HE FIRST MASS of Father Junípero Serra, OFM, took place near Monterey Bay on Pentecost Sunday on 3 June 1770. It was celebrated beneath the boughs of a coast live oak, as depicted in an 1879 painting by artist Leon Trousset:
![628 Father Junipero Serra’s first Mass near Monterey Bay in June, 1770 THANKSGIVING](https://i0.wp.com/archive.ccwatershed.org/media/photologue/photos/cache/628-Serra-First-Mass-Leon-Troussett_preview.png?ssl=1)
Fr. Serra was canonized by Pope Francis on 23 September 2015, as a part of the pope’s first visit to the United States—the first canonization to take place on American soil. During a speech at the Pontifical North American College in Rome on 2 May 2015, Pope Francis said: “Friar Junípero…was one of the founding fathers of the United States, a saintly example of the Church’s universality and special patron of the Hispanic people of the country.”
Courtesy of A Few Little Fishes.