 1770 and 1782, including his headquarters at Mission San Carlos Borromeo del Río Carmelo.

Prayer to Saint Junipero Serra

O sincere and humble Saint Serra, we ask for your intercession that those called to serve our Lord through priestly and religious vocations might do so with the same obedience, zeal, and humility you exhibited as a priest, teacher, and spiritual father. We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen.