Many men and women have
undertaken to write about mission times, but we may safely assert that
this good priest so unassuming 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 shores of Monterey, the taking possession of the land in the name
of King Carlos III and the celebration of Junipero Serra's first Mass in
Monterey; all facts are taken from the archives preserved in San Carlos
Church, consequently historically authentic.
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