Month: April 2021

1874-1933

Monsignor O’Sullivan was born in Louisville, Kentucky, on March 19, 1874. As a boy he studied at Saint Xavier School in Louisville and later entered the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. He became a student for the priesthood for the Diocese of Louisville and studied at Saint Bernard Seminary in Rochester, New York. He was ordained in 1904.

Shortly after his ordination, doctors told him he suffered from tuberculosis and he would most likely be an invalid for the short part of his life that was left to him. Seeking a climate that would make is illness easier to bear he spent time in both Texas and Arizona. He met Father Quetu, who was taking care of the parishoners by saying Mass weekly for them, in Tucson, Arizona. Father Quetu suggested that perhaps the abandoned Mission might provide O’Sullivan with a limited ministry and be some consolation to the young priest.

O’Sullivan decided to visit San Juan Capistrano and, as he stepped off the train and walked the short distance to the Mission, he saw and fell in love with the magnificent ruins. “The place appealed to him: it was like himself, whose body was gone in decay”, wrote Henry Bedford-Jones. O’Sullivan was put in charge of the ruins of Mission San Juan Capistrano on July 5, 1910. He set up a makeshift tent among the arches in the corridor of the Serra Chapel because the old living quarters of Father Mut were filled with insects. He drew close to the villagers and Juanenos and learned much of the history of the Mission.

Father O’Sullivan began to dream. He knew what the Mission had been and he now dreamed of what it could be again. Not knowing when his life might suddenly be cut off, he labored only for the present. He began to store old tile, carvings, and other pieces of the Mission, believing that someone would come after him and complete the restoration of the Mission. O’Sullivan worked with his own hands, carving beams, plastering walls with adobe, using square nails to restore parts of the Mission. Slowly the Mission began to respond to his work and amazingly O’Sullivan’s health grew better each day.

Gathering the parishioners into a parish organization, in 1918 the Mission was given parochial status with Father O’Sullivan as its first modern pastor. Uppermost in the pastor’s mind was the restoration of the Serra Chapel. In 1922 this was accomplished and the beautiful reredo from Spain was installed behind the altar. A parish grade school was established in 1928 with the teaching Sisters of the Immaculate Conception from Ohio.

When Monsignor St. John O’Sullivan died in 1933 in the city of Orange, “Southern California lost a holy priest, a great man, and a high minded citizen.” His remains lie buried in the old Mission cemetery adjacent to the Serra Chapel.

* St. John O’Sullivan was his baptismal name. This does not infer that he was a canonized Saint. Many of Irish descent would use this form as a given name. However many Catholics felt this was improper to have the title St. or Saint in a given name and commonly would refer to him as “Sin-jin” instead of St. John.

1829 – 1917

Polonia Gutierrez, born in 1829, is the first recorded deed holder of the Montanez Adobe on Los Rios Street. Sometime before 1850, Polonia married a man by the name of Montanez and shortly thereafter became a widow. She married Francisco Canedo in 1853 and after his death in 1870; Polonia married Isadore Simard, a doctor.

Polonia lived in the Montanez Adobe for most of her married life and retained the deed to the land. Polonia was one of four midwives in the village and was also in charge of the religious education of the children when there was no priest at the Mission. It was during a terrible drought in 1890 when she and her little group of children are reported to have brought rain to San Juan Capistrano.

According to legend, Polonia instructed the children that if they would make a spiritual trek and pray, it would rain. The first day they made a trek to what is now Dana Point, but no rain came. The next day they made a trek up Trabuco Canyon, but still no rain came. The third day she and the children sang and prayed while walking south to Capistrano Beach. Polonia and the children prayed while on the beach and they saw clouds start to form and soon it began to rain. It rained so hard that the village sent three wagons to the beach to rescue Polonia and the children. The drought was broken.

Polonia died in 1917 in her late 80s.

1713 – 1784

Junipero Serra was born on November 24, 1713 to Antonio Serra and Margarita Ferrer, his wife, in the village of Petra on the Island of Mallorca off the east coast of Spain. He was baptized the same day at the Gothic Church, Saint Peter’s, and given the name Miguel Joseph. He attended classes at the Friary of San Bernardino in Petra but lived at the home of his parents. In 1730, Serra received the Franciscan habit in the Convento de Jesus in the city of Palma, capital of Mallorca. One year later he made his profession and took the name Junipero.

During the years 1731 and 1737, Serra continued to study philosophy and theology at the royal Friary of San Francisco at Lulana University in Palma. Serra preached in many towns of Mallorca before he journeyed to New Spain.

Early in 1749 Serra and his friend, Father Palou, decided they wanted to become missionaries and together applied for permission to serve in this field. Many weeks went by without a reply to their request. On Palm Sunday 1749, Father Palou received word from the father Commissioner General of the Indies that they had been accepted. Palou quickly made his way to Petra, informing Serra of the decision. At the age of 35, Serra left Mallorca with his friend, Father Palou, headed for Mexico and his new responsibilities.

In Mexico Serra worked diligently to convert the Indians to Christianity. As Father President of Franciscans, his missions in Northern Mexico became models of the mission system. Father Serra founded his first mission in Alta California, Mission San Diego in 1769. In 1776 he founded Mission San Juan Capistrano as the seventh in a chain of 21. The Serra Chapel at this mission is the only remaining church in California in which Father Serra is known to have celebrated Mass. Father Serra died in 1784 and is buried at Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo near Monterey. California. Today the Catholic Church is going through the lengthy process of establishing sainthood for Father Junipero Serra and he was given the title of “Blessed” in preparation.

Our historic and wonderful old Mission was named for an Italian Saint, John Capistran, but since this was a Spanish Mission they used the Spanish version, San Juan Capistrano. He was born about 1385 in Capestrano in the Kingdom of Naples which is now part of Italy. As our community grew around the Mission it became known by the Mission’s name as well. St. John led a rather interesting life in nobility, as a governor, fervent priest and military leader.

He was born in nobility but his father died early and his devoted mother taught him primarily Latin then sent him off to attend the University of Perugia. Here he studied civil and canon law with great success. He married the daughter of a prominent citizen in 1412 and King Ladislaus of Naples appointed him Governor of Perugia. John zealously eradicated corruption and bribery but there was a family, the Malatesta, who controlled several cities and had many dissenters. John was selected to bring about peace. For his efforts the Malatestas cast him into prison. His treatment was bad, the King had abandoned him, and he meditated about the unfairness of all earthly things. After he was released he made a decision to join the religious orders. Either his wife had died or he received special dispensation to join the Franciscan Order. He studied theology and was ordained in 1425. Before he was accepted in the Franciscan monastery, the Superior ordered him to solemnly renounce the vanities of the world. John rode through Perugia mounted backwards on a donkey, wearing a paper miter on which his greatest sins were listed.

Fr. John traveled all over Italy and incessantly toiled for the salvation of souls. He became so popular that great crowds would gather to hear him speak. They would even erect pulpits in their city plazas and stop all traffic to accommodate him. At one time two Friars were accused of heresy. They were brought to Rome for trial and Fr. John was appointed their spokesman. So successful was his defense, that they were acquitted.

Fr. John was one of those ascetic priests that not only accepted the Franciscan rules of poverty but also mortification of the flesh. He ate only once a day and rarely any meat. He slept on boards and rested only 3 to 4 hours at night. He also celebrated mass everyday with intense fervor. His sermons quite often preached against frivolous fashions and amusements of time and against ladies’ great quantity of hair, perfumes, and superfluous fineries. Also cards, dice, and similar things abounding in idle society he railed against. He had made a great bonfire of all these useless and unworthy items and did this in many cities of Europe to demonstrate the uselessness of it all.

The Popes called upon Fr. John frequently for various commissions as a papal legate to Kingdoms throughout Europe. After Mahomet II captured Constantinople in 1453, he was so flushed with victory that he wanted to rule Christendom. He began an invasion of Hungary with his hordes. By this time many in Europe considered Fr. John a saint and Pope Calixtus III summoned him to raise a crusade against the Turks. The Turks were at the gates to Belgrade and its king fled. The governor of Hungary strongly urged Fr. John to come to his aid against Mahomet. Armed with only a crucifix and a banner with the initials of the Holy Name, I.H.S., Fr. John led a wing of the Christian army. His speech strongly persuaded the despairing army to conquer the enemy or die as martyrs. This so aroused his army over the superior forces that Mahomet’s hordes fled in wild confusion. “The Cross had triumphed over the Crescent.”

The stresses of his most active and austere life and the exhaustion of the war, weakened him and he was seized by a fever and other ailments. In his dying moments he lay on the bare floor and passed away in 1456 at the age of seventy-one. After the usual research on his past and miracles attributed to him he was canonized a Saint by Pope Benedict XIII in 1724.

An interesting praise by former Pope Pius II who knew him, wrote that “He was short of stature, already old, desiccated, thin, shrunken, having nothing but skin on his bones, he was always gay and indefatigable. Every day he preaches before twenty and even thirty thousand persons, clarifying the thorniest problems, pleasing the simple as much as the learned. He pronounces his discourses in Latin and an interpreter translates.”