CSF July 2025

PUBLISHER

Souls of SF: SF history etched into mission

Traditions: Guadalupe Mass: A beloved

Founded in faith:

of San Francisco’: Authors of historical book reflect on the local Catholic

Imitation & intercession: St. Francis and the Archdiocese of San Francisco

Revered worldwide: 800th anniversary of the death of St. Francis of Assisi, patron of San Francisco

My patron saint: St. Francis of Assisi: How he impacted my life

Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone

CSF MAGAZINE

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD

Fr. Patrick Summerhays

Vicar General & Moderator of the Curia

Peter Marlow (415) 614-5636 Communications

Ryan Mayer, Catholic Identity Assessment & Formation

Valerie Schmalz, Human Life & Dignity

Rod Linhares, Mission Advancement

Mary Powers (415) 614-5638 Communications

LEAD WRITER

Christina Gray

California’s patron saint: Spiritual father of America

Changemaker: Father Peter Yorke’s legacy continues 100 years after his death

Special events: Join us & celebrate!

WRITER Francisco Valdez

PRODUCTION MANAGER / DESIGN SPECIALIST

Karessa McCartneyKavanaugh

PRODUCTION ASSISTANT Joel Carrico

BUSINESS MANAGER Chandra Kirtman

ADVERTISING Phillip Monares (415) 614-5644

CIRCULATION

Diana Powell (415) 614-5576

COPY EDITOR Nancy O’Brien

Cover photos by Francisco Valdez

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Catholic San Francisco ISSN 15255298/PE 17934 is published 8 times yearly by the Archdiocese of San Francisco, at One Peter Yorke Way, San Francisco CA 94109, $35 a year anywhere in the United States. Periodicals postage paid at Burlingame CA 94010-9997 and additional mailing offices. Printed by Publication Printers Corp in Denver Colorado. POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to Catholic San Francisco, Circulation, One Peter Yorke Way, San Francisco, CA 94109

We have much to celebrate!

On July 4, 1776, American leaders gathered in Philadelphia to sign the Declaration of Independence, which firmly rooted our human rights in what we Catholics call the “natural law,” as a gift from our Creator and not from our government: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

It was a great moment of grace and as a country we rightly celebrate next year as America’s 250th birthday. But did you know that just a few days before this momentous event on the East Coast, something remarkable was also happening on the West Coast?

of the local culture into a distinctly recognizable sacred pattern, that they and the other mission builders gave to America a style of Southwestern architecture that has enriched the lives of millions. Many of the descendants of these Ohlone builders, spiritual sons and daughters of St. Junipero Serra, still worship at Mission Dolores. One of them is Mission Dolores museum curator Andrew Galvan whose great-great-greatgreat-grandparents Faustino and Obulinda were California Indians who were baptized in the mission in 1794 and 1802, respectively, and who are buried in the mission cemetery.

Native Americans in California endured grave human rights abuses during all three eras: the Spanish colonization (known as the Mission era), the Mexican secularization and the American era. But St. Junipero Serra should not bear the weight

Many of the descendants of these Ohlone builders, spiritual sons and daughters of St. Junipero Serra, still worship at Mission Dolores.”

On June 29, 1776, St. Junipero Serra and his Franciscan brothers celebrated the very first Mass on the soil of what is now one of America’s and the world’s great cities: San Francisco, bringing the body and blood of Christ Himself to the Bay Area. Fray Francisco Palou was the principal celebrant of that Mass with St. Junipero Serra present.

And did you know that on Oct. 9, 1776, Mission Dolores was dedicated? Its proper name? Misión San Francisco de Asís. The year 2026 is thus not only the 250th anniversary of the United States and of the founding of Mission Dolores, it is the 250th birthday of the founding of the city of San Francisco.

The existing small adobe church of Mission Dolores was built by the Ohlone Indians who came to Christ through the mission work of St. Junipero Serra and his Franciscan brothers.

The Ohlone craftsmen built so well and so sturdily that Mission Dolores largely survived the Great Quake, becoming the oldest building in San Francisco and the oldest intact church nave in all of California.

of all that went wrong and all who did wrong. If we looked at him with clear eyes, we would see Serra as one of the first American champions of the human rights of Indigenous peoples.

St. Junipero Serra defended Indigenous people’s humanity, decried the abuse of Indigenous women by Spanish soldiers, and argued against imposing the death penalty on California Indians who had burned down a mission and murdered one of his friends. At age 60, ill and with a chronically sore leg, Serra walked 2,000 miles to Mexico City to demand that authorities adopt a Native bill of rights he had written. As Pope Francis said when he canonized him in 2015, Serra is not only the country’s first Hispanic saint but should be considered “one of the founding fathers of the United States.”

It was the Mexican government that took over the missions, took them away from the Indigenous peoples they were meant to benefit and gave them to politically favored groups. The genocide of Native peoples happened primarily during the Gold Rush, when as Santa Clara University historian Robert Senkewicz told the National Catholic Reporter, “Americans offered › ARCHBISHOP

They built so beautifully, lifting up elements

St. Junipero Serra truly is the apostle and founding father of California.”

A stone statue of St. Junipero Serra by artist Arthur Putnam is seen in the cemetery and garden at Mission San Francisco de Asís, also known as Old Mission Dolores, in San Francisco.

bounties for Indian scalps and the Native peoples of Northern California were brutally decimated and oppressed.”

In 1879, 45 years after the missions were secularized by the Mexican government and the Indians driven out, the great American author Robert Louis Stevenson visited the Carmel Mission on the feast day of the mission and wrote: “Padre Casanove will, I am sure, be the first to pardon and understand me when I say the old Gregorian singing preached a sermon more eloquent than his own. … An Indian, stone blind at about 80 years of age, conducts the singing. Other Indians compose the choir. Yet they have the Gregorian music at their finger ends and pronounce the Latin so correctly that I could follow the meaning as they sang. I have never seen faces more vividly lit up with joy than the faces of those Indian singers.”

These spiritual sons and daughters of St. Junipero Serra held onto their Catholic faith.

So, in 2026, we have a lot to celebrate and big plans for doing so, including the opening of new and improved museum exhibits at Mission Dolores in June, a thanksgiving service for civic leaders, and the celebration on Oct. 10 at the Basilica of Mission Dolores of Frank La Rocca’s great composition commissioned through the Benedict XVI Institute, the “Missa Sancti Juniperi Serra.”

Oct. 3, 2026, is also the 800th anniversary of the “transitus” (passing to the Lord) of St. Francis of Assisi, with ceremonies at the National Shrine to St. Francis in North Beach. The shrine has the only authorized replica of the Porziuncola, the fourth-century chapel to Our Lady of Angels

that St. Francis chose as the mother church of the order he founded, which was also the place of his death.

Planning is underway among archdiocesan Catholic schools to visit these local historical Catholic sites, and some schools may be initiating student essay contests to build awareness and appreciation for Mission Dolores and to honor the special anniversary of St. Francis of Assisi. Please see page 56 for a list of all the events planned for these milestone celebrations.

Let us plan during the 250th anniversary of the founding of Mission Dolores to learn more, to pray more and to celebrate more the legacy of St. Junipero Serra and his sons and daughters in Christ among the Ohlone Indians.

St. Junipero Serra truly is the apostle and founding father of California. We are not yet a nation that lives up to our noble founding creed in the Declaration of Independence of liberty and justice for all. We can and must do better. That is precisely why we ought to look to Serra as an inspiration to heroic virtue and as an emblem of American diversity. His is the path to peace, equality and racial justice.

Father Junípero Serra died a beloved figure, mourned by Indigenous people and Spaniards alike as a symbol of reconciliation, of hope and of the profound love he bore toward the people he strove to serve. His life reminds us of a core tenet of the Catholic faith, that the spirit of poverty, service and simplicity is the way to peace. St. Junipero Serra came not to serve silver or gold, which he did not have, but to give the best gift of all: Jesus Christ and His saving good news. ■

Portrait heads of Indians of California by Louis Choris.

• Better known as Mission Dolores from its location on inlet Laguna de Nuestra Señora de Los Dolores (The Lagoon of Our Lady of Sorrows), the site for the 6th Alta California Mission was selected June 26, 1776 by Padre Francisco Palou.

• Named for St. Francis of Assisi, the formal opening of the Mission was October 9th. On this day the Bay was also given its name in honor of the founder of the Franciscan Order.

• Surviving the 1906 earthquake, the Mission remains the oldest building in San Francisco and looks much the same as it did at completion in 1791.

• In commemoration of the 250th Anniversary of the foundation of the Mission, make plans to visit the Old Mission, Museum, Basilica and Cemetery. Museum exhibits will detail the story of the Ohlone Indians and the Franciscan Padres from time immemorial.

• SPECIAL EXHIBITION Opens: May 2026 to October 2026

• Guided tours available. Contact Museum Curator, Andrew Galvan, chochenyo@aol.com, to schedule.

• For more information and updates, visit our website, www.missiondolores.org, or contact the Parish Office, 415-621-8203.

Bay Area Catholic Quiz

How well do you know local Catholic history and our patron saint?

There are no trick questions, but there are questions that will trip you up if you fail to read carefully. An answer is counted as wrong if any part of it is wrong. Your goal is not to find the answer that is least wrong but the one answer that is wholly correct, which may be “none of the above.”

1. Why was Misión San Francisco de Asís renamed Mission Dolores?

a. Spanish explorer Juan Cabrillo had concluded that the area of San Francisco and California was a wasteland of little value because there was no gold or a waterway to the Atlantic Ocean, marking the mission with the moniker “Dolores” (pains in Spanish).

b. It was renamed Mission Dolores because it was the first mission to have a cemetery in California.

c. The land surrounding the mission had very few natural resources, making it hard for those in the mission area to survive. Fray Francisco Palou, the principal celebrant of the first Mass at the mission, renamed it Mission Dolores due to these hardships.

d. Misión San Francisco de Asís later became known as Mission Dolores because it was established near a creek named Laguna de los Dolores. The Spanish first surveyed the area on the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, making the name change stick.

e. none of the above

2. Why is St. Francis of Assisi the patron saint of our Archdiocese and of San Francisco?

a. The Archdiocese of San Francisco was established in 1853 on the feast of St. Francis.

b. St. Junípero Serra asked the Spanish magistrate, José de Gálvez, to name the mission in San Francisco after St. Francis.

c. José Joaquin Moraga, second in command of the de Anza expedition of 1776, requested that the mission be named after St. Francis, to whom he had a personal devotion.

d. Fray Francisco Palou, the principal celebrant of the first Mass on the soil of what is now San Francisco on July 29, 1776, wanted to name the mission after St. Francis because they shared the same name.

e. none of the above

3. Which of the following is correct about Mission Dolores?

a. The Native Americans taught the Franciscan padres to make adobe bricks and clay roof tiles, which they would use to build the mission.

b. Mission Dolores was the first mission established in 1769.

c. It is the oldest building in San Francisco, dedicated Aug. 2, 1791.

d. The church was decorated by Spanish artists who combined Native and Spanish motifs.

e. none of the above

Photo by Francisco Valdez

4. Which of the following is correct about Mission Dolores Basilica?

a. It survived the 1906 earthquake.

b. The church that would later be designated as Mission Dolores Basilica had to be rebuilt following the 1906 earthquake and was completed in 1918.

c. Pope John XXIII designated the church a basilica, an honorary church of the Pope.

d. It became the first minor basilica west of the Mississippi River and the fourth in the United States.

e. none of the above

5. Which of the following is incorrect about Mission Dolores cemetery?

a. The fictional Carlotta Valdes of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” was cinematically buried there.

b. William Alexander Leidesdorff, San Francisco’s first U.S. diplomat of African American descent and president of the first California public school, is one of only three people entombed in the floor of the Old Mission, rather than in the cemetery.

c. Officially known as the San Francisco de Asís cemetery, it is the oldest cemetery in San Francisco.

d. Notorious gambler Charles Cora, a victim of the San Francisco Vigilance Committee who shot down U.S. Marshal William Richardson, is buried there along with his wife Belle, a former prostitute.

e. none of the above

THIS QR CODE FOR COMPREHENSIVE ANSWERS or visit https://sfarchdiocese. org/july-2025-catholic-quiz/

Photo by Francisco Valdez

The mission and the city

MBY CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO

ission Dolores is the cradle of the Catholic faith in San Francisco, but it also holds an important place in the broader life of the city. San Francisco landmark No. 1? Mission Dolores. The key to the city? Modeled after the key to the mission. The birthday of San Francisco? June 29, 1776, the day the first Mass was celebrated near the site of the future mission. (In recent years “415 Day” has been instituted to commemorate the incorporation of the city of San Francisco on April 15, 1850, a latecomer to the birthday party.)

The relationship between the mission and the city has been rich, complex and at times contentious. We will explore what this building has meant to the society that has surrounded it for 250 years. The mission has functioned under three flags: Spanish, Mexican and American. In this article we will look at Mission Dolores in the Spanish era.

The relationship between the mission and the city has been rich, complex and at times contentious.”

How did our mission get here in the first place? It began as an outpost of empire. In the late 18th century, the rulers of Spain were nervous because Russian fur traders were making their way down the west coast of America. In response, the Spanish crown decreed that a series of communities be established in Alta California. These would have three components: military garrisons, towns populated by settlers from Mexico and missions to evangelize the Native peoples. The first of these outposts (San Diego) was

established in 1769, the last (San Francisco Solano in Sonoma) in 1823.

The missions of Alta California were entrusted to the Franciscan order under the leadership of St. Junípero Serra. Naturally, the sons of St. Francis wanted to name one of the missions after their founder. The inspector general of New Spain, Don José Galvez, told Father Serra, “If St. Francis desires a mission, tell him to find us a harbor.” This was an early instance of “the Pacific Rim:” The Spanish wanted a port to connect this new territory with Mexico, the Philippines and China. The Poverello delivered in a big way: in 1760, an overland expedition led by Don Gaspar de Portolá set eyes on the future San Francisco Bay, one the greatest natural harbors in the world. For 200 years, Spanish, Portuguese and English ships had sailed past the narrow Golden Gate, not seeing it or suspecting what lay beyond it. Galvez had his port, and St. Francis had his mission!

The original settlement consisted of the Presidio guarding the Golden Gate and, a few miles away, the Mission of St. Francis near a body of water called “Laguna de los Dolores.” In the 1830s, the third component was added: a small town on the bay called Yerba Buena. These three centers — military, religious and civic — carried out related but distinct functions, and much of the light and shadow of the mission enterprise in California arises from this complex situation.

The missions were not solely religious sites: they were centers of agriculture, ranching, manufacturing, music and art. The only surviving building at Mission Dolores is the church. To get an idea of what the mission was like in its heyday, visit Mission La Purísima Concepción near Lompoc. This state park has re-created a complete mission complex. The original missions were isolated villages, ›

1906

The mission church, made with primitive materials by Native American neophytes, survives the great San Francisco 1906 earthquake. The newer and larger church made of brick does not. The mission church is the oldest intact building in San Francisco, as well as the oldest intact mission of the 21 California missions.

1912

A temporary Gothic-style church is built quickly to replace the fallen parish church.

1918

The distinctive Mission Dolores basilica is completed in time for Christmas Day Mass. Pope Pius XII designated the church a basilica, an honorary church of the Pope. The Basilica is an example of the elaborate architectural style and roccocò ornamentation of Spanish architect José Benito de Churriguera.

SESTERCENTENNIAL!

The St. Patrick’s community joins the Archdiocese of San Francisco celebrating the 250th anniversary of the founding of the City of San Francisco and Mission Dolores.

TODAY

Mission Dolores celebrates its 250th anniversary in 2026. Both the Old Mission and the Mission Dolores Basilica at the corner of 16th Avenue and Dolores Street continue to be used by the parish.

The Ohlone Indians of San Francisco

BY ANDREW GALVAN Curator, Old Mission Dolores

Before the Spanish set foot in the San Francisco Peninsula to select the future site for Misión San Francisco de Asís, numerous tribes descended from Penutian-speaking migrants had settled the land for thousands of years. The landscape of the San Francisco Bay region was comprised of small tribal territories, approximately eight to 12 miles in diameter and populated with about 200 to 400 individuals. The tribes were associations of families who worked in unison to harvest the numerous plant and animal resources that occupied a fixed territory. Ethno-historian Randall Milliken called them “independent, landholding religious congregations.” All of California was populated with these tiny tribes due to the abundant resources that were available throughout the state.

THE OHLONE INDIANS

The Ohlones, who spoke the dialects of Raymatush (today’s San Francisco and San Mateo counties), Chochenyo (modern Alameda and Contra Costa counties) and Tamien (modern Santa Clara County), occupied strategic spots with respect to other tribes of the Bay Area and were instrumental in regional trade. They brought coastal shells to the East Bay and moved obsidian from the north across the bay and down the peninsula. The tribelets of the Bay Area were dependent on complex interrelationships that helped to maintain their survival. These alliances were initiated through intertribal marriages and maintained with extensive rituals, including gift giving, large feasts and hosted dances. These customs were also used as conflict resolution mechanisms and gave those who intermarried higher positions in regional affairs.

The importance in understanding the network of Ohlone tribal groups throughout the Bay Area illuminates the need to understand what kind of environment existed at this location. Each tribe spoke its own dialect, or a variant of that dialect, of a particular language group. In the case of the Misión San

Francisco de Asís area, the local language was a dialect of the Ohlonean language group called Raymatush. A neighboring tribelet, 20 miles to the northeast, spoke a dialect of the completely different Miwok language group. As was often the case in the San Francisco Bay region, most members of a local tribe were also conversant in neighboring dialects. It seems that the inhabitants of the San Francisco Peninsula were bilingual.

The Ohlones situated their permanent villages on high ground above the seasonal saltwater marshes that were inundated by high water for a few months of the year. Access to fresh drinking water was a criterion for selecting a village location. Dome-shaped houses were thatched with tule, grass, wild alfalfa, ferns or reeds and used willow withes (cords) to tie the thatch to a frame of poles, leaving open a rectangular doorway; a fireplace was set in the center. Inhabitants burned their houses when they became flea-infested. The Ohlones also built sweathouses by digging a pit into a stream bank and building the framework against the bank. Village structures also included circular or oval dance areas enclosed by a fence woven of brush or laurel branches. The Roundhouse, a large domed assembly house, was built in the center of the community; it served as a place of worship, as a schoolhouse and as the community’s civic center.

SOURCES OF FOOD

The Ohlones’ subsistence pattern was based on hunting and gathering rather than permanent agricultural villages. The permanent marshes of the area nurtured a variety of aquatic and riparian vegetation and waterfowl while the grass-covered oak woodland of the coastal range supported herds of deer, elk and smaller mammals.

Waterfowl lured by decoys of tule or stuffed bird skins were trapped in nets. Canada geese, snow geese, whitefronted geese, American widgeons, pintails, mallards, green-winged teals, shovelers and American coots were among the waterfowl consumed. Hunters used bolas and traps to catch birds, such as mourning dove, robin, California quail and hawks.

elk and antelope. Hunters stalked black-tailed deer and caught Roosevelt elk, antelope, grizzly bears and mountain lions. Ohlones ate cottontails, brush rabbits and jackrabbits and they organized communal rabbit hunts. They burned woodrat nests and smoked ground squirrels from their burrows. Other animals captured for food included dogs, wildcats, skunks, raccoons, mice and moles.

OHLONE CLOTHING

Due to ideal weather conditions, daily clothing was simple. Women wore two skirts tied together. The front skirt came just below the knees and the back skirt hung longer. The front skirt was made of tule grass or shredded bark, while the back one was made of tanned deerskin. Women wore no shirt, but when the weather was cold, they wore a rabbit-skin cape. They wore necklaces of shell beads and long shell earrings, which touched the shoulders.

Among the Ohlone, the women were the only ones who tattooed their faces with lines and dots on chins and foreheads. The hair was simply worn long, covering the neck in the back, with bangs across the forehead. Daily dress for a woman included a tule skirt, necklaces and earrings. But when engaged in collecting seeds they wore an abalone necklace; it was believed to be a protection against rattlesnakes.

Ohlones danced for many reasons, all having to do with something of importance in their lives: birth of a child, reaching puberty, thanksgiving, war, a deceased, plentiful harvest of fish or acorns, capturing a black bear, or for a woman being consecrated into the priesthood, etc.”

Ohlone men often wore little or no clothing at all, but their grooming included a variety of hairstyles. Some men had short hair. Others wore milkweed hair nets or tied their hair in a topknot; many men had beards and mustaches, but they did not wear tattoos. Men liked to wear ornaments. Their noses were pierced with holes and long wooden or bone plugs were put into them. They also wore necklaces made of long strings of clamshell disk beads. Important men, such as tribal leaders and shamans, wore numerous necklaces.

When the weather was cold, both men and women wore fur capes over their shoulders to keep warm. These were made of animal skins cut into strips and woven together so that both sides of the cape were warm and furry. Capes were also used as blankets on cold nights. Most of the blankets were made of rabbit skins. One

Emile J. Maionchi, Jr., Proprietor

hundred rabbit skins were needed to make a single blanket. Deer, wildcat and other animal hides were used for blankets. The more luxurious blankets were made from sea otter skins and were probably reserved for the wealthy.

Religious ceremonial clothes were important. Both men and women wore elaborate feather headdresses, kilts and capes for dances. The towering headdresses were woven of reeds and grasses, and decorated with feathers and shells. Sometimes hundreds of birds were needed to make a single headdress. Dancers could also wear kilts of feathers or woven fur with longer panels in back. They also painted designs on their bodies and legs with black, red and white stripes, or half black and half red. Their faces were decorated to make their eyes look bigger and darker. Capes of duck and goose feathers and woven skins of sea otter, deer and rabbit were sometimes worn for ceremonial purposes. Such regalia represented spirits and held deep religious meaning.

OHLONE CEREMONY AND HEALTH PRACTICES

Religion and ceremony played important roles in life and death. Ohlones observed rituals at important life events, such as birth, puberty and death. Ohlones danced for many reasons, all having to do with something of importance in their lives: birth of a child, reaching puberty, thanksgiving, war, a deceased, plentiful ›

Muwekma Ohlone Indian dancers at Mission Jose in Fremont, California. Rezanov/Langsdorff expedition, circa 1806.

The beauty of the Ohlone culture comes from how much they were able to yield from the natural environment that immediately surrounded them.” Indians, working the missions of the Spanish settlers of the Americas.

harvest of fish or acorns, capturing a black bear, or for a woman being consecrated into the priesthood, etc.

There were separate degrees of medical knowledge, practice and roles available to individuals. In general, many illnesses were believed to be caused by conscious intervention of other beings. Illness might be caused by a human enemy using supernatural power or by the spirit of some object or place that had been offended. This type of illness called for a specialized form of doctoring only available from a shaman.

Many Ohlone believed that their shamans were able to diagnose and cure disease through power that came to them from a guardian spirit that appeared during a trance or vision. Curing ceremonies used a combination of physical, psychosomatic and spiritual aids, singing, herbal medicine and massage. Medicine tubes were used to suck out the foreign object thought to be causing the sickness. Many plants could be used to treat different illnesses. Common yarrow, California hedge nettle and California rose were used for treating colds and fevers. California poppy, California bay laurel and willow were used to cure headaches. The major ingredient found

in willow, salicylic acid, is today’s aspirin. California bay laurel, Douglas fir and soap plants could be used to treat people suffering from rheumatism and arthritis. A liquid made from the bark of either madrone or roasted soap plant bulbs was used to relieve itching and reduce the swelling caused by poison oak. The soap plant was also a source for soap and shampoo as well as being a food resource.

Acorns were also used as medicine. In some areas of California, acorn meal was tightly covered so that a mold could form into an early form of penicillin. When the layer of mold was strong enough to be pulled, it was rolled into sheets that were then stored for later use in treating sores, boils and inflammations.

Ohlone people maintained good health because of their very nutritious lifestyle and personal cleanliness. In order to maintain clean living quarters, tule-rush houses were burned when they became infested with insects. Several types of leaves were used to freshen the air and were also used as an insect repellent.

The beauty of the Ohlone culture comes from how much they were able to yield from the natural environment that immediately surrounded them. The Ohlone diet was extremely diverse and there was never any record of starvation, nor any mention of it in their oral tradition. ■

SCAN HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE OHLONE INDIANS by visiting a new 250th anniversary exhibit at Mission Dolores Basilica or visit www.missiondolores.org.

Introduction to the mission era

BY ROBERT SENKEWICZ Professor emeritus of history Santa Clara University

Mission San Francisco de Asís was founded in October 1776 as the sixth Alta California mission.

The New World mission system had been initiated in the early 1500s, as clerics such as Bartolomé de las Casas sought to create spaces to protect Native Americans from the cruelty of the early conquistadores, who, in their quest to discover rich deposits of gold and silver in the New World, were literally working the Natives to death. Over time, missions became a regular part of Spanish colonial expansion. They became places that sought to turn Native American inhabitants into potential members of Spanish society in two ways: (a) by teaching them Spanish-style agriculture and ranching and (b) by converting them to Catholicism.

Missionaries and political/military leaders often differed on the relative importance of teaching the Natives agriculture and teaching them religion. Missionaries often criticized Alta California civil and military personnel and institutions for not sufficiently supporting their religious efforts. Conversely, the missionaries were criticized by colonial officials for not acculturating and assimilating Native Californians into farm and ranch life quickly or completely enough. Such assimilation was never meant to be complete. Spanish officials, like the officials of every other European colonial power, believed that Native Americans were inherently inferior to Europeans. And so, the Native Californians were meant to become inferior members of Spanish society. But in contrast to the Indigenous inhabitants of British America and later of the United States, who were simply pushed farther and farther west and/or killed, the Indigenous inhabitants of Spanish America did have a formal position in society, even if it was not close to the top.

SAN FRANCISCO MISSION SITE

Throughout Spanish America, missions were generally established near Indigenous villages in areas that were regarded as potentially able to grow the kinds of crops that would eventually make them self-sufficient. They were normally founded by two missionaries along with a handful of soldiers, sometimes with their families, who would remain at the mission as guards. The San Francisco mission site was chosen because it was near some Rumsen Ohlone villages on a creek that had been named Our Lady of Sorrows (Nuestra Señora de los Dolores) by

an earlier Spanish expedition. Because of that, the mission was often referred to as “Mission Dolores.”

Local Ohlone people were initially attracted by gifts of food, beads and other items. Over time, additional people were attracted for a variety of reasons. Some parents brought their sick children whom local shamans had been unable to help and whom they hoped that the priests might be able to cure. As the San Francisco presidio on the north shore of the peninsula became more established, its construction and maintenance activities inevitably changed the environment that had supported the local people for centuries. Horses and animals trampled upon and destroyed the fruits, nuts and other food sources, and people came to the mission in search of food.

Illnesses increased, as newly introduced germs and diseases, to which the local residents had no immunity, spread. More people would come to the mission in search of potential cures. Tragically, however, the close living quarters that were standard at the mission enabled diseases to spread more rapidly. The local people encountered what was an increasingly vicious circle: the more they came to the mission in search of food or cures, the more vulnerable they found themselves to the new illnesses that preyed upon them and their families. But, as the local environment deteriorated, they often found themselves with no other choice but to become members of the mission community. As the number of Indigenous people at the mission increased, the friars organized, originally through interpreters, catechetical lessons that eventually resulted in baptisms. Many people were apparently baptized without being adequately told that, from the point of view of Catholic theology, baptism represented a lifetime commitment to Catholicism and therefore to mission life. So, when they decided that they wanted to leave the mission, they found that the missionaries and the soldiers of the mission guard refused to let them return to their home villages. Neophytes, as baptized people were called, were usually allowed to return home for limited visits once or twice a year. If they refused to return to the mission on time, the missionaries would dispatch soldiers to go out, hunt them down and forcibly bring them back.

Mission life was closely regimented, with work in the fields and religious instruction tightly scheduled. As was the case in most areas of Spanish America that were controlled by the military, military-style discipline prevailed, not only among soldiers, but among all the Spanish and Indigenous residents of the region. Flogging was the normal punishment and was consistently employed against mission Natives who were judged, by either missionaries or soldiers, as insufficiently attentive to the tasks to which they had been assigned.

But the initial Mission Dolores system broke down in the mid-1790s, when a combination of drought, disease and crop failures caused nearly one-third of the 900 mission Indians to abandon the mission. A series of military expeditions that were sent out to bring them back to the mission resulted in casualties among those who had left as well as among members of the expeditionary force. The missionaries generally strongly supported this use of force, although one newly arrived priest, José María Fernández, objected. A military force was eventually able to bring back a number of those who had left, and they were sent to the presidio in San Francisco. During their interrogations, many of them said they had left the mission because family members and other relatives had perished, and they were simply trying to save their own lives.

MISSIONARY STRATEGY

The missionary president, Fermín Francisco de Lasuén, removed both Fernández and the missionaries he was criticizing from Mission Dolores. The new missionaries attempted to undo the damage to evangelization that had been done over the past few years. While they were definitely interested in having the Native people become accomplished farm and ranch workers, they were much more interested in ensuring that their conversion to Christianity was deep and long-lasting. So, they deliberately employed a long-standing Christian and Franciscan methodology.

For millennia Christian missionaries had sought to understand local cultures so that they might be able to use parts of those cultures as a bridge to Christianity. The first explicit reference to this came right at the beginning of Christian outreach to non-Jewish (Gentile) potential converts, and is recorded in Acts 17: 23, when St. Paul at the Areopagus spoke to the Athenians about their altar to an “unknown god.”

That same missionary strategy was also strong among the Franciscans, who staffed the Alta California

missions. The order’s founder, Francis of Assisi, had personally preached to Egypt’s Sultan Malik al-Kamil, and this missionary outreach was an integral part of the Franciscan way of life. In 1774, for instance, Junípero Serra recorded a dialogue he had with a Rumsen Ohlone man, whom he had baptized with the Christian name Juan Evangelista in 1771.

Serra asked Juan about his people’s culture and beliefs, for, as he said, he believed that “dealing with their ancient religion and customs” was the most evangelical way of approaching the Indigenous people. The Alta California Franciscan missionaries wanted to understand local Indigenous culture. A much greater proportion of these missionaries learned the Indigenous languages than did the members of the military and settler communities who were also in Alta California.

Beginning in the mid-1790s, Mission Dolores became a site of public and deliberate Spanish/Indigenous cultural syncretism. Such a mixing of cultures was clearly demonstrated by two 1816 drawings of Mission Dolores by visitor Louis Choris. In one, the two missionaries, Ramón Abella and Vicente Oliva, remain in the background as a group of Native Californians perform an Indigenous ceremonial dance in the mission plaza. In the other, with no missionaries present, the Natives are playing a traditional stick game on the mission grounds.

The missionaries were attempting to make the mission environment one in which the Native peoples could enter the Church accompanied by their own cultural traditions. They believed that the Native peoples would eventually become less Indigenous and more Spanish, but they thought this would take time and they were willing to let that process gradually unfold. ■

Painting by Louis Choris where two missionaries remain in the background as a group of Native Californians perform an Indigenous ceremonial dance in the mission plaza.

Courtesy of the California Historical Society, Templeton Crocker Collection, Vault 910.4 C 45.

Buried Treasure SF history etched into mission cemetery

BY CHRISTINA GRAY

Lead writer, Catholic San Francisco grayc@sfarch.org

Offering an opportunity to sit quietly and pray for the dead, read the gravestones of the city’s earliest decedents or visit the setting of an iconic Hitchcock movie, the Mission Dolores Cemetery holds an enduring allure to locals and tourists alike.

According to staff, many of the mission’s 300,000 annual visitors taking self or guided tours come specifically to visit the storied cemetery. Here, a reported 11,000 people were laid to rest between 1776, when the mission was founded, and 1890, when Catholic burials were moved to cemeteries outside the city limits.

The tiny burial ground at Mission Dolores was once part of a much larger cemetery, the final resting place of the city’s first mayors, criminals, women who died in childbirth and nearly 6,000 Ohlone Native Americans buried in unmarked graves. Officially known as the San Francisco de Asís cemetery, the oldest cemetery in San Francisco originally ran all the way to what is now Church Street and into 16th Street.

Faithful Catholics, history lovers, genealogy trackers, film buffs and even graveyard and ghost story aficionados have a unique draw to the cemetery. In the middle of the small grounds looms a statue of Franciscan Father Junipero Serra, the founding father of the California missions.

The cemetery’s largest gravestones read like a San Francisco street map: de Haro, Guerrero, Estudillo, Noe and Sanchez (the surnames of five mayors or “alcaldes” of early San Francisco under Mexican rule) and Arguello, the first governor. Other prominent early San Franciscans at rest in the cemetery are John and Mary Tobin, who started Hibernia Bank, and the ranching Tanforan family.

William Alexander Leidesdorff, San Francisco’s first U.S. diplomat of African American descent, president of the first public school in California, and by all accounts the wealthiest man in the state during the 1840s, is one of only three people entombed in the floor of the Old Mission, rather than in the graveyard.

Photo by Christina Gray

Above, the tiny burial ground at Mission Dolores was once part of a much larger cemetery, the final resting place of city founders, criminals and thousands of Ohlone Native Americans. It is the oldest cemetery in San Francisco. Left, the gravestone of Don Luis Antonio Arguello, the first Californio (native-born) governor of Alta California under Mexican rule, who died at age 45.

The cemetery’s largest gravestones read like a San Francisco street map: de Haro, Guerrero, Estudillo, Noe and Sanchez (the surnames of five mayors or “alcaldes” of early San Francisco under Mexican rule); and Arguello, the first governor.”

The Barbary Coast era contributed a handful of colorful cemetery citizens to the population of the deceased, including gambler Charles Cora, a victim of the San Francisco Vigilance Committee, and his wife Belle, a former prostitute.

Toward the back of the cemetery is a statue of a woman crying. At her feet is the reason why: the graves of babies who died at birth, infancy or in youth, in some cases along with their mothers.

Visitors can also view the simple wooden marker for an Ohlone couple who were baptized, married and buried at Mission Dolores. ›

Photo courtesy of OpenSFHistory/wnp711458

Longtime mission curator Andrew Galvan discovered his ancestors, Jobocme and Poylemja, were baptized, married and buried at Mission Dolores. He and a cousin created a simple wooden marker to honor their memories along with the thousands of nameless indigenous people who lived, died and were buried at Mission Dolores.

The fictional Carlotta Valdes of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” was cinematically buried here. The 1958 classic starred Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak. Carlotta’s prop department gravestone remained in the graveyard for years after filming

This statue of a woman with tears staining her face represents the sorrow of women whose children died at birth, infancy or a young age.

until the church removed it out of respect for the actual dead in the mission cemetery.

Nearly 70 years later Hitchcock fans are still asking mission staff to point them to Carlotta’s grave.

“That’s one of the top three questions I’m asked,” gift shop worker Cathy Bogdan told Catholic San Francisco in 2014. The pop culture curiosity is more blessing than curse, she said at the time, a sentiment that remains today.

“No matter what their reason for visiting the mission,” Bogdan added, “people are exposed to the enduring beauty of our faith.” ■

Roses and native plants surround a statue of St. Junipero Serra, a Spanish Franciscan priest and missionary credited with founding eight of the 21 California missions. SCAN TO LEARN MORE ABOUT

Photos by Christina Gray

Catholic Charities is proud to celebrate this 250th anniversary and milestone for our incredible City by the Bay.

Catholic Charities is proud to celebrate this 250th anniversary and milestone for our incredible City by the Bay. We are honored to work alongside so many wonderful organizations who share in our mission to help those in need.

We are honored to work alongside so many wonderful organizations who share in our mission to help those in need.

Thank you, San Francisco.

Thank you, San Francisco.

Guadalupe Mass: A beloved tradition

Rose petals rain down on the faithful in predawn liturgy

BY CHRISTINA GRAY

Lead writer, Catholic San Francisco grayc@sfarch.org

Getting up in the wee hours of a winter morning is a privilege and delight for the thousands of people who gather for the annual feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe Mass at Mission Dolores Basilica. The parish celebrates Our Lady of Guadalupe’s appearance to faithful peasant St. Juan Diego in Mexico with a dramatic Mass that includes a fluttering shower of rose petals from the basilica’s dome onto the congregation below.

“It is now a tradition,” retired San Francisco Auxiliary Bishop William J. Justice told Catholic San Francisco in 2013 of the breathtaking moment in the Dec. 12 liturgy that is a highlight of the year for the faithful and Mission District neighborhood alike.

The Mass is followed by traditional foods, music and dance. The entire day celebrates the legendary faith of Juan Diego, a poor indigenous man who lived in a village near Mexico City. On Dec. 9, 1531, while on his way to Mass, Our Lady appeared and asked him to go to the bishop in Mexico City requesting a chapel be built on the hill where she appeared to him.

The dubious bishop told Juan Diego to have Our Lady give him a sign as proof of his tale. Juan Diego went back to the hill where he found Our Lady and an abundance of nonnative roses blooming in the dead of winter. She told him to gather the roses into his tilma, or cape, and bring them back to the bishop. Juan Diego opened his tilma in the bishop’s presence and the roses fell to the ground. Imprinted inside was an image of Mary exactly as she had appeared to Juan Diego at the hill of Tepeyac.

The rose petal shower at Mission Dolores is accomplished by parish men on a walkway inside the basilica dome. Invisible to those below, the men spill buckets of different colored rose petals down at the moment in the Mass that recalls Juan Diego’s miraculous presentation to the bishop.

Bishop Justice was pastor of Mission Dolores parish in 2007 when two members of the parish’s Guadalupe Society, the late Gloria DeLeon and Catalina Huerta, were inspired by the petals dropping to the floor while stripping thorns from roses used to adorn the altar for the parish’s annual Guadalupe Mass. Huerta and her late husband Robert were instrumental in the development of the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe Mass which began in the early 1970s as an outgrowth of the Spanish-language Mass, which started in 1966.

Over the years, the couple served as parish stalwarts for the annual liturgy and the development of the Guadalupe Society, a parish ministry, in 1972. The society raised the money for the statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe enshrined in an alcove to the side of the altar.

“We bought it in Mexico and we had to get a plane ticket because she took up a seat,” Bob Huerta said at the time.

The Mission Dolores Mass is not the only Guadalupe devotion in the Archdiocese of San Francisco. Each year in early December, thousands of people walk in pilgrimage from All Souls Church in South San Francisco to the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption for a feast day Mass in the annual Cruzada Guadalupana. ■

Rose petals drift down from the Mission Dolores Basilica dome during the annual Guadalupe Mass in December. Inset, the late Catalina and Robert Huerta were instrumental in the development of the annual Mass and the Guadalupe Society, a ministry that supports devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Photos by Dennis Callahan

OLDEST BUILDING

The mission church is the oldest intact building in modern San Francisco. Made by Indians using adobe bricks, the structure survived the 1906 earthquake while the newer adjoining parish church was leveled.

SIXTH MISSION

Mission San Francisco de Asis, better known as Mission Dolores, was the sixth of the 21 Franciscan missions founded in early California. The mission is named after the founder of the Franciscan order, St. Francis of Assisi.

TOUR MECCA

More than 150,000 people, including 5,000 schoolchildren, visit Mission Dolores every year, making it one of the most visited missions.

ROSE PETAL SHOWER

The annual 4 a.m. Mass celebrating the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe includes a shower of thousands of rose petals from the basilica’s 150-foot-high domed ceiling.

8 eight MISSION FACTS

INDIAN MORTALITY

With little immune resistance to European disease, Indians of the Ohlone, Miwok and other tribes died during the mission’s population peak from 1794-1795 at a rate of approximately 20 per day.

BASILICA WOODWORK

Samuel Berger, a Romanian Jew, was the master woodworker behind the Stations of the Cross, the Lady of Seven Sorrows panels above the altar, the ornate pews and part of the ceiling for the basilica church.

POPE’S VISIT

MOVIE FAME

Hollywood director Alfred Hitchcock filmed a scene from his 1958 thriller “Vertigo” starring Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak at the old mission cemetery.

The first papal visit to San Francisco was made by Pope St. John Paul in 1987. The visit included a stop at Mission Dolores where he met with and blessed 62 patients suffering from AIDS and related diseases.

“Catholics of San Francisco”

Authors of historical picture book reflect on the local Catholic experience

BY CHRISTINA GRAY

Lead writer, Catholic San Francisco grayc@sfarch.org

St. Dominic parishioner Bernadette Hooper and St. Elizabeth parishioner Rayna Garibaldi had childhoods in San Francisco largely defined by their ethnic backgrounds and the neighborhoods in which they grew up, the Mission District and the Portola, respectively. It was their common faith, however, that united them as authors of “Catholics of San Francisco,” a slim, softcover volume that is one part historical narrative, another part dog-eared photo album of parish and family life.

Published in 2008, the book from the “Images of America” series by Arcadia Publishing offers an overview of Catholicism’s major influence on the character of San Francisco. Catholic San Francisco located the authors some 17 years after its publication. The past two decades have been years of tremendous change for the faith and faithful in the City of St. Francis, and no doubt, future authors will or are covering it in new books. But “Catholics of San Francisco,” still available on Amazon, is the most easily accessible and authoritative record of Catholic life in San Francisco’s first 230 years.

The pair met at an author’s event in 2006. Garibaldi, a math teacher at St. Elizabeth School at the time, had already written a book on the Portola, for the same publisher. This is the district

An undated photo from St. Gabriel School depicts a student May procession and crowning honoring the Blessed Mother.

where her Italian and Sicilian grandparents started a floral business after arriving in San Francisco, and where she and generations of her family lived.

Hooper, a paralegal at the time, had the first of her relatives arrive from Galway, Ireland, in 1851. The Mission District is where generations of her Irish relatives spent their lives in the chain migration that followed. She also penned a neighborhood book, appropriately titled “Mission District.” Garibaldi and Hooper, who both had grandmothers who lived through the 1906 earthquake, agreed to team up to write “Catholics of San Francisco.”

“We couldn’t figure out why a book like this had not already been written,” said Hooper. “I think of San Francisco as a very Catholic city.”

She said that from her perspective, Catholics were such an important thread in the fabric of San Francisco that “even people who were not Catholic often knew what parish boundary they lived within.”

In the book, Hooper and Garibaldi present Catholic life in San Francisco with a series of

rare historic images gleaned from many sources, including the archives of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, the De La Salle Institute, parishes, schools, religious communities, Catholic organizations and the personal collections of families, including their own.

“This is a very photo-rich book,” said Hooper. “People were eager to share their photos and stories.”

Catholicism was the first non-native faith tradition in California and arguably the most influential, Hooper and Garibaldi said. They paint a picture where from the very start, Catholics from many nations put their mark on the history, traditions and outlook of San Francisco through their institutions — churches, schools, hospitals and charities.

Catholicism greatly influenced the character of San Francisco, beginning with its origins in the California mission system. Parishes, schools, hospitals and charities took shape after the establishment of the Archdiocese in 1853.

“The guidance of archbishops, dedication of ›

Catholics were such an important thread in the fabric of San Francisco that ‘even people who were not Catholic often knew what parish boundary they lived within.’”

Bernadette Hooper, right, made her first Communion at St. James Parish.

the Archdiocese of San Francisco

One of the largest-ever gatherings of Catholics in San Francisco was for Holy Cross Father Patrick Peyton’s Rosary Crusade in 1961. More than 500,000 Catholics packed the Golden Gate Park Polo Field.

Crusade held at the Golden Gate Park polo fields.  Garibaldi and Hooper said their book is “a reflection of a common experience for a big chunk of the city.” They related to Catholic San Francisco some of their own memories that didn’t make it in the book.

Hooper said that for as long as she could remember, Catholic sisters rode free courtesy of Muni. It was a way of thanking them for what they did for San Franciscans — particularly orphaned children — during the 1918 flu pandemic.

“I also remember my family being at our Nana’s kneeling on the linoleum floor, praying the rosary together,” said Hooper. ■

“Catholics of San Francisco” features hundreds of rare photographs portraying Catholics and Catholic life in San Francisco. One such photo, center, depicts Mission Dolores in a float during the Holy Name parade of 1924. More than 80,000 local Catholics marched in protest of antiCatholic bigotry and the Ku Klux Klan.

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St. Francis and the Archdiocese of San Francisco

CO-AUTHORED BY

FATHER VINCENT

WOO AND JACEK NOWICKI

Father Woo is assistant professor at St. Patrick’s Seminary & University, and Nowicki is archivist of the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

Why is St. Francis of Assisi the patron saint of our Archdiocese? The answer may seem obvious, as the cathedral is located in San Francisco. But wait — our Archdiocese includes more than just the county of San Francisco. San Mateo, for example, is named after St. Matthew. So why isn’t St. Matthew the patron saint of our Archdiocese? To understand this, we need to look into our history.

WHY ST. FRANCIS?

In 1768, St. Junípero Serra asked the Spanish magistrate, José de Gálvez, to name a mission after St. Francis. The magistrate agreed, suggesting that a major port should be named after the patron of the Franciscan friars. As a result, St. Francis was declared the patron of the Spanish presidio, settlement and port, as well as the Franciscan Mission of San Francisco, which was founded in 1776. Throughout the mission’s entire existence, the patronal feast was observed on Oct. 4 as both a liturgical solemnity and a popular celebration.

Interestingly, when the Archdiocese of San Francisco was established in 1853, no patronal feast day was officially designated. Still, the

name of the Archdiocese itself implied the special role of St. Francis as its patron. In the early 20th century, a wave of Irish immigration and the predominance of Irish clergy in San Francisco popularized the veneration of St. Patrick. The Holy See gradually allowed the elevation of St. Patrick’s feast within the Archdiocese.

ST. FRANCIS AND ST. PATRICK DECLARED AS CO-PATRONS IN 1920

In 1920, Archbishop Edward J. Hanna officially requested that the Holy See canonically establish the principal patron of the entire Archdiocese. This request was preceded by an election of the patron by both the clergy and the faithful, though it remains unclear exactly how this election was carried out. In June 1920, Pope Benedict XV canonically approved St. Francis and St. Patrick as the principal co-patrons of the Archdiocese, granting them all liturgical privileges afforded to patrons of a place.

Enough about history. How does this apply to us today?

When it comes to the veneration of saints, we should remember two “i”s: imitation and intercession. ›

IMITATING ST. FRANCIS IN OUR LIVES

How can we imitate St. Francis? St. Francis, founder of the Franciscan order, dedicated his life to serving the poor. In the city of San Francisco, we are blessed with the presence of St. Anthony’s Dining Room, which has served daily meals to the poor continuously for decades. Similarly, the Missionaries of Charity have a strong presence in our Archdiocese, including a formation house and apostolates serving the homeless and the dying.

In imitation of St. Francis, we can consider helping the poor by volunteering our time, making financial donations and praying for those engaged in these ministries.

Apart from these, there are other small acts of kindness we can offer to those in need. One of my students at St. Patrick’s Seminary & University would carry snacks in his bag whenever he was in the city so he could offer food to those who are hungry. Even if we can’t provide food, we can at least say a prayer for the poor we encounter on the streets.

We may not be able to dedicate our entire lives to the poor as St. Francis did—but we can certainly carry out small acts of charity, both material and spiritual, for those in need.

ASKING ST. FRANCIS FOR HIS INTERCESSION

Apart from imitation, we can also ask St. Francis to intercede for us. Many of us turn to St. Anthony of Padua when we have lost something. Let us not forget that our devotion to the saints should go deeper than simply asking for help with material needs. Saints can intercede for our spiritual needs so that we may grow closer to God and one day become saints ourselves.

In this materialistic society, it is not always easy to live out the spirit of poverty and detachment. We may find it difficult to let go of certain material comforts in order to grow closer to Christ. St. Francis can definitely help us. We can ask for his intercession so that we may live out the Beatitudes in our lives, in accordance with the state of life to which each of us is called.

Let us rekindle our love for St. Francis of Assisi, who is considered one of the greatest saints in the history of the Church. On Oct. 4, let us attend holy Mass in our parishes and celebrate his feast day with joy and devotion, while not forgetting to help the poor around us. ■

We may not be able to dedicate our entire lives to the poor as St. Francis did—but we can certainly carry out small acts of charity, both material and spiritual, for those in need.”

The centerpiece window above the entrance of Mission Dolores Basilica is a stainedglass image of St. Francis of Assisi

800th anniversary of the death of St. Francis of Assisi, patron of San Francisco

BY FATHER BOBBY BARBATO, OFM CAP.

When Francis of Assisi was near death, he asked to be taken from the bishop’s palace within the city walls of his native Assisi to the church in the woods, St. Mary of the Angels, called the Portiuncula. Yet before he lost sight of the place of his birth, he had the friars prop him up so he could give Assisi a special blessing. Francis prayed: “Blessed may you be by God, holy city, because through you many souls will be saved and within your gates will live many servants of God, and many of your children will be chosen for eternal life.”

Francis, of course, knew that God was

appropriate to be dedicated to the saint of Assisi, who praised God for the wondrous beauties of nature and found the Lord’s presence in sun and moon, in wind and water.

In 2026, we mark not only the 250th anniversary of the founding of what would become the city of San Francisco, but also the 800th anniversary of the death of its patron. Our brother, called Francesco di Pietro di Bernardone of Assisi, died late in the evening of Oct. 3, 1226. He was only about 44 years old. The amazing thing is that this man, who died near a small chapel in the woods below a small Italian city-state, is still remembered 800

While he wanted to die in the most special of these places, the Portiuncula, he also was grateful to be within the sight of the place where he had been born, raised and spent much of his early life.”

everywhere, but he also had a special regard for those places where he himself had experienced that presence in dramatic ways. While he wanted to die in the most special of these places, the Portiuncula, he also was grateful to be within sight of the place where he had been born, raised and spent much of his early life. Francis’ regard for special places, I think, was shared by many of his followers, including St. Junípero Serra. When Serra finally came to found the mission that would be named after his holy father, Misión San Francisco de Asís, he chose the site with care. The missionary chose a place between a wide and beautiful bay and the vast and open sea as the most

years after his death and still revered around the world, and especially in the city named after him, more than 6,000 miles away from his native Assisi. Francis of Assisi is honored in many ways by many people, religious or not, who still marvel at his life.

In the past year, we reflected on the impact of the life and death of a pope who surprised the world when he made the saint of Assisi his model by taking the name Pope Francis. Why did this choice of a name make such an impact on the world? Why did a pope who made the Poverello (“the little poor one,” as St. Francis has often been called) his patron and model resonate eight centuries after the latter’s ›

Rector, National Shrine of St. Francis

Porziuncola means “small portion of land” and refers to the Benedictine chapel St. Francis restored when he was a young man. This historic chapel is in the town of Santa Maria degli Angeli, near Assisi, Italy.

death? What can the people of the 21st century, especially those living in or near the city that bears his name, learn not only from the way this little man lived, but just as much how he died?

Francis of Assisi is famous for his voluntary poverty, for freely giving up the riches and status he had enjoyed as the son of a wealthy cloth merchant, Pietro di Bernardone, and his wife Pica. In a dramatic moment the young man gave everything back to his father, including all his clothes, ready to stand naked before God. All his life he regarded everything he had to use to survive as a gift from God, to be enjoyed or shared as God wanted him to. He often gave away the very thin mantle he wore to keep warm when he saw someone else shivering from the cold.

In a real sense, Francis’ continued embrace of voluntary poverty, using the minimum necessary, was practice for the moment of his death. As Pope Francis once remarked, there

Depicts the death of St. Francis of Assisi

are no moving vans following us into the afterlife. We know that every human being will one day have to let go of everything. Francis knew this, and he wanted to be ready for that moment by learning to let go each day of his life. He did not think the things of the world were bad, but also knew they were passing, and nothing in this world could fulfill the deepest longing of the human heart.

As he grew closer to the end of his life, however, Francis learned that letting go of material things was nothing compared to facing the things that he still clung to in his heart, the things that were harder to let go of, like his desire to be popular. The closer he came to death, the more Francis needed to let go of pride and pretension. Like almost all of us, Francis found it difficult especially to let go of control.

After his conversion, Francis had founded a religious movement. It had grown tremendously, and Francis soon had men and women embracing his teachings and his way of

Transitus

The passing of St. Francis from this world to the Lord, called his “Transitus,” has been marked each year by his followers in the eight centuries since his death. The friars and others inspired by the Poverello gather on the night of Oct. 3 to listen once more to the accounts of the death of their father, hear his own words repeated and pray for his help in facing their own joys and crosses. Marked by readings, chants, silence and a deep appreciation for the way he died, the Transitus of the remarkable saint of Assisi reminds us that, as the Church prays: “For your faithful people, life is changed, not ended.”

On Oct. 3, 2026, we will have a special prayer to mark this Transitus and invite everyone who would like to attend. Details will be forthcoming.

May the Lord bless and keep you always!

life. Yet even in his own order of Friars Minor everything was not to his liking. Toward the end of his life, he found control of the group had started slipping from his hands. He felt other people’s ideas were interfering with his vision. This made him angry and depressed. Francis turned to the Lord to seek his way out of this painful challenge. It was only in deep prayer that Francis learned that he had to let go of control of his order and, in a certain way, let go of his dreams. What helped him to make this final sacrifice was his trust in the promises of Jesus Christ. Once God had given him the grace to truly let go of every possession, material or spiritual, Francis found himself ready to face the end of his life. Thus, by September of 1226, Francis of Assisi had found true peace. When he was told by his doctor friend that he had a terminal illness and would soon die, he did not become angry or depressed. Rather, Francis began to sing! When one of the brothers asked him if it was ›

appropriate for him to sing when death was so near, he told him:

“Allow me to rejoice in the Lord, brother, and to sing His praises in my infirmities, because by the grace of the Holy Spirit, I am so closely united and joined with my Lord, that through His mercy I can well rejoice in the Most High Himself.”

It was at this time that Francis added a final verse to his already famous “Canticle of Brother Sun.” The saint and his brothers sang: “Praised by You, my Lord, through Sister Death, from whom no mortal can escape. Woe to those who die in mortal sin. Happy those whom death will find in Your most holy will. For the second death will do them no harm.”

Francis sang to share his joy with the world. He had learned from Jesus Christ that death is not to be feared, and he wanted to help others trust in the Lord’s promise. As death approached, everything Francis did was a way to share with the world the truth about “Sister Death.”

Francis had himself laid naked on the naked earth, to show that he trusted in the one who had made him from the dust of the earth in the first place. He blessed all the friars around him, even those who did things he didn’t like; Francis blessed all those who would join his order or be inspired by his example in the future.

A dear friend, Lady Jacoba de Settesoli, came to see him and he received her graciously. He even accepted one last almond cookie from her kitchen, praising God for the gift of sweetness. Finally, to keep his focus on his Savior, Francis asked the brothers to read to him from the Gospel of St. John, hearing Jesus’ last words at the Last Supper, which urged them to trust in Him despite the power of death and the cross. At that moment Francis was truly ready to let go completely, to place his entire self into God’s hands. And so he gently slipped away.

When Francis died, the friars wept and

Francis begs us to continue to try to make this city a place where true peace and Christian love have a home.”

church bells rang of their own accord. St. Bonaventure tells us nature itself marked the moment:

“The larks, friends of the light, at the hour of the holy man’s passing, when it was already twilight of the falling night, gathered in a great flock over the roof of the house and, circling for a long time with unusual joy, offered testimony of the glory of the saint who so often had invited them to divine praise.”

Francis’ life had not always been easy. He had suffered from illness and war, from ridicule and hatred. The man from Assisi had faced his share of the challenges and pain that come with being human. We remember him because when he came to the final challenge, letting go of everything into the arms of the merciful God who made him, he was able to do so with a joy that reverberated not only in the hearts of all those around him, but even down the centuries and around the world.

This is why we mark the 800th anniversary of his death as something to celebrate, as a moment of grace for the Church throughout the world and for all people of goodwill. It is certainly a moment of grace for the city that bears St. Francis’ name. I am sure as he looks down on the beauties of the natural world that surround it, the man from Assisi smiles upon this city. He wants to inspire those who live here or visit to praise and thank God, both for the natural gifts given by God and the beautiful city that people have built.

Francis of Assisi, however, also challenges all of us who live here to accept the Gospel by reaching out to God in prayer and reaching out to the poor and lonely, all those on the margins. Francis begs us to continue to try to make this city a place where true peace and Christian love have a home. What Francis said to his brothers just before his death, he says now to us: “I have done what was mine to do; may the Lord show you what is yours.” ■

Left, the medieval town of Assisi, religious center of Umbria, Italy. Right, the city that bears St. Francis’ name.

St. Francis of Assisi

How he impacted my life

BY ANGELA ALIOTO

When Father Patrick Summerhays, vicar general and moderator of the Curia in the San Francisco Archdiocese, asked me to write a short essay about how St. Francis has influenced my life, I thought, “influenced my life?” He is my best friend forever, and has been ever since I first visited Assisi as a spoiled 15-year-old only daughter with five brothers and a Sicilian father and mother.

Since that incredible day as a kid 50 years ago, I’ve walked in the footsteps of Francesco. I have done some over-the-top crazy things like jumping over the rails at his monasteries so I could lie on slick marble that was Francesco’s bed. For hours, I would talk with him, a bit of a fanatic, a joyful one.

From the little things like visiting the trees in Bevagna where he spoke to the birds, to praying/talking to Francesco for hours in front of his tomb, my heart is filled with his special joy. A few years ago, when I was struck with pounding headaches that required surgery, I went to visit his tomb intending to argue with him angrily about my injury. To my surprise, instead, I held tight onto the wrought iron that surrounds his tomb and wept tears of joy: “Thank you, Francesco. Thank you so much for all the years of my life spent in joy because of you. As a Franciscan, you gave that to me, and I am so grateful.”

And I’ve seen him give that joyfulness to so many others. In 2008, with Cardinal William Levada, I built (it took a village), the only approved “locus santus” of the Porziuncola Nuova in San Francisco at the National Shrine of St. Francis, identical to the one Francesco built in Assisi (Santa Maria degli Angeli).  I have seen every walk of life from the

Above, Angela Alioto in front of the Porziuncola Nuova in San Francisco at the National Shrine of St. Francis. Below, the interior of the Porziuncola Nuova matches the aesthetic and spiritual atmosphere of the Porziuncola in Italy, from the mural depicting the barrel vault, to the paintings of the flagellation of Jesus and other murals.

Civil rights trial attorney and director of the Knights of St. Francis

Francesco can transform even suffering into gratitude to God. That’s what a friendship with St. Francis brings to your heart.”

poorest of the poor, to the sad and lonely, from beggars to strippers to billionaires, who come into the Porziuncola Nuova and weep and feel Francesco’s joy coming into their lives. Make friends with Francesco. He will lead you directly to our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Francesco saw the face of Jesus everywhere he looked: in the trees, the flowers, the animals, the insects and every homeless person and even in the face of his enemies: Just Jesus everywhere he looked. How great is that? Then, immediately you are loving Jesus as close to how much Francesco did. It is possible, and that love is eternal joy!

Francesco can transform even suffering into gratitude to God. That’s what a friendship with St. Francis brings to your heart.

As I write these words, I am in Assisi, hoping to bring relics and great works of art of Francesco to my city that is named after him, to celebrate both the 800th anniversary of his death and the 250th anniversary of the founding of Mission Dolores by his Franciscan brothers. While looking at Francesco’s robe, spattered with blood from the stigmata, I said: “This is what San Francisco needs” – not just the words, but the physical presence of St. Francis.

As I asked the Franciscans to let me bring his relics to our beloved city I told them, “I haven’t seen a homeless person since I’ve been in Italy. We have up to 3,000 people in any given year over the past several decades sleeping on the streets of San Francisco. We need to feel St. Francis here.” Because every human soul needs hope and joy, and Francesco gives us that.

If you go into the Porziuncola Nuova at the National Shrine in San Francisco, Francesco becomes your friend, as he is mine. You will feel him. Talk to him. He changes lives. He can bring all of us in San Francisco together, the rich and the poor, the believers, the doubters and the atheists.

Where there is despair, let Francesco bring you hope. Where there is sadness, let him bring you joy. It’s that Franciscan joy that San Francisco needs now.

Pax et Amor ■

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Spiritual Father of America

The following is excerpted with permission from an EWTN documentary video, “In Search of America’s Catholic Founders – St. Junipero Serra.”

His legacy has shaped modern California in a way no one else has. But who was the real Junipero Serra? They call the pilgrim trails in America, El Camino Real, but there was more than one royal road. For Junipero Serra, his route started in his homeland, in the Old World – Majorca, 150 miles from Barcelona. Here, ensconced in a Catholic paradise, Serra was born in 1713. He was shaped by the humility of St. Francis of Assisi and devotion to the Immaculate Conception.

Taking the name of one of the first Franciscans, Brother Juniper, Serra was ordained a Franciscan priest at age 24, soon finding a routine that suited him.

“He was brilliant,” said San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone. “He had a teaching position. He was a professor at the university. He taught philosophy and was an expert in Duns Scotus and in defending the Immaculate Conception. So, it was a very comfortable professorship, but he renounced all of that to come here and spread the Gospel, living in Gospel poverty.”

THE NEW WORLD

The New World: A journey anything but routine and comfortable. Serra brought with him only two books: Maria of Agreda’s “The Mystical City of God” and the Bible. Serra would never see Majorca again.

“He could have ridden in a wagon but instead chose to walk, just like the servants had to walk,” said Archbishop Cordileone. “This is how he ended up with an ulcerated leg, being stung by a scorpion along the way because he was walking.”

It was 240 miles from the port of Veracruz to the Franciscan headquarters in Mexico City. Mexico City’s cathedral and the tilma of Juan Diego would become familiar sights to Serra during his time at the nearby Franciscan headquarters of the College of San Fernando, where he forged the tools needed for the last act of his life: Father Serra, the missionary.

THE FIRST MISSIONS

He fostered a connection with the Pame people in the Sierra Gorda region of Querétaro, north of Mexico City. The five missions founded in Sierra Gorda are all credited to Serra.

“The Mass is always beautiful, and we can tell how seriously the Franciscans took that if we look at the churches that they built,” said Archbishop Cordileone. “They built beautiful churches. They didn’t celebrate Mass in camps or in huts. They knew worship to be worthy of the one true God has to be beautiful and in a beautiful place. This is another great legacy we have of the mission churches and the mission church ›

Father Serra Statue in Ventura City Hall

architecture. There’s a whole new style of architecture that is respectful of the local culture because the designs of the mission churches reflect the local culture in the West and the Southwest, but at the same time are in line with our Catholic mission. The physical mission church is a very appropriate metaphor for the spirit that the Franciscans brought here, which was to introduce the Indians to the faith, make them fellow Catholics and equal to the Spaniards with authentic Catholic faith, but in a way that also respects the local culture.”

By giving his all, Serra brought the life and message of Christ directly to the Native converts through tremendous humility and huge sacrifices.

“People disparage him, but nowadays, people don’t come anywhere near the heroic virtue that he had in caring for the Indigenous population,” said Archbishop Cordileone.

Serra’s destiny began to fully manifest itself when King Carlos III of Spain expelled the Jesuits from all Spanish territories in 1767, putting Junípero Serra in charge as mission president of Baja and Alta California. Father Serra’s journey from Loreto to San Diego was part of a wider military expedition. The goal: colonization of Alta California. Its leader: Gaspar de Portola, New Spain’s first governor of the Californias. It was an expedition known as the Portola Expedition. To the Franciscans, it was a sacred expedition. Once again, Serra walked. His diary tells us he slept in open fields.

“Again, I ask you to be the strength, the solace and the comfort of my aged parents,” Serra wrote in his diary. “If they could know the joy I feel, I think they would certainly urge me to always go forward and never to turn back.”

On July 16, 1769, Father Serra raised the cross at the first mission of Alta California, San Diego de Alcalá. The presence of both the military and religious confused the Natives, and baptisms were slow at the outset.

“When the expedition arrived, they selected a logical spot,” said Archbishop Cordileone. “It’s a bluff overlooking the bay, and they put everything there – the mission church, the friary, the school and the soldiers’ barracks, known as the Presidio. The soldiers were abusing the Indians, and especially the women. After a few years, it became intolerable to the Indians, and there was an uprising, and one of the Franciscans was killed in this uprising. Serra pleaded for mercy for the man because he understood what caused this uprising. He pleaded for mercy so he would not be executed. Capital punishment was the punishment for such a crime. I like to repeat what I once heard someone say, that Father Serra was the first Californian to speak out against the death penalty.”

SAVING SOULS

If the Spanish soldiers and colonialists were motivated by the conquistador spirit of yesteryear, Serra’s missionaries had a wholly otherworldly objective: the

Mission San Antonio de Padua is a Spanish mission established by the Franciscan order in present-day Monterey County. Founded on July 14, 1771, it was the third mission founded in Alta California by Father Serra.

salvation of souls. It was a combination destined for conflict, which reached a breaking point in 1773.

“The Franciscans had spiritual care and spiritual governance of the people, but not the temporal governance,” said Archbishop Cordileone. “Carmel, the second mission that he [Serra] founded, was the headquarters of the whole system. He was so upset that he wanted to take the faculties of the soldiers or the military away so that he would have temporal governance. So, he walked from Carmel to Mexico City to meet with the viceroy to get special faculties from him to govern the Indians so they would not be governed under the soldiers. And then he walked all the way back with his sore leg. When he came to San Francisco, he needed to ask for more soldiers. He minimized this problem by asking for married soldiers who would come with their families. So, families came, and these little townships, these pueblos, grew up around the missions. And this is what started the whole social and economic infrastructure of the state of California. The Church always had a distinction between those who accepted the faith and entered the Church, to protect them from reverting and losing the faith, and those who had not yet converted. So, while the Franciscans did not force conversions, they did have corrective actions for anyone who might want to revert after converting.”

ST. JOSEPH’S INTERCESSION

The remote missions and presidios of Alta California provided other problems. For a solution, Serra turned to prayer – a novena to St. Joseph.

“The story is told of the novena to St. Joseph,” said Archbishop Cordileone. “Early on in the mission enterprise, they were quite desperate and were running

out of supplies. If they did not get supplies, the whole thing was going to collapse. So, the Franciscans prayed a novena to St. Joseph. On the ninth day, sure enough, the ship arrived with the supplies they needed to continue the mission enterprise. It’s a sign that God truly rewards faith when we live that faith with prayer, devotion and heroic virtue.”

In gratitude, Serra celebrated high Mass every March 19, the feast of St. Joseph. Father Serra died in his cell at Carmel Mission in 1784. He was 70 years old. At the time of his death, nine missions had been established in Alta California. By the end of the mission period, there would be a total of 21 missions, including a few extension missions inland. Some 50 years after Father Serra’s death, the missions were falling into ruin, including his beloved Carmel.

ERAS OF HISTORY

“We have three basic historical eras in the early history of California,” said Archbishop Cordileone. “It began with the Mission era, as St. Serra landed in San Diego in 1769 and began building the chain of missions. It went up to 1834. At that point, Mexico had attained its independence, and the government then secularized the missions, which means the Franciscans were expelled and the government seized the territory, which did not go well for the Indigenous population who were being educated and cared for by the Franciscans. When California passed into the United States, it went into the American era, which was even worse for the Indians because there was a genocide perpetrated on the Indians by the California government. So, we have to understand these different eras of history.”

POPE ST. JOHN PAUL II

In September 1987, Pope John Paul II followed in Father Serra’s footsteps, becoming the first Roman pontiff to visit what was once Alta California. A year later, in St. Peter’s Square, John Paul beatified Junípero Serra.

“To see him on our home turf was a very different experience,” said Archbishop Cordileone. “To have him present on our land, there was something transformative about it.”

In the words of Pope St. John Paul II: “Dear brothers and sisters, I come today as a pilgrim to this Mission of San Carlos, which so powerfully evokes the heroic spirit and heroic deeds of Fray Junípero Serra and which enshrines his mortal remains. This serene and beautiful place is truly the historical and spiritual heart of California. All the missions of El Camino Real bear witness to the challenges and heroism of an earlier time, but not a time forgotten or without significance for the California of today and the Church of today.”

The Pope’s visit occurred at the culmination of a nostalgic period of “Old

California” and of Junípero Serra that dominated most of the 20th century.

“In the 20th century, there was a revival of the imagination of the missions and the life that was taking place here,” said Archbishop Cordileone. “To some degree, that imagination was a bit romanticized, but it was a re-appreciation of what the missions mean here in California to the history and founding of our state.”

HOLLYWOOD AND THE MISSIONS

As early as Hollywood’s silent era, Douglas Fairbanks Sr. romanticized Old California’s rancho era by portraying the swashbuckling Zorro. D.W. Griffith’s “The Two Brothers” utilized the ruins of San Juan Capistrano’s Great Stone Church, which was destroyed in a December 1812 earthquake. An extraordinary silent film is Norman O. Dawn’s documentary “Missions of California” from 1907. Dawn captures the state of each mission as they appeared at the turn of the 20th century, only decades after the end of the Mission period. As the Mission revival blossomed in art and architecture, so did interest in the Mission period, even if it was driven by that romanticism. Nevertheless, value was seen in restoring the missions that would benefit both Church and state, modern tourist and pilgrim.

A COMPLEX HISTORY

“We need to have an honest and objective understanding of what really took place – all the perplexities between the Franciscans, the soldiers, the Spanish crown, the Indigenous population and St. Serra’s care for them,” said Archbishop Cordileone. “When Serra died, Indian and Spaniard alike mourned his passing. He was a great father to the Indian people, and they referred to him in that way. Just like in current events, there are often more complexities than › Bell tower at the Mission San Gabriel Arcangel in California.

“St. Junipero Serra and the American Saints” by artist Bernadette Carstensen was commissioned by the Benedict XVI institute for “Missa Sancti Juniperi Serra” a new Mass honoring St. Junipero Serra by Frank La Rocca.

meet the eye when you get to know the story. We need an objective appreciation of that, and to see the good that was done, and learn from the mistakes that were made so we don’t make them again. But rewriting history does a disservice to everyone, and we see this happening now. We went through a kind of romanticized period in the earlier part of the 20th century with the Mission era. Now, we’re going through an era when everything is being demonized. We need an honest assessment so we can appreciate the good and learn from mistakes.”

The Mission revival period reached its zenith when Ronald Reagan took the oath of office as California’s new governor in 1967, using the Bible Father Serra carried with him from Majorca. The theme of the inauguration was “Fiesta California,” a theme chosen, a press release said, “to reflect the romantic legacy left to California from its early Spanish era.”

CANONIZATION AND CANCEL CULTURE

In 2015, 275 bishops and 950 priests joined Pope Francis in Washington for the first canonization on U.S. soil, that of Blessed Junípero Serra. But when the cancel culture came for St. Junípero, it also attacked the missions themselves. A mysterious fire set Mission San Gabriel in Los Angeles ablaze in July 2020. It was the fourth mission founded by the Franciscans and was established on Sept. 8, 1771, the feast of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary. A Marian outlook permeated the Franciscan worldview in California. Like rosary beads, the missions continue to dot the California landscape. But how far will the cancel culture go? Modern California’s secular memory and identity is rooted in Catholicism. To truly cancel the legacy of St. Junípero Serra is to eradicate that heritage. Sacramento, San Francisco, Los Angeles “the City of Angels,” beloved Santa Monica and Santa Barbara and dozens of other town names that honor those Catholic roots, are these to be eradicated as well?

“It’s interesting to note that the King’s Highway, El Camino Real, that the Spaniards, the trail they blazed to connect all of the missions is still there,” said Archbishop Cordileone. “It is now Highway 101 that connects all the missions, so if one drives up or down the 101, they will pass all of the missions. And in many places, the missions are in rural areas, where people will see agricultural workers in the fields. These are the inheritors of the legacy of what the Franciscans brought here with their Catholic faith. Many of them are Catholics themselves, and they are beneficiaries of the faith that the Franciscans came here to introduce the people to. So often though, I think, their plight is not really understood by those who are far removed from them and have great influence over society. So, nothing can be better than to meet people. We say this all the time: meet people where they’re at. Get to know these very hard-working people that are putting food on our tables, many of whom are very devout Catholics striving to live good lives. The Franciscans cared for them and lived among them. We would do very well to follow that example.”

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

In 1870, the great author Robert Louis Stevenson came to the mission in Carmel and witnessed the Indians singing beautiful chants.

“I heard the old Indians singing Mass,” said Stevenson. “That was a new experience and one well worth hearing. There was the old man who led and the women who so worthily followed. It was like a voice out of the past. They sang by tradition, from the teaching of early missionaries long since turned to clay.”

This visit by Stevenson was long after the whole mission system fell apart.

“In 1834, the Mexican government obtained its independence, secularized the missions and then expelled the Franciscans,” said Archbishop Cordileone. “Stevenson came here in 1870, so the Franciscans were long gone. But the Indians are still carrying on this tradition, and they would come here on the festival of St. Charles Borromeo with the great devotion they maintained with him. Stevenson came to Carmel on that day, and he saw them singing these beautiful chants they were continuing to live. St. Serra and his brother Franciscans did build a new Christian civilization here, and so much so that it carried on long after the Franciscans were expelled. It teaches us the great legacy we’ve inherited that we should never take for granted, and we need to continue that and make our own contributions. We need to know our tradition, live it well and teach it to the next generation.” ■

SCAN TO WATCH THE DOCUMENTARY on St. Junipero Serra or visit https://ondemand. ewtn.com/Home/Series/ondemand/video/ en/in-search-of-americas-catholicfounders---st-junipero-serra

‘Consecrated Thunderbolt’

Father Peter Yorke’s legacy continues 100 years after his death

BY CHRISTINA GRAY

Lead writer, Catholic San Francisco grayc@sfarch.org

When he died in 1925, Father Peter Christopher Yorke was the 61-yearold pastor of St. Peter Church in San Francisco’s Mission District. It was a large parish with a parishioner base that was then, as it is now, comprised almost entirely of working-class immigrant families.

“He was a priest of and for the people he served,” said Father Stephen H. Howell, vicar general for the Archdiocese of San Francisco, the principal celebrant and homilist for the 100th anniversary memorial Mass for Father Yorke at Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma on April 13.

Born in Galway, Ireland, in 1864 and ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of San Francisco in 1887, Father Yorke died on Palm Sunday 1925. An annual service organized by the United Irish Societies and cosponsored by local labor organizations has been held at Holy Cross on Palm Sunday ever since.

Father Yorke was a “large and loud” defender of the Catholic faith and Irish independence, according to Father Howell, who wrote a graduate studies paper on the spirited priest while a student at the University of San Francisco. He stood tall against the discrimination of Irish immigrant laborers and others during the late 1800s to early 1900s. The late Jesuit Father Joseph H. Brusher aptly described the Irishman’s tireless, often confrontational zeal in his book, “Consecrated Thunderbolt: The Life of Father Peter C. Yorke of San Francisco” (1973).

Father Yorke was also a dedicated servant of Catholic education, starting schools and

writing religious textbooks that became standard in the grade schools of many Western dioceses. In 1904, he cofounded the National Catholic Educational Association.

When he died on April 4, 1925, according to Catholic historian Richard Gribble, people lined the streets for 10 miles between St. Peter Church, where the funeral was held, and Holy Cross, his final resting place. In his eulogy, Archbishop Edward J. Hanna told the faithful they must continue what Father Yorke had started. It read, in part:

“He has imposed upon us a task that we must follow even unto the end. Like him, we must battle for the rights of Catholic men in this land to which we have consecrated our energy; like him, we must stand for the poor and the downtrodden; like him, we must uphold the banner of Christian education, for in it, and in it alone, is our hope of salvation.”

SAN FRANCISCO, A ‘PERPETUAL DELIGHT’

When he came to San Francisco in 1888, Father Yorke fell unabashedly in love with it, according to a biography posted to San Francisco’s United Irish Cultural Center website by Jackson Tejada. The views from different vantage points of the city were a “panorama of perpetual delight,” he said, “Quite like being on the deck of a ship.”

Father Peter Yorke in undated photo

He

has imposed upon us a task that we must follow even unto the end. Like him, we must battle for the rights of Catholic men in this land to which we have consecrated our energy; like him, we must stand for the poor and the downtrodden; like him we must uphold the banner of Christian education, for in it, and in it alone, is our hope of salvation.”

ARCHBISHOP EDWARD J. HANNA

Father Yorke rose to prominence after he became the leading Catholic voice repudiating the American Protective Association, an organization formed to attack Catholic presence in the United States. According to Tejada, the effort sought to “augment the existing domination of white Anglo-Saxon Protestant society over supposedly inferior populations.” In his time, Irish Catholics were targeted, but Italian, Mexican and South and Central American immigrants were also in this category.

“One could still find help-wanted signs that advised, ‘No Irish Need Apply,’” said Father Howell. “This was the same as saying ‘No Catholics.’”

‘UNAPOLOGETIC’ DEFENSE OF THE FAITH

Father Yorke served as secretary to Archbishop Patrick Riordan, who later appointed him editor of The Monitor, the archdiocesan paper founded by Archbishop Joseph Sadoc Alemany in 1858. Father Yorke used his position to defend the faith, as well as the Irish, and other ethnic groups devoted to it. Like his sermons, his written words could be unapologetic, even blistering. Word spread about the young firebrand priest in San Francisco, and The Monitor became the bestread Catholic newspaper in the nation.

Father Yorke’s editorial voice eventually sounded a death knell to the American Protective Association, but his outspokenness often put him at odds with Archbishop Riordan. Father Yorke was eventually removed as editor of the newspaper, starting his own newspaper shortly thereafter. The pages of The Leader challenged the local titans of industry with the teachings in Pope Leo XIII’s ›

Since 1899, it has been the pleasure of

and its predecessor Locals to serve The Brother and Sister Carpenters of San Mateo County, and its honor to partner with the Archdiocese of San Francisco in all of its construction endeavors. GRATEFULLY,

Martin Mendibles President Edward Evans Senior Business Agent and Financial Secretary-Treasurer

encyclical, “Rerum Novarum: The Rights and Duties of Capital and Labor,” written in 1891.

1 PETER YORKE WAY

Father Yorke picked up the banner of the labor unions after being assigned pastor of St. Peter Church in 1903. From his pulpit, he emphatically defended the rights of workers against exploitation and decried the injustice created by extremes of wealth and poverty. He offered the rectory as a gathering place for union leaders during one of the longest Teamster strikes in California state history. He served as a vocal union spokesman, taking out full-page advertisements quoting Pope Leo saying unions were the “most important means” by which workers could better their conditions. As a champion for the working class, his portrait still hangs today in the Teamsters Union Hall in San Francisco.

In the redevelopment of sections of San Francisco during the 1960s, a side street was named Peter Yorke Way at the intersection of Gough Street and Geary Boulevard near the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption. Today, the pastoral headquarters of the Archdiocese of San Francisco is located at 1 Peter Yorke Way. ■

San Francisco waterfront workers during the 1901 strike.

Photo courtesy of the National Maritime Museum in San Francisco

Anniversaries

250 years: Mission Dolores and San Francisco

800 years: Death of St. Francis of Assisi

SATURDAY, JUNE 27, 2026

11 a.m. Mass at Mission Dolores Basilica honoring its founding. Reception in parking lot.

Mission Dolores exhibit open.

SATURDAY, OCT. 3, 2026

11 a.m. Prayer service in Basilica/ Old Mission.

Reception in the parking lot following prayer service. Attendees can visit the Mission Dolores 250th anniversary exhibit.

7:30 p.m. Transitus at the Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi celebrating the 800th anniversary of his death.

SUNDAY, OCT. 4, 2026

Mission Dolores parish Sunday Masses, followed by procession in the street.

11 a.m. Mass at the Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi.

FRIDAY, OCT. 9, 2026

12 noon Thanksgiving prayer service with civic leaders and guests at Mission Dolores celebrating the dedication of the Mission San Francisco de Asis. Reception in auditorium.

SATURDAY, OCT. 10, 2026

11 a.m. Missa Sancti Juniperi Serra at Mission Dolores. Reception in auditorium hosted by the Benedict XVI Institute.

Mission Dolores 250th anniversary exhibit.

OPEN THIS QR CODE FOR COMPREHENSIVE ANSWERS or visit https://sfarchdiocese. org/july-2025-catholic-quiz/

1. Why was Misión San Francisco de Asís renamed Mission Dolores?

d. The San Francisco mission site was chosen because it was near some Rumsen Ohlone villages on a creek that had been named Our Lady of Sorrows by an earlier Spanish expedition. Because of that, the mission was often referred to as “Mission Dolores”.

2. Why is St. Francis of Assisi the patron saint of our Archdiocese and of San Francisco?

b. Correct. St. Junipero Serra was responsible for St. Francis of Assisi being named the patron saint of San Francisco.

3. Which of the following is correct about Mission Dolores?

c. Correct, Mission Dolores is the oldest building in San Francisco. It even survived the 1906 earthquake.

4. Which of the following is correct about Mission Dolores Basilica?

b. Correct. After the 1906 earthquake, the rebuilding of the church was completed in 1918 and was later remodeled in 1926.

5. Which of the following is incorrect about Mission Dolores cemetery?

e. This is the correct choice because all the other answers are true.

The shrine has the only authorized replica of the Porziuncola, the fourth-century chapel to Our Lady of Angels that St. Francis chose as the mother church of the order he founded, which was also the place of his death.

Church Hours: Monday – Saturday, 10am-5pm Sundays, 10am-2pm Porziuncola

Chapel Hours: Wednesday – Saturday, 10am-4pm; Sunday, 12 noon-2pm.