Soon after, the venerable Serra was overtaken by
his last illness and went to his reward before November, the
twenty-fourth. But every year on the eve of the feast of Saint Charles
just before midnight a ghostly procession wended its way to San Carlos
Mission, for all the missionaries, Spaniards, or their descendants who
had ever lived in California would arise from their graves and with them
all the Christian Indians of the mission towns joined the "ghostly
throng" to San Carlos where Junipero Serra would arise from his tomb and
celebrate mass while the spirits sang their ancient hymns, after which
all the scene vanished like silver fumes of smoke, and this continued
for one hundred years. This most unlikely legend has been told in
beautiful Spanish and English poetry, and for all its unlikelihood has
found its way with its weird charm into many homes.
A True Story
Somewhere in the eighteen fifties a non-catholic of very irreligious
character, made targets of the eyes of a statue of Saint Benedict,
belonging to San Carlos Mission, taking advantage of the neglected
condition of the place at the time.
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