Blessed Junipero Serra
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. Born on Spain’s island of Mallorca, Serra entered the Franciscan Order, taking the name of Saint Francis’ childlike companion, Brother Juniper. Until he was thirty-five, he spent most of his time in the classroom-first as a student of theology and then as a professor. He also became famous for his preaching. Suddenly he gave it all up and followed the yearning that had begun years before when he heard about the missionary work of Saint Francis Solanus in South America. Junipero’s desire was to convert native peoples in the New World.
Arriving by ship at Vera Cruz, Mexico, he and a companion walked the 250 miles to Mexico City. On the way Junipero’s left leg became infected by an insect bite and would remain a cross, often life-threatening, the rest of his life. For eighteen years he worked in central Mexico and in the Baja Peninsula. He became president of the missions there.
Charles III of Spain ordered an expedition to beat Russia to the territory. So the last two conquistadores-one military, one spiritual-began their quest. Jose de Galvez persuaded Junipero to set out with him for present-day Monterey, California. The first mission founded after the nine-hundred-mile journey north was San Diego (1769). That year a shortage of food almost canceled the expedition. Vowing to stay with the local people, Junipero and another friar began a novena in preparation for Saint Joseph’s day, March 19, the scheduled day of departure. On that day, the relief ship arrived.
Other missions followed: Monterey/Carmel (1770); San Antonio and San Gabriel (1771); San Luis Obispo (1772); San Francisco and San Juan Capistrano (1776); Santa Clara (1777); San Buenaventura (1782). Twelve more were founded after Serra’s death.
Junipero made the long trip to Mexico City to settle great differences with the military commander. He arrived at the point of death. The outcome was substantially what Junipero sought: the famous “Regulation” protecting the Indians and the missions. It was the basis for the first significant legislation in California, a “Bill of Rights” for Native Americans.
Because the Native Americans were living a nonhuman life from the Spanish point of view, the friars were made their legal guardians. The Native Americans were kept at the mission after Baptism lest they be corrupted in their former haunts — a move that has brought cries of “injustice” from some moderns.
Junipero’s missionary life was a long battle with cold and hunger, with unsympathetic military commanders and even with danger of death from non-Christian native peoples. Through it all his unquenchable zeal was fed by prayer each night, often from midnight until dawn. He baptized over six thousand people and confirmed five thousand. His travels would have circled the globe. He brought the Native Americans not only the gift of faith but also a decent standard of living. He won their love, as witnessed especially by their grief at his death. He is buried at Mission San Carlo Borromeo, Carmel, and was beatified in 1988.
Junípero Serra
Born at Petra, Island of Majorca, 24 November, 1713; died at Monterey, California, 28 August, 1784.
On
14 September, 1730, he entered the Franciscan Order. For his proficiency in studies he
was appointed lectorof philosophy before his ordination to the priesthood. Later he received the degree of Doctor of Theology from the Lullian University at Palma, where he also occupied the Duns Scotus chair of philosophy until he joined the
missionary college of San
Fernando, Mexico (1749). While traveling on foot from Vera Cruz to the capital, he
injured his leg in such a way that he suffered from it throughout his life,
though he continued to make his journeys on foot whenever possible. At his own
request he was assigned to the Sierra Gorda Indian Missionssome thirty leagues north of Querétaro. He served there for nine years, part of the time as
superior, learned the language of the Pame Indians, and translated the catechism into their language.
Recalled to Mexico, he became
famous as a most fervent and effective preacher of missions. His zeal frequently led him to
employ extraordinary means in order to move the people to penance. He would pound his breast
with a stone while in the pulpit, scourge himself, or apply a lighted torch to his bare chest. In 1767
he was appointed superior of a band of fifteenFranciscans for the Indian Missions of Lower California. Early in 1769 he
accompanied Portolá's land expedition to Upper California. On the way (14 May) he established the Mission San Fernando de Velicatá, Lower California. He arrived at San Diego on 1 July, and on 16 July founded the
first of the twenty-one California missions which accomplished the conversions of all the natives on the coast as far as Sonoma in the
north. Those established by Father Serra or during his administration were San Carlos (3 June, 1770); San Antonio (14 July, 1771); San Gabriel (8 September, 1771); San Luis Obispo (1 September, 1772); San Francisco de Asis (8 October, 1776); San Juan Capistrano (1 Nov. 1776); Santa Clara (12 January, 1777); San Buenaventura (31 March, 1782). He was also present
at the founding of the presidio of Santa Barbara (21 April, 1782), and was prevented
from locating the mission there at the time only through the animosity of Governor
Philipe de Neve. Difficulties
with Pedro Fages, the military commander, compelled Father Serra in 1773 to lay
the case before Viceroy Bucareli. At the capital of Mexico, by order of the viceroy, he
drew up his "Representación" in thirty-two articles. Everythingsave two minor points was decided in his
favour; he then returned to California, late in 1774. In 1778 he received
the faculty to administer the Sacrament of Confirmation.
After he had exercised his privilege for a year, Governor Neve directed him
to suspend administering the sacrament until he could present the papal Brief. For nearly two years Father Serra refrained, and
then Viceroy Majorga gave instructions to the effect that Father Serra was
within his rights. During the remaining three years of his life
he once more visited the missions fromSan Diego to San Francisco, six hundred miles, in order to confirm all who had been baptized. He suffered intensely from his crippled leg and from his chest, yet he
would use no remedies. He confirmed 5309 persons, who, with but few exceptions,
were Indians converted during the fourteen years from 1770.
Besides extraordinary fortitude, his most conspicuous virtues were insatiable zeal, love of mortification, self-denial,
andabsolute confidence in God. His executive abilities has been especially noted by non-Catholic
writers. The esteem in which his memory is held by all classes in California may be gathered from the
fact that Mrs. Stanford, not aCatholic, had a granite monument erected to
him at Monterey. A bronze statue
of heroic size represents him as the apostolic
preacher in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. In 1884 the Legislature
of California passed a concurrent
resolution making 29 August of that year, the centennial of Father Serra's burial, a legal holiday. Of his writings many letters
and other documentation are extant. The principal ones are his
"Diario" of the journey from Loreto to San
Diego, which was published in "Out West" (March to June, 1902), and
the "Representación" before mentioned.
Sources
PALOU, Noticias de la Nueva California (San Francisco, 1774); IDEM, Relacion historica de la vida y apostolicas tarcas del Ven. P. Fr. Junípero Serra (Mexico City, 1787); Santa Barbara Mission Archives; San Carlos Mission Records; ENGELHARDT, Missions and Missionaries of California, I (San Francisco, 1886); GLEESON, Catholic Church in California, II (San Francisco, 1871); HITTELL, History of California, I (San Francisco, 1885); JAMES, In and Out of the Missions (New York, 1905).
Engelhardt, Zephyrin. "Junípero Serra." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 13. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 23 Mar. 2015 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13730b.htm>.
Engelhardt, Zephyrin. "Junípero Serra." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 13. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 23 Mar. 2015 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13730b.htm>.
FATHER JUNÍPERO SERRA: BIOGRAPHY
. . When Father Junípero Serra founded California's first mission in 1769, he was 56 years old and asthmatic, with a chronic sore on his leg that troubled him for the rest of his life, and he suffered frequently from other illnesses, as well. He stood just 5 feet, 2 inches, and, as a journalist later wrote, "He certainly didn't look like the man who would one day be known as the Apostle of California." Yet he endured the hardships of the frontier and pressed forward with remarkable determination to fulfill his purpose: to convert the Native Americans of California to Christianity.
. . In pursuit of that goal, Father Serra walked thousands of miles between San Diego and Monterey and even Mexico City. He traveled the seas, also; and by the time he died August 28, 1784, in Carmel he had founded nine missions, introduced agriculture and irrigation techniques, and the Spanish language. He had battled governors, bureaucrats and military commanders to secure a system of laws to protect the California Indians from at least some of the injustices inflicted by the Spanish soldiers whose practices often were in conflict with Father Serra's.
. . Father Serra had been a philosophy professor and distinguished preacher at the Convent of San Francisco in Mallorca, the Spanish island where he was born in 1713. He was 36 years old when he reached the port of Vera Cruz, Mexico, on December 8, 1749, and walked to Mexico City. ( It was during that journey of 24 days that an insect bite caused the sore on his leg that sometimes became so painful he had difficulty walking. ) He spent 17 years in missionary work in the Sierra Gorda in the present area of North-Central Mexico. In 1767 he became president of the 14 missions in Baja California, originally founded by the Jesuits, then turned over to the Franciscans.
. . At that time, faced with the threat of Russian colonization from the north, Spain had committed itself to pushing northward into what is now the American state of California. Russian America (Alaska) was only 800 miles away. Spain feared that Russia would push south and gain a firm foothold in Alta California. The Spanish military launched an expedition into California in 1769 under the leadership of Gaspar de Portola. Father Serra set out with them to establish missions.
. . Serra's blessing of the site of Mission San Diego de Alcala on July 16, 1769, marked the beginning of the European settlement of California.
. . Between the years of 1796 and 1784, Father Serra made six voyages by sea totaling 5,400 miles. He traveled by land the distance between Monterey and San Francisco eight times, Monterey and San Antonio 11 times, His longest journey by land was from Monterey to Mexico City. In total, he traveled well over 5,500 miles by land.
. . Father Serra arrived at Monterey aboard the sailing ship San Antonio on June 1, 1770. He celebrated the first Mass on June 3, 1770, on the shore of Monterey Bay, where we now find the city of Monterey.
. . He returned to San Diego to work on the mission there, then founded Mission San Juan Capistrano in 1776, the year of the American Declaration of Independence.
. . When Father Serra died in 1784 he had established nine California missions and baptized 6,000 Indians, about 10 percent of the California Native American population. Those nine missions grew to 21. Today, more than 60 percent of the state's nearly 26 million people live in areas surrounding the missions, and El Camino Real, the road that Father Serra traveled on a tour of the missions shortly before this death, established a major artery running much of the length of the state.
August 28th is the anniversary of the death of Father Serra, and is set aside in special remembrance of his many contributions to the Catholic Church in America.
Bl. Junipero Serra
Feastday: July 1
Patron of Vocations
1713 - 1784
Beatified By: Pope John Paul II
Miguel Jose Serra was born on the island of Majorca on November 24, 1713, and took the name of Junipero when in 1730, he entered the Franciscan Order. Ordained in 1737, he taught philosophy and theology at the University of Padua until 1749.
At the age of thirty-seven, he landed in Mexico City on January 1, 1750, and spent the rest of his life working for the conversion of the peoples of the New World.
In 1768, Father Serra took over the missions of the Jesuits (who had been wrongly expelled by the government)in the Mexican province of Lower California and Upper California (modern day California). An indefatigable worker, Serra was in large part responsible for the foundation and spread of the Church on the West Coast of the United States when it was still mission territory.
He founded twenty-one missions and converted thousands of Indians. The converts were taught sound methods of agriculture, cattle raising, and arts and crafts.
Junipero was a dedicated religious and missionary. He was imbued with a penitential spirit and practiced austerity in sleep, eating, and other activities. On August 28, 1784, worn out by his apostolic labors, Father Serra was called to his eternal rest. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II on September 25, 1988. His statue, representing the state of California, is in National Statuary Hall. His feast day is July 1.
Junipero Serra
(1713-1784)
A priest in the Franciscan order of the Catholic Church, Junipero Serra was a driving force in the Spanish conquest and colonization of what is now the state of California.
Serra was born into a humble family on the Spanish island of Mallorca in the Mediterranean Ocean. His parents sent him to a nearby Franciscan school, and his intellectual abilities soon caught the attention of his teachers. At age fifteen he enrolled in a prominent Franciscan school in the nearby city of Palma. The next year he became a novice in the Franciscan order and shortly thereafter was ordained as a priest.
Serra's intellectual acumen and enormous willpower secured his appointment as a professor of theology at the tender age of twenty-four. Six years later, in 1743, he moved on to a professorship at the prestigious Lullian University.
Despite his success as a pulpit orator and professor, Serra hungered for something more. In 1749 he secured permission to travel with some fellow Franciscans who intended to devote themselves to work at a mission near Mexico City. Serra took the long sea voyage to Spain's colonies. Despite ill health from the voyage, upon his arrival in Vera Cruz he insisted on walking all the way to Mexico City, a distance of over two hundred miles. This was the first of many feats of physical stamina and willpower which were to make the Franciscan a legend in his own time.
For some fifteen years, Serra worked in Mexico at much the same tasks as he had in Spain, although he took on missionary work to nearby Indian peoples in addition to preaching, hearing confessions, and helping to administrate Mexico City's College of San Fernando.
In 1767 the Spanish emperor's expulsion of the Jesuits from Spain's colonies led the government to ask the Franciscan Order to replace them as missionaries in Baja (lower) California. Serra was appointed head of these missions. The next year the Spanish governor decided to explore and found missions in Alta (upper) California, the area which is now the state of California. This project was intended both to Christianize the extensive Indian populations and to serve Spain's strategic interest by preventing Russian explorations and possible claims to North America's Pacific coast.
Serra spent the rest of his life as head of the Franciscans in Alta California. Already over fifty years old, dangerously thin, asthmatic, and seriously injured in one of his legs, the undaunted Serra led the founding of the Mission of San Diego in 1769, aided an expedition in locating San Francisco Bay, and personally founded eight other missions, including his lifelong headquarters, the mission San Carlos Borromeo at Carmel. His Herculean efforts subjected him to near-starvation, afflictions of scurvy, and hundreds of miles of walking and horse riding through dangerous terrain. Moreover, he was notorious for his mortifications of the flesh: wearing heavy shirts with sharp wires pointed inward, whipping himself to the point of bleeding, and using a candle to scar the flesh of his chest. His sacrifices bore fruit for the missionaries; by his death in 1784, the nine missions he had founded had a nominally converted Indian population of nearly 5,000.
Serra argued with the Spanish Army over the proper authority of the Franciscans in Alta California, which he thought should subsume that of military commanders. In 1773 he convinced the authorities in Mexico City to increase financial and military support for expansion of his missions, and to expand the authority of the Franciscans over both the army and the baptized mission Indians. He also urged Mexican officials to establish an overland route to Alta California, a suggestion which led to colonizing expeditions from New Mexico which established civilian settlements at San Francisco in 1776 and at Los Angeles in 1781.
Serra wielded this kind of political power because his missions served economic and political purposes as well as religious ends. The number of civilian colonists in Alta California never exceeded 3,200, and the missions with their Indian populations were critical to keeping the region within Spain's political orbit. Economically, the missions produced all of the colony's cattle and grain, and by the 1780's were even producing surpluses sufficient to trade with Mexico for luxury goods.
Despite the frequent conflicts between military and religious authority, for Alta California's Indians the missions and their Franciscan administrators were part and parcel of an enormously destructive colonization process. The Spanish, largely through disease, were responsible for a population decline from about 300,000 Indians in 1769 to about 200,000 by 1821. The strenuous work regime and high population density within the missions themselves also caused high death rates among the mission Indians. By law, all baptized Indians subjected themselves completely to the authority of the Franciscans; they could be whipped, shackled or imprisoned for disobedience, and hunted down if they fled the mission grounds. Indian recruits, who were often forced to convert nearly at gunpoint, could be expected to survive mission life for only about ten years. As one Friar noted, the Indians "live well free but as soon as we reduce them to a Christian and community life... they fatten, sicken, and die."
Junipero Serra is still a well-known figure in California, a virtual icon of the colonial era whose statue stands in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park and in the U.S. Capital. In 1987 Pope John Paul II beatified Serra, the second of three steps necessary for the Church's bestowal of formal sainthood. Many Indians and academics condemned this decision, pointing to the harsh conditions of mission life and Serra's own justification of beatings. (In 1780, Serra wrote: "that spiritual fathers should punish their sons, the Indians, with blows appears to be as old as the conquest of [the Americas]; so general in fact that the saints do not seem to be any exception to the rule.") Defenders of Serra cited the context of his times, his enormous personal sacrifices and religious zeal, and his opposition to punitive military expeditions against the Indians as exonerating factors. More than two centuries after his death, Junipero Serra is still a pivotal figure in California history and the history of the American West, this time as a flashpoint for controversy over European treatment of Indians.
SOURCE : http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/s_z/serra.htm
Per diciott’anni visse tutte le realtà francescane dell’arcipelago, divenendo sacerdote, predicatore, professore di filosofia e di teologia presso l’Università Luliana. Vivo successo spirituale fruttavano le sue predicazioni, in particolare durante la Quaresima.
All’inizio del 1749, a 35 anni, ubbidendo a una sua interiore vocazione, lasciò Maiorca per partire missionario in America, insieme a un discepolo, Francesco Palóu, che gli rimarrà vicino per tutta la vita.
Il 18 ottobre 1749 la sua nave gettò l’ancora a San Giovanni di Porto Rico e il 7 dicembre approdò a Veracruz. Proseguì a piedi fino a Città del Messico dove, la mattina del 1° gennaio 1750, fu accolto dai francescani del Collegio apostolico di San Ferdinando, posto nei dintorni della capitale.
Trascorsi cinque mesi di preparazione per diventare missionario tra gli indios, partì, insieme al Palóu per la Sierra Gorda, giungendo a Jalpán il 16 giugno 1750. Fu istruito da un governatore indigeno sulla lingua Pame, parlata nel luogo, quindi iniziò la sua predicazione agli Indios nel loro linguaggio: tradusse le preghiere ordinarie e il catechismo e li educò al lavoro.
Poté con il loro aiuto costruire un tempio in pietra a Santiago deJalpán in stile barocco, ancora oggi di interesse architettonico, il quale fu preso a modello per la realizzazione di quattro chiese nelle altre missioni.
Restò dal 1758 al 1767con vari incarichi, fra i quali quello di superiore nelle cinque missioni della Sierra Gorda, finché i suoi superiori lo inviarono nel Texas a ricostituire la missione di San Saba, distrutta poco prima dagli Apache. L’incarico fu in seguito annullato per il forte pericolo che comportava, cosìpadre Juniperorestò al Collegio apostolico di San Ferdinando come maestro dei novizi e predicatore delle missioni in varie diocesi messicane.
A giugno del 1767 i gesuiti furono espulsi dai possedimenti spagnoli e le missioni della Bassa California vennero affidate ai francescani. Padre Juniperofu nominato superiore: insieme ad altri 14 compagni giunse nella Bassa California il 1° aprile 1768. Dopo solo due anni, visteanche le condizioni generali più favorevoli, poté fondare la prima missione di San Diego il 16 luglio 1769.
Spostatosi verso l’Alta California, fondò lemissioni di San Carlos de Monterey (trasferita poi sulle sponde del fiume Carmel); di San Antonio, il 14 luglio 1771; di San Gabriel (oggi inserita nella grande città di Los Angeles), l’8 settembre 1771; di San LuisObispo, il 1° settembre 1772.
Seguì un periodo d’incomprensione con un comandante militare per cui si ritirò, sempre a piedi, di nuovo al Collegio di San Ferdinando in Messico. Vi rimase fino al 13 marzo 1774, quando fece di nuovo ritorno prima a San Diego e poi al Carmelo di Monterey, dove ebbe un periodo di relativa tranquillità, mentre l’evangelizzazione dell’intera penisola californiana proseguiva lentamente ma con costanza.
Diresse personalmente i lavori di ricostruzione della missione di San Diego distrutta dagli indios. Fondò il 1° agosto 1776 la missione di San Francisco, il 1° novembre quella di San Juan Capistrano e il 7 gennaio 1777 quella di Santa Clara.
Papa Clemente XIV gli concesse il privilegio di amministrare il sacramento della Cresima per dieci anni, al termine dei quali il numero dei cresimati di tutte le sue missioni da lui visitate fu di 5309. Nel 1782 fondò l’ultima missione di San Bonaventura, realizzata nei Nuovi Territori, poi si ritirò al Carmelo di Monterey, sempre con il suo fedele discepolo Palóu (che in seguito ne scrisse la vita avventurosa quale testimone oculare) e lì morì il 28 agosto 1784, munito dei conforti religiosi e sepolto nella chiesa della missione.
Fu un colosso dell’evangelizzazione: nella sola California in diciassette anni, dal 1767 al 1784, percorse circa 9900 km e 5400 miglia di navigazione, sopportando, nonostante l’età e le infermità, le condizioni aspre e disagiate dei lunghi viaggi in mare, sui fiumi e soprattutto a piedi. Fondò nove missioni da cui derivano i nomi di importantissime città californiane come San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles e altre ancora
Considerato come il padre degli indios, fu onorato come un eroe nazionale: dal 1° marzo 1931 la sua statua si trova nella Sala del Congresso di Washington come rappresentante dello Stato della California. Inoltre, la cima più alta della catena montuosa Santa Lucia in California porta il suo nome.
Nell’inverno tra il 1934 e il 1935, poi, quattro cattolici americani di Seattle decisero di dar vita a una organizzazione di laici che favorisse, mediante assidui contatti e opportuni approfondimenti, la conoscenza del cattolicesimo e la sua diffusione nella società moderna. Dopo breve tempo, l’associazione ebbe un indirizzo più preciso, ossia la promozione e il sostegno alle vocazioni sacerdotali; come patrono venne scelto padre Junipero, per la sua azione missionaria. Oggi i Serra Club, così vennero a chiamarsi, sono diffusi in tutto il mondo.
Anche la Chiesa ha riconosciuto il valore della sua opera: dopo un attento processo canonico, è stata autorizzata la beatificazione, celebrata da san Giovanni Paolo II il 25 settembre 1988.
Di ritorno dal viaggio apostolico in Sri Lanka e Filippine, nel gennaio 2015, papa Francesco ha anticipato ai giornalisti presenti sul volo di ritorno che avrebbe riconosciuto santo il Beato Junipero, senza il riconoscimento di un miracolo attribuito alla sua intercessione, come già avvenuto per il papa San Giovanni XXIII e per l'oratoriano San Giuseppe Vaz.
Il 5 maggio 2015 ha quindi approvato la sentenza affermativa della Sessione Ordinaria dei Cardinali e Vescovi Membri della Congregazione vaticana per le Cause dei Santi circa la sua canonizzazione. Il rito si è svolto il 23 settembre 2015 nella cattedrale dell’Immacolata Concezione a Washington D.C., nel corso del viaggio apostolico negli Stati Uniti e a Cuba.
Autore: Antonio Borrelli ed Emilia Flocchini
San Junipero (Miguel José) Serra
Ferrer Sacerdote francescano
Petra, Maiorca, Spagna, 24 novembre 1713 -
Monterey, California, USA, 28 agosto 1784
Miguel
José Serra Ferrer, nativo dell’isola di Maiorca in Spagna, entrò diciottenne
nell’ordine francescano, assumendo il nome di fra’ Ginepro (in spagnolo,
Junipero) per ricordare uno dei primi compagni di san Francesco d’Assisi.
Sacerdote a 23 anni nel 1737, si dedicò all’insegnamento (filosofia e teologia)
e alla predicazione. A 36 anni partì missionario in Messico, all’epoca soggetto
alla Spagna. Nel 1750, col discepolo Francisco Palóu, raggiunse la Sierra
Gorda, dove arrivò a dirigere cinque missioni. Si calcola che padre Serra abbia
percorso 9.900 chilometri in terra e 5.400 miglia in navigazione, arrivando
all’Alta California. L’ultima missione fondata è San Bonaventura (oggi
Ventura). Ma è sull’uomo che padre Serra compie i suoi prodigi, portandogli,
insieme alla fede, la spinta a costruirsi una vita degna della persona e della
famiglia. Quando se ne muore nel Carmelo di Monterey il 28 agosto 1784 (dove
sarà sepolto), per tutti quelli che via via ne ricevono la notizia è come aver
perduto davvero un padre, ma ricevendone pure una grande eredità. Nessuno prima
di lui ha fatto tanto per le popolazioni della California. Beatificato da san
Giovanni Paolo II il 25 settembre 1988, è stato canonizzato da papa Francesco
il 23 settembre 2015 a Washington D.C.
Martirologio
Romano: A Monterrey in California, beato Ginepro (Michele) Serra, sacerdote
dell’Ordine dei Frati Minori, che tra le tribù ancora pagane di quella regione,
nonostante gli ostacoli e le difficoltà, predicò il Vangelo di Cristo nella
lingua dei popoli del luogo e difese strenuamente i diritti dei poveri e degli
umili.
Nacque a
Petra, nell’isola di Maiorca in Spagna, il 24 novembre 1713 da Antonio Serra e
Margarita Ferrer, e fu battezzato con i nomi di Miguel José. Frequentò la
scuola annessa al convento francescano e nel contempo aiutava la famiglia nel
lavoro dei campi. Rispondendo alla sua vocazione, da giovane si recò nella
città di Maiorca per entrare nell’Ordine Francescano. Il 15 settembre 1731 fece
la professione religiosa, prendendo il nome di fra’ Ginepro (in spagnolo,
Junipero; d’ora in poi seguiremo questa forma perché anche in italiano è più
noto così) in onore di uno dei primi compagni di san Francesco d’Assisi.
Per diciott’anni visse tutte le realtà francescane dell’arcipelago, divenendo sacerdote, predicatore, professore di filosofia e di teologia presso l’Università Luliana. Vivo successo spirituale fruttavano le sue predicazioni, in particolare durante la Quaresima.
All’inizio del 1749, a 35 anni, ubbidendo a una sua interiore vocazione, lasciò Maiorca per partire missionario in America, insieme a un discepolo, Francesco Palóu, che gli rimarrà vicino per tutta la vita.
Il 18 ottobre 1749 la sua nave gettò l’ancora a San Giovanni di Porto Rico e il 7 dicembre approdò a Veracruz. Proseguì a piedi fino a Città del Messico dove, la mattina del 1° gennaio 1750, fu accolto dai francescani del Collegio apostolico di San Ferdinando, posto nei dintorni della capitale.
Trascorsi cinque mesi di preparazione per diventare missionario tra gli indios, partì, insieme al Palóu per la Sierra Gorda, giungendo a Jalpán il 16 giugno 1750. Fu istruito da un governatore indigeno sulla lingua Pame, parlata nel luogo, quindi iniziò la sua predicazione agli Indios nel loro linguaggio: tradusse le preghiere ordinarie e il catechismo e li educò al lavoro.
Poté con il loro aiuto costruire un tempio in pietra a Santiago deJalpán in stile barocco, ancora oggi di interesse architettonico, il quale fu preso a modello per la realizzazione di quattro chiese nelle altre missioni.
Restò dal 1758 al 1767con vari incarichi, fra i quali quello di superiore nelle cinque missioni della Sierra Gorda, finché i suoi superiori lo inviarono nel Texas a ricostituire la missione di San Saba, distrutta poco prima dagli Apache. L’incarico fu in seguito annullato per il forte pericolo che comportava, cosìpadre Juniperorestò al Collegio apostolico di San Ferdinando come maestro dei novizi e predicatore delle missioni in varie diocesi messicane.
A giugno del 1767 i gesuiti furono espulsi dai possedimenti spagnoli e le missioni della Bassa California vennero affidate ai francescani. Padre Juniperofu nominato superiore: insieme ad altri 14 compagni giunse nella Bassa California il 1° aprile 1768. Dopo solo due anni, visteanche le condizioni generali più favorevoli, poté fondare la prima missione di San Diego il 16 luglio 1769.
Spostatosi verso l’Alta California, fondò lemissioni di San Carlos de Monterey (trasferita poi sulle sponde del fiume Carmel); di San Antonio, il 14 luglio 1771; di San Gabriel (oggi inserita nella grande città di Los Angeles), l’8 settembre 1771; di San LuisObispo, il 1° settembre 1772.
Seguì un periodo d’incomprensione con un comandante militare per cui si ritirò, sempre a piedi, di nuovo al Collegio di San Ferdinando in Messico. Vi rimase fino al 13 marzo 1774, quando fece di nuovo ritorno prima a San Diego e poi al Carmelo di Monterey, dove ebbe un periodo di relativa tranquillità, mentre l’evangelizzazione dell’intera penisola californiana proseguiva lentamente ma con costanza.
Diresse personalmente i lavori di ricostruzione della missione di San Diego distrutta dagli indios. Fondò il 1° agosto 1776 la missione di San Francisco, il 1° novembre quella di San Juan Capistrano e il 7 gennaio 1777 quella di Santa Clara.
Papa Clemente XIV gli concesse il privilegio di amministrare il sacramento della Cresima per dieci anni, al termine dei quali il numero dei cresimati di tutte le sue missioni da lui visitate fu di 5309. Nel 1782 fondò l’ultima missione di San Bonaventura, realizzata nei Nuovi Territori, poi si ritirò al Carmelo di Monterey, sempre con il suo fedele discepolo Palóu (che in seguito ne scrisse la vita avventurosa quale testimone oculare) e lì morì il 28 agosto 1784, munito dei conforti religiosi e sepolto nella chiesa della missione.
Fu un colosso dell’evangelizzazione: nella sola California in diciassette anni, dal 1767 al 1784, percorse circa 9900 km e 5400 miglia di navigazione, sopportando, nonostante l’età e le infermità, le condizioni aspre e disagiate dei lunghi viaggi in mare, sui fiumi e soprattutto a piedi. Fondò nove missioni da cui derivano i nomi di importantissime città californiane come San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles e altre ancora
Considerato come il padre degli indios, fu onorato come un eroe nazionale: dal 1° marzo 1931 la sua statua si trova nella Sala del Congresso di Washington come rappresentante dello Stato della California. Inoltre, la cima più alta della catena montuosa Santa Lucia in California porta il suo nome.
Nell’inverno tra il 1934 e il 1935, poi, quattro cattolici americani di Seattle decisero di dar vita a una organizzazione di laici che favorisse, mediante assidui contatti e opportuni approfondimenti, la conoscenza del cattolicesimo e la sua diffusione nella società moderna. Dopo breve tempo, l’associazione ebbe un indirizzo più preciso, ossia la promozione e il sostegno alle vocazioni sacerdotali; come patrono venne scelto padre Junipero, per la sua azione missionaria. Oggi i Serra Club, così vennero a chiamarsi, sono diffusi in tutto il mondo.
Anche la Chiesa ha riconosciuto il valore della sua opera: dopo un attento processo canonico, è stata autorizzata la beatificazione, celebrata da san Giovanni Paolo II il 25 settembre 1988.
Di ritorno dal viaggio apostolico in Sri Lanka e Filippine, nel gennaio 2015, papa Francesco ha anticipato ai giornalisti presenti sul volo di ritorno che avrebbe riconosciuto santo il Beato Junipero, senza il riconoscimento di un miracolo attribuito alla sua intercessione, come già avvenuto per il papa San Giovanni XXIII e per l'oratoriano San Giuseppe Vaz.
Il 5 maggio 2015 ha quindi approvato la sentenza affermativa della Sessione Ordinaria dei Cardinali e Vescovi Membri della Congregazione vaticana per le Cause dei Santi circa la sua canonizzazione. Il rito si è svolto il 23 settembre 2015 nella cattedrale dell’Immacolata Concezione a Washington D.C., nel corso del viaggio apostolico negli Stati Uniti e a Cuba.
Autore: Antonio Borrelli ed Emilia Flocchini
Voir aussi : http://www.serra.org/