National Catholic Register, Jim Graves: Catholic evangelization in California began more than two centuries ago when Spanish Franciscans, first led by famed missionary St. Junípero Serra, traveled up El Camino Real (the king’s highway) to teach California Indians the Catholic Faith.
While Serra is commonly recognized as California’s greatest missionary, the state’s second-greatest missionary, Fermín de Lasuén, is largely unknown. Yet Lasuén played an instrumental role in continuing the work of Serra, developing and expanding the Franciscan mission chain to the benefit of thousands of 18th- and 19th-century Californians. Full account is here.
