The California Frontier Project

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The Levitating Cross at Monterey and the Beginnings of California

By Damian Bacich

The California frontier is full of reports of the marvelous or miraculous events that defy scientific explanation. Historian Skyler Reidy has been investigating curious stories of the mission era, and he helps us make sense of them. Skyler Reidy Skyler Reidy is a PhD candidate in the history department at the University of Southern California. […]

Filed Under: Podcast Episodes, Spanish Missions Tagged With: Crespí, Junipero Serra, Mission San Antonio de Padua, Monterey, Portolá

Junípero Serra’s Mallorca: Where it All Began

By Damian Bacich

Filed Under: Catholicism, Franciscans, Junipero Serra Tagged With: Junipero Serra, Mallorca, Petra

Serra Statues: Don’t Tear Down, Build Up

By Damian Bacich

  Junípero Serra’s statues are being defaced. Government institutions are seeking to remove his name from public monuments. All in the name of justice. Is there a better way forward?

Filed Under: Junipero Serra Tagged With: Franciscans, Junipero Serra, Native Americans, spanish missions, vandalism

California Mission Founders: Names, Dates and Bios

By Damian Bacich

California Mission Founders

People often ask who founded the Spanish missions in California. And while Fr. Junípero Serra and Fr. Fermín Francisco de Lasuén are rightly credited as the main mission founders, several other missionaries were involved in establishing missions in California.

Filed Under: Catholicism, Franciscans, Spanish Missions Tagged With: Estevan Tapis, Fermín Francisco de Lasuén, José Altimira, Junipero Serra, Luis Gil y Taboada, mission founders, Narciso Durán, Pedro Benito Cambón, Vicente Francisco de Sarría

Exploration and Settlement of California (Part 2 of 2)

By Damian Bacich

Juan Bautista de Anza

For most of the 17th and 18th centuries, Spanish ships dominated the Pacific. But her rivals Russia and England were busy contesting that dominance. Who would be the first to settle California?

Filed Under: Early Land and Sea Routes, European Settlements, Spanish Exploration and Colonization Tagged With: Anza, Bering, Cook, Gálvez, Junipero Serra, Portolá

The Seven Steps to Sainthood for Junipero Serra

By Damian Bacich

When Pope Francis announced that he was going to declare sainthood for Junipero Serra during a flight to Manila in January 2015, some people took it as an impromptu decision. And while the announcement might have been made on the spur of the moment, the process that led to it was anything but. When the Catholic Church declares […]

Filed Under: Catholicism, Franciscans, Junipero Serra Tagged With: Junipero Serra

Who Was Junípero Serra?

By Damian Bacich

Junípero Serra was a Spanish priest who established the a series of missions among the native peoples of what is today California. He is considered by many to be the founding father of California and is recognized as a saint by the Catholic Church.

Filed Under: FAQs, Junipero Serra, Spanish Missions Tagged With: Junipero Serra

I’m Dr. Damian Bacich, and I started the California Frontier Project. Learn more about me and the project here.

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