The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1916-05-27
CALF ORNIA FRIARS|
BLACK ROBES AND BROWN ON
THE PACIFIC COAST - THE
FRANclSCANS NEVER LEFT.

When the old Spanish caravels
started out for new seas and new
shores, and prows which till now had
headed north and south in quest of
discovery and adventure were dipped
in western waters, side by side with
the daring mariner sailed the no less
daring friar. One ran UP the royal
ensign, the other held up the stand
ard of the Cross; one sought new
lands for the crown the other new
souls for Christ, and from out the first
small boat that grounded on new
found shore there leaped the cavalier
and there stepped the friar. The flag
was unfurled, the Cross was raised,
and there on the beach to the boom
of cannon and the roar of the sea Mass
was offered, and God was asked to
bless the land and all that were to
dwell therein.
Though revolving to every finer
sense, work among the Indians ever
attracted fresh recruits, who pushed
northward into the country, found
ing new missions as they advanced.
The martyrdom of two of their num-
Der inspired the others with greater
love for a work that might end in
blood We cannot give the results
of their labors in figures; records are
wanting; this we do know; the Jes-
uits in Lower California explored the
whole peninsula, Kino mouth; launch
ed the first ship ever built in Califor-
MIA; constructed wonderous system
of aqueducts; raised cattle and crops
where all the wise heads in Mexico
said they must fail Best of all they
founded eighteen missions and saved
hundreds of souls. For six decades of
years, at varying times, fifty-six. sons
of Loyola had labored forgotten and ig-
nored, till of sudden Don Gaspar de
Portola arrived with peremptory or
ders to ship every one of them back to
Spain. 1t has been discovered in the
highest court of Catholic country
that men who had forsaken all to labor
and sweat as farmers, menials, and
cattlemen, who had submitted to in
suits the vilest, and had breathed in
an atmosphere of physical and moral
filth that they might raise a tribe of
Indians "a few degrees above the brute,
and thus effect that the Blood of Jesus
Christ might reach and ransom few
more souls, were danger to king
who hardly knew of their existence,
and menace to a nation That had yet
to learn who they were and what they
were doing. They were soldier-priests,
these sons of Loyola, and their pass
word was obey" The clothes on their
backs, the books in their hands, no
more they took away with them when
they boarded their prison ship mid the
learned to love them. The Black Robe
had come and labored. He was led
away prisoner of the crown. Consol-
ing and comforting was the thought
that the ship which bore him away
would return, carrying Frapciscans, to
take up the sadly interrupted work.
The Brown Robe never left the
State; praying at Santa Barbara Mis-
sion he waited happier times; today
he is working everywhere up and down
the coast, yet he holds but two of his
twenty-five missions. His modest fig
ure is loved by all in California. We
treasure every mission ruin as shrine
for pilgrimage; 1--WE are retracing the
old mission road, the El Canine Real
and in lieu of mile posts we hang up
mi f0,, in fl1c rzrlI in
the mountain, marking mile by mile
the road that Sierra. trOd from San
Diego up to San Francisco. Even in
the heart of the great city, where the
rush for gold is as mad as it was in
40, all stop and pause moment for a
mission bell is being hung: it marks a
mile on the road to San Rafael. There
he stands above the crowd, brown-rob-
ed son of poor st. Francis, symbol of
all that is deepest in faith, pIrest in
love, noblest in self-sacriiice. He
blesses the bell, and bids it swing out
and tell the passersby that in the long
ago his barefoot brothers gave up
home and self, and all they held most
dear, to care for the body and save
the soul of the California Indian.
Theirs was the highest altruism, for
those are the noblest of our race, tru-
est friends of their felloWmen, great
est benefactors of society," who shape
their lives in imitation of the gentle
Son of God, Who cured all ills of the
body, and then laid down His life to
save the soul.