Blessed Serra’s devotion to our Holy Mother

excerpts from the writings of Fray Francisco Palóu, OFM

by Father Eric O’Brien, OFM  

The faith was planted in California in 1769 by its revered apostle, Fray Junípero Serra, whose life, one might say, re-echoed the sound of the Litany of Loreto. Serra obtained the degree of Doctor of Sacred Theology from the Lullian University at Palma in Majorca, and occupied the chair of the Subtle Doctor in the same place. As such he taught and upheld the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception long before it was defined as an article of faith.

Among the Franciscans at the convent of San Bernardino in Petra de Majorca, young Serra’s heart first warmed to that love for Mary, which would show in all his later life. Serra’s favorite reading as a novice was the story of Franciscan saints, where the blue of Mary’s mantle colored every page. Fray Junípero dreamed of giving his life for souls in far-off lands, but novitiate soon ended and studies engrossed all his attention. A few years more and the brilliant young friar occupied the Scotus chair of theology in the Lullian University.

Nevertheless, old dreams returned. Serra took recourse to prayer, to San Francisco Solano, Apostle of the Indies, and – of course – to his Immaculate Mother, asking them to find him a companion. One day, Francisco Palóu confided to Serra that he would like to go to the New World. Delighted, Serra urged him to make a novena to the same patrons. Superiors were reluctant to lose such men. Still, who could resist such patrons? So, one October evening in 1749 a group of friars landed at the Hermitage of the Immaculate Conception in Puerto Rico.

There, as the first act of his priestly life in the New World, Junípero Serra recited with the people the Rosary of the Joys of Our Lady. Serra’s confreres chanted the Tota Pulchra, the traditional Franciscan hymn in honor of the Immaculate Conception. And as an auspicious ending of the voyage, they landed in Vera Cruz on the vigil of the feast of the Immaculate Conception. At the shrine of Guadalupe, Fray Junípero said Mass “in gratitude to this wonderful lady.” During his five months’ stay at San Fernando College, Serra daily joined the novices in reciting the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin, and the rosary.

Such fidelity won from his superiors – or from Mary – an appointment to the Sierra Gorda missions, before his course of training was half completed. So off he went, zealous and light-hearted, though his infected leg was already paining him. Nine years in the Sierra Gorda brought an astounding change in the five missions under Serra’s direction. At Junípero Serra’s coming, not one of the Pame Indians was faithful to yearly confession and communion.

Under his zealous care, “the whole of the five towns became as thoroughly Christian as if they had always been such.” Palóu told us how Serra worked to enkindle and heighten the Christian virtues in the hearts of his Indians; and one of the chief means he used was devotion to Mary. “Every Sunday afternoon they recited the Crown of Our Mother of Mercy. In all the feasts of . . . the Holy Mary, he celebrated High Mass and . . . preached, explaining the mystery.”

Devotion to the Immaculate Conception was fostered by a novena preceding the feast. Every Saturday evening, villagers turned out for a procession with the statue of Our Lady, which was carried through town while the Rosary was sung. On returning to the church, they sang the Tota Pulchra, which Serra had translated into Spanish for the Indians. But it was at the high points in the liturgical drama that Fray Junípero’s ingenious love for Mary showed itself most. Thus at Christmas he had his Indians present in Spanish and in their native dialect a playlet representing the birth of Jesus.

A procession in honor of Our Lady of Solitude, with a special sermon on this topic deepened the pathos of Good Friday. . . Easter dawned upon the “procession of Our Risen Lord . . . which was celebrated by means of an image of the Lord and another of the Most Holy Virgin,” which were carried to meet one another. Years passed. Providence sent Serra west and north to gain a wider empire for the King of Spain – and for the Queen of Heaven. The packet-boat Concepcion bore the band of Franciscans to Baja California where Our Lady of Loreto was patroness.

Before sending out his men to their missions, Serra ordered them to celebrate the first three days of Easter Week, “with a High Mass in honor of Our Lady of Loreto.” At Alta California, Carmel, the same steady current showed when Bruno de Ezeta’s expedition “from the captain down to the last cabin boy” confessed and communicated at San Carlos, Serra’s mission, “in honor of Our Lady of Bethlehem, whose image is venerated there.”

Aged and weak, Serra summoned to Monterey his friend Palóu, who “found his Reverence very weak . . . with a heaviness in his chest.” But in the afternoon he went to church as usual “to recite . . . prayers with the neophytes, . . . concluding with the . . . hymn which the Venerable Fray Margil had composed in honor of the assumption of Our Lady.” The following afternoon, “Serra did not fail to repeat the prayers and to sing the verses of the Virgin.” Mary had his love when his little feet could scarcely toddle; she had it still when approaching death was slowing his steps.

The reader will doubtless ask how much of this devotion to Mary is peculiar to Blessed Junípero Serra, and how much is common to all the friars of his day. Research has not yet provided the answer. Does it matter so much? We know how Serra loved Our Lady. Moreover, if ever Holy Mother Church should raise the Apostle of California to the honor of the altars, we know whose hand will weave for him the garland of sainthood.

This article was reprinted with permission from “Siempre Adelante,” the official newsletter of Father Junípero Serra’s cause for sainthood in Santa Barbara. For more information about the cause or to subscribe to the newsletter, contact Brother Timothy Arthur at Old Mission Santa Barbara, 2201 Laguna Street, Santa Barbara, CA, 93105.

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