Father Junipero Serra, the Spanish Franciscan priest who founded the first missions in California was from Mallorca. The interior where Serra was from has changed little and was dry farmed with what little rain falls. This arid island was fertile ground for the Catholic Church and the Spanish Mission Movement that helped the Spanish Empire control and use the labor of the indigenous people of the new world. A disproportionate number of missionaries came from Mallorca. The missionaries desire to bring salvation to as many non-Christians as they could proved to be instrumental in generating a workforce to enrich the Empire. Novitiates studied the lives of saints and learned of their heroic work converting the heathens of the world. Serra was inspired by several saints in particular; St. Xavier in India and St. Francis Solano in Peru. St. Francis of Assisi was profoundly significant for Serra with his message of humble simplicity and caring for those in need. Deeply reverent and passionately persuasive, he became a sought after speaker from the pulpit throughout Mallorca. The oratorical style of his day was extremely dramatic; chest beating, flaming torches applied to bare skin and scourging the back with whips; endurance of pain and shedding of blood demonstrated piety. Serra was a scholar who held esteemed positions at Llullian University and Palma Cathedral and was highly regarded as an intellectual. At age 36 he answered a call for missionaries to New Spain and he and his friend and former student Fr. Palou received permission to sail to Mexico City and enroll in the Missionary College of San Francisco to learn the Franciscan style of missions. He spent one of his last days in Mallorca at the hilltop shrine of Santuaria de Cura where there is today a monastery and guesthouse.

Video providers : , and this video is stored with all copyright by