It’s going to take a miracle for Blessed Father Junipero Serra, founder of the California missions, to become a saint.
And, if it were up to Andrew Galvan, curator of Old Mission Dolores,
that miracle would take place right there in San Francisco.
Within the
walls of the mission church would be just fine.
Serra, who lived from 1713 to 1784, founded the first nine of the 21
California missions. He is buried at Mission San Carlos Borromeo in
Carmel.
For Galvan, a member of the board of directors of the Junipero Serra
Cause for Canonization, the journey to sainthood for the Franciscan
friar has been a long one.
And, for some, the fact that Galvan, who
traces his heritage to a pair of native people who were baptized by
missionaries and are buried in the cemetery grounds for which he is now
responsible, is on Serra’s side is a bit of a miracle in itself.
Galvan has assisted in the cause for sainthood since meeting Father
Noel Francis Moholy at Mission San Jose in 1978. “When Father Noel found
out I was a California Mission Indian descendant who liked Father Serra
— gold,” Galvan said.
Galvan was at the Vatican alongside Father Moholy in July 1987, as
the miracle attributed to Serra — the cure of a nun suffering from lupus
— was being investigated.
Galvan said when people would ask, “Isn’t there a controversy about
how Father Serra treated Indians?” Father Moholy would say, “Would you
like to talk to my Indian adjutant?”
Galvan returned to the Vatican for the beatification on Sept. 25, 1988.
The man whose ancestry includes Ohlone, Bay Miwok, Plains Miwok,
Coast Miwok and Patwin is a scholar of the missions, and notes that in
many ways, the image of Serra’s work with the Indians changes with
scholarship.
For example, he points out how the availability of documents online
and modern science helped refute one long-running contention that Serra
did not have the Indians’ best interests at heart.
Serra’s papers show
he asked what was done in Spain when children were not thriving.
Give
them more milk to build them up, the answer came.
Still, children died.
Later, science would show that the native coastal people were
lactose-intolerant, something Serra could hardly have known three
centuries ago.
In the cemetery at the mission, Galvan has constructed a marker to
commemorate the place where Poylemja, who became Faustino at Baptism,
and Jocbocme, who became Obulinda, are interred.
If you look at the
family tree on the wall of the mission museum, you will see that they
are Galvan’s great-great-great-great-grandparents.
And the mission is where he also met his own protégé, Vincent Medina
Jr., with whom he shares common ancestry.
Medina, 24, is volunteering at
the mission and is leading some tours of fourth-graders studying
missions.
The man Galvan calls J. Serra is one miracle away from sainthood.
And
if that miracle would happen at his beloved Mission Dolores, nothing
would please him more.