Serra Junípero

Serra, Junípero, full name MIGUEL JOSE SERRA (1713-84), Spanish Roman Catholic missionary to North America, born on the island of Majorca. He joined the Franciscans in 1730 and a year later began teaching philosophy under his Franciscan name of Junípero. In 1749 he was sent as a missionary to Mexico, where he worked among the Native Americans of the Sierra Gorda region and taught at San Fernando College, Mexico City. In 1767, he was appointed superior of the California missions, and in 1769, on an expedition to Upper California, founded San Diego, the first mission in the present-day state. Over a period of years Serra founded many missions that later became settlements and cities in California, including San Carlos Borromeo (Carmel, 1770), San Gabriel (1771), San Luis Obispo (1772), San Francisco (1776), Santa Clara (1777), Los Angeles (1781), and San Buenaventura (Ventura, 1782). He was beatified in 1988.