Chimes of Mission Bells Part 4

But what of Spanish generosity at home, when the missionaries were toiling for souls in the New World? Many a pious Spaniard in Spain and in Mexico subscribed immense sums for the missions of California, both for the Jesuit and the Franciscan missions. Thus we find the pious Marquis de Villa Puente subscribing $200,000 for "missions, vessels and other necessities of California." The d.u.c.h.ess of Gandia subscribed $60,000 for the same purpose in 1767 and many others followed the same example until the "Pius Fund of the Missions of California" amounted to over two million dollars. At the time of the Secularization of the Missions, the Mexican Government confiscated a large remaining portion of this "Pious Fund." In 1853 the Spanish Archbishop Alemany, then Bishop of Monterey and successor of Bishop Diego from whom the "Pious Fund" had been taken, started a litigation which was continued in turn by his worthy successor Archbishop Patrick Riordan of the archdiocese of San Francisco, with the good result that Mexico was made to pay the sum of $43,050 in Mexican currency annually as the interest at six per cent on the sum of $1,460,682 of the "Pious Fund" which the national treasury of Mexico had appropriated on the promise of Mexico to act as trustee of the fund and pay an interest of six per cent which it had failed to pay since its appropriation at the time of the Mexican regime in California.

Moreover, Mexico had agreed to pay this interest to the object intended by the donors of the fund, namely, "to the church, for the conversion of the natives of California, for the establishment, maintenance and extension of the Catholic Church, her faith and worship, in said country of Upper and Lower California." The litigation was won through the intervention of the United States Government which Archbishop Riordan invoked through his counsel, and decided by arbitrators under the Hague Convention in 1899. The first payment was made on February 2, 1903.

Perhaps it is not amiss to quote here a small portion of the speech delivered in Washington, D. C. by Hon. Joseph Scott of Los Angeles on the occasion of a banquet following the unveiling ceremonies of the memorial erected in honor of Christopher Columbus by Act of Congress.

Among the speakers present at the banquet were Ex-President William Taft (then president), Cardinal Gibbons, Speaker Champ Clark, Ex-speaker Joseph Cannon, Congressman Underwood, Judge Victor Dowling of the Supreme Court of New York and many other notable men of the nation.

"It affords me unbounded pleasure to have an opportunity to deliver an expression, feeble though it be, of the sentiments of the Knights of Columbus of the great West, and particularly of California, regarding the significance of this great day. Mr. John Barrett of the Pan-American Union has already given you food for sober thought in the parallel he has drawn of the marvelous activity and resourcefulness of the Latin-American republics. Possibly I may be permitted at this time to inject a suggestion that, despite the remarks of the previous speaker about Boston as the modern Athens and the seat of universal learning, "Modern Athens" has nothing in common with the memories aroused by contemplation of the events which we celebrate today. It may be well to tell our friends from New England that before the so-called Anglo-Saxon had set foot as a colonist upon the American soil, the followers of Columbus had penetrated into the heart of Kansas and gone down as far as Buenos Ayres. I want to lay stress upon the fact that we have not noted too emphatically today that it was the great Spanish race, with its strong and sterling faith, which accomplished this wonderful mission of civilization. Too long have we endured the stress of so-called history written by Prescott and others, some of whom ought to have been put in the Ananias club before they were born. For nearly three centuries the Spanish race, with its indomitable faith, pursued almost alone its mission of civilization and evangelization of the aborigines of America.

Before the Pilgrim Fathers had landed on Plymouth Rock, the Catholic Spaniard had acquired a knowledge of the Indian language sufficient to enable him to translate the Bible into the Aztec Indian language, so that the new Indian neophyte could read the story of "G.o.d's greatest Book" in his mother tongue."

The Courage of Catholic Spain

I wish to advise those of you who speak now of a burden of four days and nights in luxurious Pullman cars to step out on the soil of California as though you had performed a deed of heroism, that a Spanish soldier, Cabeza de Vaca, with the courage of primitive Christianity, walked from Florida to the Gulf of California, though it took him seven years to accomplish his task; and the wonderfully brave Friar Marcos de Niza pioneered his way on foot thirteen hundred miles into the heart of Arizona through deserts and hordes of Apaches, in his efforts to plant the cross of civilization among the children of the new world. Nay, the Grand Canyon of Arizona, now one of the greatest natural wonders of the world, was seen by a young Spanish lieutenant and his twenty soldiers three hundred years before the Anglo-Saxon took a glimpse at its wonderful and awe-inspiring beauty. These and other similar facts are attested by the report of the Bureau of Ethnology of Washington, as well as by many other reliable authorities, including that singularly gifted and scholarly student of Spanish history and folk lore, Charles F.

Lummis of Los Angeles, himself a Puritan on both sides of his house for several generations back. It was the fort.i.tude of this Spanish race, coupled by its strong devotion to the faith which you and I profess, which enabled them to solve the Indian problem as it has never been attempted since. While under our present system of the government of this United States, the Indian has been an outcast and a derelict to be robbed and cheated by his white brother, yet on the other hand the Spanish missionary brought into the life of the simple native of the new world the wholesome light of Christianity, which made him recognize in the Red Man the same soul which was made in the image and likeness of the common Creator of us all. In that spirit of brotherhood and charity he obtained the confidence and good will of the Indians, almost without exception, throughout the length and breadth of the countries that he explored. And while his path was beset with dangers from the grim forces of nature, and occasionally the crown of martyrdom was given to him by an unthinking hand of those he was coming to evangelize, yet he faltered not in his footsteps.

Today the memory of Columbus may be coupled with and attributed, on our part, to the splendid heroism and Christian fort.i.tude of the great Spanish race which continued the work of Columbus with all that it entailed for the betterment of humanity."

In compliance with our promise not to forget the friends of the missionaries and of their compatriots, of today, we will first speak of California's wonderful enthusiasm in the celebration of the Bi-centenary of Junipero Serra's birth. Of the privileged thousands who visited Monterey on November 23, 1913 and made a pilgrimage to Serra's tomb at San Carlos Mission, how many will efface that sight from their minds in years to come? But this awe-inspiring sight to which Reverend Raymond Mestres and the Franciscan Fathers of San Francisco, contributed so much, and in which the Third Order of Saint Francis so prominently partic.i.p.ated will be yearly renewed. Ecclesiastical and civil authorities, towns and cities, individuals, all had the "right spirit." The accounts of the press were glowing. Mr. Frank Powers of Carmel-by-the-Sea was California's representative at the celebration which Spain did not fail to hold in honor of her ill.u.s.trious son; and Mr. Powers indeed proved a worthy representative, returning to California with renewed enthusiasm for the saintly Serra, and his lectures have been listened to with keen delight. And can any praise seem superfluous for California's apostles in particular for the saintly Serra? At the civil exercises, held in Monterey on the occasion of the celebration we are speaking of, Senator Reginaldo del Valle, of Los Angeles, Mr. Michael Williams and Mr. Charles Phillips of San Francisco each paid exquisite tributes to our hero whom the opening lines of Mr.

Phillips' beautiful ode described as:

"A young boy dreaming by the Spanish main: Knee-high in waving grain He halts at eve and dreams, Where green Majorca fronts the cycling sea, And far worlds ceaselessly Beckon with pa.s.sing sail and swinging tide, And plunging galleons ride Home from adventure, or away, away To silken bright Cathay, Or where dark India her golden treasure yields; A young boy dreaming in his father's fields, Who plucks a lily from the bending wheat And stands with veiled gaze and searching eyes Pale with some great emprise, Beyond the homing waters of his isle, Beyond Majorca's skies;-- And dreams and dreams the while!"

"And they who love him wonderingly ask: "What lad is this of ours Who dreams away the hours, And when the windy night-tide running sings, So strangely seems Converse to hold with far compelling things?

Or what these spirit-smiling ecstasies,"

They reverent cry, "That halt him at his task And hold him tranced in bright reveries?

Is this our lad, indeed, Who with such Heaven-given grace-- Ay, with the light of Heaven on his face!-- Makes question of the very world about?"

One of the sweetest features of this day was that hereafter by a decree of Governor Hiram Johnson, who also did not fail to send a representative to Monterey in the person of Judge Griffin, November the twenty-fourth was declared a state holiday. May Serra day long be welcomed by loyal Californians! We cannot close this chapter after speaking of the bright constellation of the past which appeared in California skies so many years ago, and whose traces we so cherish, without saying a few words about that worthiest of worthy movements to restore the dear old missions of El Camino Real according to their traditional lines, here again Reverend Father Mestres of Monterey deserves the greatest credit in this enterprise, and the Knights of Columbus of the California councils have proved themselves great helpers in the plan. King Alfonso, his minister, Senor Juan Riano, the Marquis de la Vega y Inclan who will be King Alfonso's representative at the Panama-Pacific Exposition of 1915, are hearty supporters and sponsors of this movement, and with cooperation from faithful friends and the sanction of the Bishop of the diocese of Monterey and Los Angeles, we have no doubt that these glorious landmarks, some of which have alas too long been allowed to go to "wreck and ruin" while others are still more or less neglected, after the cruel years which extinguished their sanctuary lamps, left their altars bare and their belfries silent save for the hooting of the night owls, will ere long be in the proper repair to hand down with pride to posterity; and to further repair these holy temples and place them under their historical and original plans the most fitting priests to whom we could entrust them (at least wherever the necessary satisfactory arrangements are possible) are Spanish priests, compatriots of their founders, this too would serve to continue and strengthen the old friendly relations between Spain and California, and as whatever Spanish priests would take charge of the missions, would be scholarly men speaking both English and Spanish, the English speaking congregations would be well served. About three of the old missions are under Spanish priests now. Let us then not cease our efforts until every mission cross gleams gloriously in the radiance of the California sun, until the devotional chimes of mission bells peal forth again from every silent belfry, until the altar light beams again before each tabernacle enclosing the Eucharistic Presence, until the empty niches contain again the images which decked them as of yore, until each tomb of sainted missionary is restored, until ma.s.s is again daily said within these consecrated walls, and finally until San Carlos of Carmelo is again a worthier Carmel, "for the greater honor and glory of G.o.d" and the praises of His Virgin Mother once more are sung about this smiling valley where the Christian Indian children gathered the beautiful wild flowers of the blooming meadows to adorn the hallowed shrines, ere chimed the Angelus at evenings mellow glow.

Chapter IX

Reverend Raymond M. Mestres of Monterey Writes Historical Drama--"Fray Junipero"

Beautiful among beautiful historical dramas is the mission play "Fray Junipero" written by Reverend Raymond Mestres, pastor of San Carlos Church (Capilla Real de San Carlos) of Monterey. Many men and women have undertaken to write about mission times, but we may safely a.s.sert that this good priest so una.s.suming in what he does, is above all qualified to handle this subject, being first of all a religious, a native of Barcelona, the Metropolis of the Province of Catalonia, which can claim Junipero Serra and so many of the early Spanish missionaries, explorers and settlers, and being too an artist and scholar in every way acquainted with the history of the missions, having made it a special study during his twenty-seven years of residence (as a priest) in four mission towns of California, twenty-one of which have been spent in that chief of mission towns, Monterey.

Unbiased, careful of detail and true to history, while not wanting in artistic setting "Fray Junipero" carries the audience in Act I back to the College of Fernando, when Junipero Serra received his commission to come to California as Father President of the Missionaries who were to christianize that "mysterious vineyard." Act II is a typical picture of California Indian Life. Act III depicts the landing of Serra and Portola on the sh.o.r.es of Monterey, the taking possession of the land in the name of King Carlos III and the celebration of Junipero Serra's first Ma.s.s in Monterey; all facts are taken from the archives preserved in San Carlos Church, consequently historically authentic. Act IV pictures a piquant fiesta scene with Spanish dancing, the scene being laid in the Carmel Valley on the occasion of the baptism of the first white child born in Monterey. This child was born of Spanish parents, Pasqual and Teresa Segura and in baptism received the name of Carlos. According to the records this baptism occurred in May 18, 1782, the ceremony being performed by Fray Junipero Serra just two years before his death.

With very slight changes in the names this incident is taken from the archives of San Carlos Mission. Act V represents Fray Junipero Serra receiving the last Sacraments, his death and the grief of the people.

In writing "Fray Junipero" Reverend Raymond Mestres intended it to commemorate the Bicentenary of our hero's birth, and was presented for the first time in Monterey on August 28th, 1913 by local talent. This will be an annual event at Monterey on the same date, August 28th, which is the anniversary of Fray Junipero Serra's death. In spite of poor advertis.e.m.e.nt the first production of this drama was a decided success.

It was intended to be played three nights, but by request a fourth night was added.

As this sketch goes to press, the rehearsing of the second year of the production of "Fray Junipero" begins with great improvement in the staging, and a greater promise of success as it is now much more widely known.

May an ancient Spanish Nativity Play for Christmastide, which Reverend Raymond Mestres intends to translate into English, and which contains glorious music, and a history of mission times, which this scholarly pastor of San Carlos Church has in store, soon delight Californians and California's yearly tide of tens of thousand visitors.

Appendix

Letter of Junipero Serra [7].

"Long live Jesus, Mary and Joseph!

"R. P. Fr. Miguel de Petra.

"My dearest nephew, brother and Sir.

"It was not for want of love that I did not answer some of your letters.

For it was not merely bodily that I left my beloved country. I could have been communicating with many persons by letters and friends, both in and outside our order, but, if our minds were constantly intent upon what we once left, what would be the use of leaving it?

"I wrote a long letter to your reverence after your religious profession. Besides, your reverence heard of me through the Padre Lector Verger, who is at present our guardian. I received your letter when I was among the Gentiles over three hundred leagues away from any Christian settlement. There is my life and there, I hope, G.o.d helping, to die. When this hour comes, some member of our province will take care to notify our brethren that they may pray for me, and then, your reverence will know it. What else does your reverence desire? Your reverence lives among saints, and, therefore I do not deem you in need of my advice and counsel, which indeed would be the only justifiable motive for my writing.

"Let us improve and make good use of our time, let us walk worthy of the vocation in which we were called, let us work out our spiritual salvation, with fear and trembling, and that of our brethren, with the most ardent charity and zeal, and let all glory be to our great G.o.d.

In connection with this, I took great pleasure in learning that your reverence was preaching a mission at Ivisa when Padre Commissary Verger pa.s.sed through there. The time given to this apostolic ministry with the blessing of your superiors, preaching in your words and deeds, hearing confessions with love and patience, I believe, will be the best and most fruitful you ever spent.

"Though a lukewarm, bad and an unprofitable servant, I remember every day in the Holy Sacrifice of the Ma.s.s, my only and most dear sister Juana, your mother, her children, and specially my Capuchin. I hope all of you do the same for me that the Lord may secure me from all dangers among these naked and barbarous peoples. Let this be our mutual correspondence, and let G.o.d do the rest.

"And that I may give your reverence some news of my destination, I beg your reverence to look on the maps of America. You will see in the sh.o.r.es of the South Sea, most improperly called Pacific, the Peninsula of California [Lower California]. I was there for a year in the capacity of President of the Missions already founded by the exiled Jesuit Fathers. Then followed north along the same coast and just a little before what is called Cabo Mendosino, you will find in some maps, the t.i.tle or name the Port of Monte Rey.

"There your uncle lives, among those poor people. There I went with the first Christians in 1770. There I sang the first Ma.s.s and there I have been in company with Fr. Juan Crespi until the latter part of August.

Then I left for this college in order to transact some very important business with the Most Excellent Lord Viceroy concerning the maintenance and increase of those Christian settlements and the establishment of those already proposed and planned, or that may be planned.

"Thanks to G.o.d, I have been kindly received and given close attention by His Excellency and he has granted me whatever I have asked of him; so, G.o.d helping, I hope for a quick and very extensive expansion and spreading of our Holy Faith and of the domains of our Catholic King.

"In addition to one Mission where we spread Christianity in California [Lower California] which I called San Fernando de Vellixata, there are five already founded in that far off land; Monterey which said Padre Crespi and I administer, San Antonio de Padua, twenty-five leagues distant, with Padre President, Fr. Miguel Pieras and Fr. Buenaventura Sitjar; that of San Luis Obispo, twenty-five leagues farther away, where I placed two religious members of the Province of Catalonia, Padre Juncosa and Padre Cavallier, that of San Gabriel, seventy leagues farther away towards California [Lower California], for which I appointed one father from the Province of Los Angeles and another from that of Andalucia; and finally that of San Diego, which is the nearest to California [Lower California] though over one hundred leagues distant, and I appointed as ministers Padre Fr. Francisco Dumetz and Padre Fr. Luis Jaume. They are all working with earnestness and abundant fruit in their respective fields of labor.

"When in 1769 I left California [Lower California], I appointed Padre Palou President of the Missions there and I have not seen him since; but now these missions, formerly in charge of the Fathers of the Society of Jesus, are being turned over to the Dominican Fathers. So said Padre Palou with others, will come to us in order to found the Missions of San Buenaventura, Santa Clara and San Francisco for which missions I have already there the ornaments, the sacred vessels, utensils and other necessary things.

"The number of Christians in those places, where the name of Jesus had never been spoken, though there are some in all the Missions, still up to the present, is not very great; because while we have been very busy building our poor houses, little churches, teaching some children to be interpreters, and providing other necessary things, our efforts could not equal our ardent desires.

"Now that things are going, and His Excellency has given, upon my request, various things of which we stood in the greatest need, I hope in G.o.d, we shall reap abundant fruits from our humble work. And I say that our work is so-so, such as it is, because, if I told you all we are doing, it might seem a great thing, when in reality, upon a closer view, it would seem very insignificant.

"In spite of the cold, which is very intense in California, the lack of victuals, the poverty of our houses, I have been enjoying very good health, thanks be to G.o.d! But this trip to Mexico has been very hard on me. From the hardships of the journey, I arrived in the City of Guadalajara burning with fever. I was so sick and in such danger that the last Sacraments were administered to me a few days after.

"As soon as the continual fever became intermittent, I continued my journey, and arrived in the city of Queretaro, again, so weak and sick, that fearing for my life, they administered to me the last Sacraments of the Church. Yet soon after I experienced a change for the better and finally I reached this Holy College on February 6th of this present year. I remained, however, for a long time exhausted, weak and without any ambition or appet.i.te.

"But now, blessed be G.o.d! I am restored and brought back to health, I am transacting the business for which I came, and feel ready to set out on my journey back to that vineyard of the Lord.