Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 8, 2025
His favorite reading during his novitiate, Palou tells us, was in the Lives of the Saints, over which he would pore day after day with passionate and ever-growing enthusiasm; and from these devout studies sprang an intense ambition to "imitate the holy and venerable men" who had given themselves up to the grand work of carrying the Gospel among gentiles and savages.
When his fellow missionary, Father Palou advised him to remain a little longer at Saint Xavier's until he would be in a better condition to travel, his only answer was "let us speak no more on the subject, I have placed my faith in God and trust to His Goodness to plant the holy standard of the Cross not only at San Diego but even as far as Monterey."
But it was only the cowardice of Palou which had caused the failure of a conspiracy, aiming at nothing less than the massacre, at one blow, of the whole of the staff, after which there would have been no difficulty in prevailing over the crew, who were already more than half-disposed to adopt the easy mode of life of the islanders.
The same month in which Palou dedicated the northern Mission, found Serra, with Padre Gregorio Amurrio and ten soldiers, wending their way from San Diego to San Juan Capistrano, the foundation of which had been delayed the year previous by the San Diego massacre. They disinterred the bells and other buried materials and without delay founded the Mission.
With Lieutenant Ayala was Father Vincente de Santa Maria who, with Fathers Palou and Cambon, planted a Mission Cross and founded Mission Nuestra Senora de los Dolores, which has withstood so many ravages of time and change, of man and elements. The seventh Mission was San Juan Capistrano, founded November 1, 1776, by Father Lasuen.
At eighteen he became a priest; but it was not until his thirty-sixth year that he gained the opportunity of which he had so long dreamed, when, in company with a body of missionaries, among whom were his boyhood friends, Francisco Palou and Juan Crespi, he landed at Vera Cruz. He was too impatient to begin his new work, to wait for the government escort which was coming to meet them.
Happy was Serra's friend and brother, Palou, to celebrate high mass at this dedication of the church named after the great founder of his Order, and none the less so were his assistants, Fathers Cambon, Nocedal, and Peña. Just before the founding of the Mission of San Francisco, the Spanish Fathers witnessed an Indian battle.
He was buried by his friend Palou at his beloved Mission in the Carmelo Valley, and there his dust now rests. In 1787 Padre Palou published, in the City of Mexico, his "Life and Apostolic Labors of the Venerable Padre Junipero Serra."
Junipero Serra, on receipt of this letter, selected Fathers Palou and Cambon to accompany the soldiers, and Lieutenant Juan de Ayala was ordered with his ship stationed at Monterey to further explore the San Francisco Bay; Juan de Anza, another brilliant officer, was entrusted with the establishment of the new presidio; the site he chose being the identical one on which the Presidio of San Francisco stands today.
When Junipero knew that his pilgrimage was about ended he wrote a farewell letter to his Franciscans; and then, on the 28th of August, 1784, having bade good-bye to his fellow-labourer, Padre Palou, he closed his eyes in the last sleep, and was laid to rest at San Carlos.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking