The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1907-12-28
FRANCISCANS.
Continued from Page 4.


ca, and the first bishop consecrated for Americ
1911 was Garcias de Predilla franciscan, VIII
built his cathedral in San Domingo. But 1 ar
straying far afield and | call back my wanderin
pen to California and the southwest of your ow
country.
FATHER JUNIPERO SERRA-A CONTRAST
By some mysterious centripetal force almost al
the writings on the Franciscans of California con
verged towards one Observation-Disclosures Juniper
Sierra, sanity priest. Hanging in the reception
room of the ancient college of San Fernando, Mex
co City, is oil painting of the gentle prizes
executed one hundred and sixty years ago. 1t is
face full Of human pathos, of tenderness, of spr
ituality: this painting and an enlarged daguerreo
type in the old Franciscan College of Santa Bar
bara, Cal. are all that remain to bring back th
form and features of who will for all time fill
a conspicuous place in California history. Now
good and sanity as was Father Junipero, anC
great and many as are the praises sung of him. HI
was not superior. indeed, judged by the standard
of the world he was not the equal of other Francis
can missionaries of the southwest, whose names are
seldom ever hears. If the crucifixion of the flesh
with its appetites, desires and demands; if great
suffering voluntarily assumed and patiently borne
if fatigue hunger, thirst and exposure endured UNI
complainingly for God and great cause, and il
surrendering freely life itself, for the uplifting of
the outcast and the accursed be the marks of he
roic sanctity and heroic men, then there were
greater saints and greater men on the desert mis-
sions than Junpero Sierra. Alone, away from the
eye and the applause of civilized man, these lonely
priests in desert and on mountain trod the wine
press of the fury of insult, mockery and derison.
For weary years of laborious and mceasing sacri-
fice amid perils as fearful ever tried the heart
of man, they walked the furrow to the martyrs
stake, cast one hating, lingering look behind.
Their ZEAL their courage their fidelity to duty in
the presence of eminent warnings their fortitude
under hunger, WEAKNESS and excessive fatigue
their angelic piety and purity of life, and their
prodigious courage when confronted with torture
and death, have built on the lonely desert monu-
ment to ST. Francis and to heroic Catholic charity
a monument which will endure till time shall be
no more.
HEROES OF THE CROSS
Of these men were Fathers Garces dubbed to
death by the Yumas Martin de Arbide, burned
alive by the Zunis; Juan Diaz, tortured by the
Mojaves, and thirty Others martyred for the faith
The history of the conversion and civilization of the
Indians of the California coast, of Arizona and
New Mexico by the franciscan fathers forms one
of the most brilliant chapters in the martyrology
and confessarum of the imperishable Church of
God. By their patience, tact and kindness, by the
unblemshed cleanliness of their lives these men of
God won the confidence and affection of their
savage flock, lifted them unto firm earth Chris
to San Diego, and on to San Francisco and Los
Angeles, all over Arizona and New Mexico, they
established missions, built churches and taught the
tribes to cultivate the land. They gathered the
wandering families into village settlements, taught
them horticulture and irrigation, and furnished
them seed and implements of agriculture They
introduced sheep and cattle, planted vineyards,
olive and orange groves, and made of these human
wrecks peaceful, industrious and contented peo-
pie. They did more. They taught these men and
women of unknown race and origin how to break
and shoe horses, to carve in wood to mould clay,
make and lay tiles, to tan hides and make Shoes to
sing and play musical instruments, to make
wine, candles, clothes, ploughs and hats; they
taught them the trades of the cooper, the weaver
the saddler, the blacksmith, the painter, the car
penter, the baker, the miller, the rope-maker, the
stone cutter the mason and many other civilized
occupations. Some of the finer arts taught the
Indians by the fathers gpracticed today by the
members of the tribes, SUCH for example, as en-
broidery in gold and silver thread, fancy basket
making, moulding and annealing pottery, leather
carving, lace and drawn work, from the sale of
which to curio dealers and visitors the Indians
draw considerable revenue. When in 1884 a band
of Catholic renegades, calling themselves the Re-
public of Mexico, broke up the missions, seized up
the possessions and revenues of the monasteries
and Christian pueblos the Indians were reduced to
beggary and became human derelicts outcasts and
thieves.
| am leaving this week for Mexico City and
when there, will search the archives of the National
Library, where | hope to find copy of the