Exactly two and a half centuries ago, St. Junipero Serra, a Franciscan priest, founded what is now one of the most famous historic and religious sites in the state of California, Mission San Juan Capistrano. Serra is one of the two individuals whose statues California sent to the U.S. Capitol to represent the state, so important were his missions to the civilizing and development of California.
Considering how California is now, it could certainly use more religious leaders like Serra. He was not only a spiritual leader, but also helped the natives learn agriculture and other vital skills, about which you can learn if you visit the San Juan Capistrano site today (and read about his statue here). And since November 1, besides being the anniversary of the 1776 founding of the famous mission, is also the feast of All Saints, perhaps we should ask Serra to pray for California and the United States before the throne of God in heaven.
Read Also: An America 250 Halloween: The Galloping Headless Hessian of Sleepy Hollow
When Catholics and Orthodox Christians pray to the saints, it is not, of course, because we believe that they can answer our prayers through their own power. It is based on the extremely ancient Christian belief that those holy men and women alive in heaven are closest to God and most fitted to join in the intercessory work of the church.
In Tobit 12:12, the angel Raphael described carrying the prayers of Tobit and his family to the throne of God. James 5:16 urged us, “Confess therefore your sins one to another: and pray one for another, that you may be saved. For the continual prayer of a just man availeth much.” And Revelation 8:4 stated that the “prayers of the saints ascended up before God from the hand of the angel.” Every Christian can be a saint, but as we know, we must finish the course and keep the faith (2 Timothy 4:7), we must do the same good works that Christ did (Matthew 25:31ff, parable of the sheep and the goats) in order to reach heaven.
Thus when the Catholic Church calls Junipero Serra or Fulton Sheen a saint, it means that this person lived out the commands of the gospel exceptionally well, is in heaven, and is able to pray to God on our behalf. Mission San Juan Capistrano is a testament to this belief because its name is that of another famous saint, John of Capistrano, who actually is most famous for being a spiritual leader of a Crusade against the Muslims. John of Capistrano led a force of Christian crusaders alongside the Hungarian military commander John Hunyadi, helping to defeat the Ottoman army at the Battle of Belgrade in July 1456. As Muslims burn down multiple European countries and try to establish sharia enclaves in America, we could also use a little more crusading spirit again.
The men who brought Christianity to the Americas had to be very brave and strong in their faith, too. The California Missions Foundation explains:
There is, of course, a traditional African-American spiritual in America called “When the Saints Go Marching In.” It expresses the fervent desire “to be in that number, when the saints go marching in.” May it someday be said of each and every one of us, as it is of Junipero Serra, that we lived out the gospel and passed from this world only to live with Christ in heaven.Mission San Juan Capistrano was first founded by Father Lasuén on October 30th, 1775. When just a few weeks later word spread of an Indian revolt in San Diego, the founding padres and soldiers left San Juan Capistrano to help fight. Once fighting had subsided, Father Serra personally led a party to re-found Mission San Juan Capistrano on All Saint’s Day, November 1, 1776.
Mission San Juan Capistrano is well known for the annual migration of cliff swallows… The mission Serra Chapel, completed in 1782, is the oldest standing building in California. It is also the only chapel still standing in which Father Serra said mass and performed baptismals. Yet, as the neophyte population grew, the small chapel could no longer accommodate them all, so construction of the Great Stone Church began in 1797. Unfortunately, it collapsed fifteen years later in the earthquake of 1812. Four bells that once hung in the Great Stone Church survived the earthquake and today hang in a bell wall that forms one of the mission’s most picturesque features.
