Junípero Serra y Ferrer (November 24, 1713 – August 28, 1784) was a Franciscan friar most well known for founding the first 9 California missions. He was from Majorca in Spain. He was a teacher of philosophy in Spain and Mexico in the 1740s.
In 1768, Serra became head of the missionaries in Baja California, and started the first and only Franciscan mission there. Soon after that, he started Mission San Diego de Alcala, the first Spanish mission in Alta California (now the state of California). Serra started nine missions in Alta California.
He was head of the California missions, and was based in Monterey. There is a statue of him in Statuary Hall in the Capitol, where he represents California. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1988 and canonized (made a saint) in 2015 by Pope Francis. Serra is often called the "Father of California" due to the role of the missions in establishing European rule in what is now the state of California. However, some people are now criticizing him for the way he treated Native Americans.
Junipero Serra was born in Petra, a village on Majorca in the Balearic Islands. His name at birth was Miquel Josep Serra i Ferrer, which is Catalan.
At age 17, Serra joined the Franciscan order of monks.
Serra often punished himself in order to cleanse his soul of sins. He whipped himself.
On July 1, 1769, Serra arrived in what is now San Diego. He started Mission San Diego de Alcala. A mission is a religious community where the Spanish taught the Native people about their religion, Catholicism.
Serra started a total of nine missions. They are:
These missions were an important part of Spanish rule because if a mission was built in a place, it would be harder for other European countries to claim that land for themselves.
In these missions, the Native Americans were taught European ways. They learned how to speak Spanish and the basics of the Catholic faith. They also farmed and made things such as candles and clothes. However, some Native Americans did not like living in the missions. They thought the Spanish were treating them wrong and they fought back.
Serra died at Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo in what is now Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. He is buried there. People go to his grave to pray in his name.
Serra was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1988. When he was beatified, it means that the Catholic Church recognizes that he went to heaven and can intercede on behalf of people who pray in his name. He was also now called "Blessed." However, he was not a saint yet because beatification is step 3 out of the 4 steps of becoming a saint in the Catholic Church.
In 2015, Pope Francis canonized Serra. That means that he is now officially recognized as a saint in the Catholic Church and has his own feast day (July 1 in the United States, August 28 everywhere else). July 1 is his feast day in America to honor the day he arrived in San Diego.
There are many statues of Junipero Serra in California. There are also many places named after him, such as schools and roads.
People have criticized Junipero Serra for his treatment of the Native people who live in what is now the state of California. They said that he beat them up and didn't allow them to practice their own cultures and religions. However, other people say that Serra did a lot of good things for the Native people. Unlike other Europeans at the time, he thought that the Native Californians had souls. He also taught them how to read and write.
In 2020, many statues of Junipero Serra were damaged and pulled down. Other statues of him have been removed and put away. These events have taken place in light of the George Floyd protests, when people were working to end racism in American society.
Preludes (Chopin)
Preludes, Op. 28 is a collection of 24 short musical works for solo piano, written by Frédéric Chopin between 1837 and 1838 and published in the middle of 1839, just after the composer's winter stay on the isle of Majorca with George Sand.
Chopin was greatly influenced by Johann Sebastian Bach when he wrote these preludes. Each of the works in the collection is in a different major or minor key, with not one being left out, just like Bach's 24 preludes and fugues in "The Well-Tempered Clavier". But unlike Bach, Chopin arranges the preludes in order through the circle of fifths. The first prelude in the set is in C major, the next in A minor, then G major, E minor, and so on, until the last two, which are in F major and finally D minor.
The "Preludes" are all very different. Many are very short (they take only about one minute each to play), so the atmosphere changes quickly, and this can make the overall structure seem out of place. Artists have recorded the entire set of preludes on CDs, and they are often performed in concerts as well.
One of the well-known pieces from the "Preludes" is Prelude No. 15, in D-flat major and nicknamed "Raindrop". This nickname refers to the monotonous repetition of one note in the accompaniment. It reminded early music lovers of the dripping of raindrops. Another well-known number is Prelude No. 4, in E minor, with its melancholy descending chords in the accompaniment.
Besides the 24 preludes of Op. 28, Chopin would write three more preludes, Op. 45 in C-sharp minor (composed in 1841), one in A-flat major (1834), and the so-called "Devil's Trill" Prelude, in E-flat minor, which Chopin never ended up finishing.
Union Kleinmünchen Linz
Union Kleinmünchen Linz is a women soccer club from Linz, Upper Austria. It was founded in 1980 and was the first club, which is a pure women soccer club. The colours of the team are red and white.
The club was founded in 1980 and started playing in the highest league. From 1980 till 2008 they played each season in the highest class. The season 2008/09 they played for the first time in the 2. league but next season (2009/10) they could reach the championship and were promoted to the ÖFB-Frauenliga.
Symphony No. 6 &quot;Pastorale&quot; (Beethoven)
Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68 (Pastorale) is a symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven. The composer began making sketches for the symphony in 1806. The symphony was completed in 1808 in the village of Heiligenstadt northwest of Vienna. It was first performed in Vienna, Austria on 22 December 1808 in the Theater an der Wien with the premieres of the Symphony No. 5 in C minor, the Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, the "Choral" Fantasy, "Ah! perfido!" (a concert aria composed in 1796), and excerpts from the Mass in C major of 1807.
There are five movements in the symphony. The movements in order are allegro ma non troppo ("Joyful Feelings Upon Arriving in the Country"), andante molto mosso ("By the Brook"), allegro ("Peasant Merrymaking"), allegro ("The Thunderstorm"), and allegretto ("The Shepherd's Song After the Storm"). The first movement is in sonata form. It is placid and cheerful. It depicts the composer's feelings as he arrives in the country. The second movement is in sonata form. Beethoven helpfully identified the bird species in the score: nightingale (flute), quail (oboe) and cuckoo (clarinet). The third movement is the scherzo movement of the symphony. It depicts the country folk dancing and it ends unexpectedly when the country folk notice that raindrops are starting to fall. The fourth movement depicts a violent thunderstorm, starting with just a few drops of rain and building to a climax. There is, of course, thunder, as well as lightning, high winds, and sheets of rain. The finale is in sonata rondo form. The first eight bars form a continuation of the introduction of which the storm was the main part; the finale proper begins in the ninth bar.
Australasia
Australasia is one of the world's geographical regions. It is unified in natural history and geology because of its ancient origin as part of the supercontinent Gondwana. It is the geographical area which contains the Australasian ecozone.