M. on August
28, 1784, according to the entry of Father Francisco Palou, in the
archives of San Carlos Mission, preserved in San Carlos Church of
Monterey. And what a day this was! The archives here are full of
touching detail. Solemn salutes were fired from the ships stationed in
the Harbor of Monterey, and the grief of the people was inexpressible.
The Indians were inconsolable. The officers of the Royal Navy claimed
his sandals as a precious keepsake, and the Fathers could not restrain
the people from cutting pieces of his habit to carry away as souvenirs;
the Indians claimed his Franciscan cord and many cut locks of his silver
hair; his corpse had to be dressed twice on account of this pious
proceeding. In a plain redwood coffin his precious remains were laid in
a vault "on the gospel side of the altar within the sanctuary of San
Carlos Mission." O! holy grave, how many changes thou hast seen! O happy
Serra, from the dazzling splendors of God's light how often thou must
have prayed for thy work, thy people, thy neophytes! In God's
inscrutable Providence the good are ofttimes permitted to suffer, but
the same All Wise Hand can brush away with a single stroke, the wrong
done to His own, and His time seems near!
We will now resume the story of the foundation of the missions, for we
really stopped at the ninth.
Pages:
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46