Title: Journey to the sun
Description: The narrative of the remarkable life of Junipero Serra, the intrepid priest who led Spain and the Catholic Church into California in the 1700s and became a key figure in the making of the American West. In the year 1749, at the age of thirty-six, Junipero Serra left his position as a highly regarded priest in Spain for the turbulent and dangerous New World, knowing he would never return. The Spanish Crown and the Catholic Church both sought expansion in Mexico--the former in search of gold, the latter seeking souls--as well as entry into the mysterious land to the north called "California." By his death at age seventy-one, Serra had traveled more than 14,000 miles on land and sea through the New World--much of that distance on a chronically infected and painful foot--baptized and confirmed 6,000 Indians, and founded nine of California's twenty-one missions, with his followers establishing the rest.
Subjects: Missions, Spanish Missions, Biography, Explorers, Franciscans, History, HISTORY / General, HISTORY / United States / Colonial Period (1600-1775), BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Adventurers & Explorers, Clergy, biography, Catholic church, united states, history, Church history, 18th century, General, Colonial Period (1600-1775), BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY, Adventurers & Explorers
Places: California, Spain
People: Junípero Serra Saint (1713-1784)
Time periods: To 1846