Friday, May 15, 2026
Feast of Saint Isidore the Farmer
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
This July we will be celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America. While Catholics were very few in number in North America back then, they did have a presence. In this second presentation we will discuss Catholicism’s mission in present-day California and Maryland.
Talk #2: California and Maryland
The mission work of the Jesuits and Franciscans which we discussed last week were not very successful in the long run. However, what was achieved in California under Saint Junipero Serra and in Maryland among some English Catholics had more lasting effects.
Maryland’s story really begins with King Charles I giving to Cecil, Lord Baltimore, a Catholic, a religiously ambiguous charter in 1632, to establish a colony in Maryland. Seeking settlers, advertisements promoted the idea that a form of religious liberty would be allowed and there would be no forced conversions. This was to allay concerns by Catholics who would be entering a very Protestant world in English America.
A small band sailed in the Ark and the Dove with two Jesuits who landed at Saint Clement’s Island in 1634. Tolerance and privacy were urged on all in matters of religion. The Jesuits owned land in their own individual names not as a religious order. There were, however, Protestant pressures against Catholics in the new colony, and the 1649 Act Concerning Religion was enacted which protected religious freedom. However, Puritans seized control of Maryland in 1650 and repealed the 1649 Act.
Lord Baltimore regained control of his colony in 1658 and restored peace and some of the old religious freedom. This situation remained until the Glorious Revolution in England in 1688 which eventually led to the establishment of the Anglican Church in Maryland and subsequent impositions on Catholics. Still, landowners, including the Jesuits, kept some rights. By 1729, these Jesuits had some 10,000 acres and, by 1764, 29 working slaves and 36 other slaves. Catholics still remained a small minority in Maryland.
Saint Junipero Serra, born in Europe in 1713, later joined the Franciscans and desired to become a missionary in the new world. After serving for a number of years in Mexico, in 1768 he was named the founding president of missions in California which he then would go on to establish. The next year, working with civil authorities, he and his fellow Franciscans opened their first mission at San Diego.
An attack by native Americans and food shortages almost closed the mission. However, the following year relief arrived, and Serra was able to open the next mission at Carmel Bay dedicated to Saint Charles Borromeo. In 1771, the missions of San Antonio, San Gabriel, and San Luis Obisbo were set up.
Returning to Mexico, Father Junipero strongly urged that only married soldiers be assigned at the Presidios near the missions. He believed this would promote stability and respect. He also requested that the natives be freed of forced labor and other forms of coercion by the military. Receiving most of what he wanted, he returned.
Still, some resentments against the soldiers and perhaps some of the missionaries led to a revolt at the San Diego mission in 1774 where Father Luis Jayme was killed. Nonetheless, more missions followed at Capistrano and San Francisco before Serra’s death in 1784.
Many of the natives, as elsewhere in the Americas, died from various diseases, thus reducing the Mission population. Finally, Mexico eventually secularized the missions after 1813. Still, Catholicism kept a presence in this area and, certainly, the names of the missions have remained as cities and as tributes to the missionary era.
There is yet another saint to be discussed, Kateri Tekakwitha. Born in upstate New York in 1656 of a Mohawk father and a Christian Algonquin mother, she was briefly instructed by some passing missionary. She became committed to a life of prayer and resisted the attempts to get her married. On Easter Day in 1676 she was baptized as Catherine (Kateri in Mohawk) after a period of catechesis.
Harassed by tribal members due to her profession of charity and purity, she sought to live in a place which would support her faith. She had to sneak away to Canada with the help of a Christian relative in 1677. There she made her first Communion and deepened her piety. After a period of illness and suffering, she was anointed and died on April 13, 1680, speaking her last words, “Jesus, Mary, I love you.” She became the first North American Native woman canonized a saint on October 21, 2012.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
+ Earl Boyea
Bishop of Lansing
P.S. Below is a video version of the above talk. Please feel free to share with family and friends. Thank you.