Junipero Serra Timeline

Aged 70, Junípero Serra lost his battle with tuberculosis at Mission San Carlos Borromeo. He was succeeded by Fermín Lasuén. Over 20,000 people attended his beatification ceremony on September 25, 1988. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II at the Vatican City.

Image from: https://www.ncronline.org/news/justice/controversial-jun-pero-serra-supported-some-indigenous-catholics-california-mission

Vineyards were planted by a team of missionaries under the direction of Father Junipero Serra for use in the nine missions he established. Mission grapes began to be renowned as a result of the diversity of grapes that were grown in the fields. Of course, since the Church used the grapes from the Mission, they were only used for holy activities. The commercial cultivation of wine didn’t begin until several years later, under the presidency of Abraham Lincoln.

Image from: https://onthewineroad.us/first-vineyards-in-america/

In 1769, Father Serra and his padres brought vines and wine to San Diego, California. We refer to the grape he brought as the Mission Grape. It is a Spanish variety of Vitis vinifera that Catholic missionaries brought to the western coasts of North and South America for use in producing sacramental, table, and fortified wines. Up until the 1830s, when European settlers in Los Angeles introduced some traditional European varieties to their vineyards, it was the only grape grown in California.

Image from: https://www.missionscalifornia.com/missions/san-diego-de-alcala/

Located in San Juan Capistrano, Orange County, California, Mission San Juan Capistrano is a former Spanish mission. It was established on November 1, 1776, in colonial Las Californias, and was given the name Saint John of Capistrano by Spanish Catholic missionaries of the Franciscan Order. The Alta California province of the Viceroyalty of New Spain was home to the Spanish Colonial Baroque style church. The Mexican government secularized the Mission in 1833, and the American administration restored it to the Roman Catholic Church in 1865. The mission has seen a series of natural calamities throughout the years that have caused damage, although restoration and reconstruction operations first began around 1910.

Image from: https://www.orangecountyhistory.org/wp/?page_id=244

A historical site and Californian mission, San Gabriel Arcángel is located in San Gabriel, California. It was the fourth of what would eventually number twenty-one Spanish missions in California, and it was erected by Spaniards of the Franciscan order on “The Feast of the Birth of Mary,” September 8, 1771. After the Archangel Gabriel, San Gabriel Arcángel is frequently referred to as the “Godmother of the Pueblo of Los Angeles.” Slaves from adjacent Tongva villages, like Yaanga, were reportedly used to build and manage the mission. The mission and the new pueblo fought over who would govern the Native American labor when the adjacent Pueblo de los ngeles was constructed in 1781.

Image from: https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.183535.html