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Juni´pero Serra was an 18th-century Spanish missionary who introduced Catholicism to Native American communities in California. The Diocesan Trials for the Canonization Cause of Juni´pero Serra began in 1948 and continued into 1949. To be declared a saint, you must be deceased, have demonstrated heroic virtue while alive and performed miracles posthumously. Witnesses gave testimony to ecclesiastical courts at Missions San Gabriel, San Buenaventura, Santa Barbara, Carmel and San Francisco. The judges were: Vicar General of Monterey, Monsignor Michael Sullivan, Fr. Joseph O'Brien, and Father Gerald Bolger. There was also present a "Devil’s Advocate," Father Lucien Arvin of the Paris Foreign Mission Society. His duty was to find exceptions to the virtues of Father Serra . Serra died in 1794, and the one miracle Church authorities have confidently declared he performed was in 1960, when a nun in St. Louis was cured of a disease, thought to be lupus, after having prayed to him on her deathbed. Juni´pero Serra was beatified by Pope John Paul II on September 25, 1988. He was canonized by Pope Francis during a Mass in Washington, D.C. on September 23, 2015. Photograph caption dated May 19, 1949 reads "Mrs. Louisa Lopez McAlonan, 93, testifies in canonization trial of Fr. Juni´pero Serra to Mons. Michael Sullivan, seated, Father Eric O'Brien and Father Lucian Arvin." The testimony took place at San Fernando Mission Rey de Espana. The Mission is in the Mission Hills community, part of the City of Los Angeles.
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Image
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1 photographic print :b&w ;26 x 21 cm. Photographic prints
Serra, Juni´pero,--Saint,--1713-1784 San Fernando, Rey de Espan~a (Mission : San Fernando, Calif.) San Fernando, Rey de Espan~a (Mission : San Fernando, Calif.)--Clergy Catholic Church.--Archdiocese of Los Angeles (Calif.) Catholic Church--California--Los Angeles--Clergy Women--California--Los Angeles Men--California--Los Angeles Clergy--California--Los Angeles Older people--California--Los Angeles Canonization--Trials, litigation, etc Vicars, Parochial--California--Los Angeles Chairs--California--Los Angeles Draperies--California--Los Angeles Missions, Spanish--California Mission Hills (Los Angeles, Calif.) Portrait photographs Group portraits Valley Times Collection photographs
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