California Mission
Pilgrimage(5)
Day Six: Easter Wednesday
Mission San Carlos Borromeo
This Mission is often simply called Mission
Carmel, and to be honest, I really didn’t want it to be my favorite, because it
is everybody’s favorite. But I have to
admit, after having visited it, that it is my favorite (although each Mission
is special and San Juan Capistrano is a close second).
There are a few things that make
Mission Carmel so special. First of all,
the church is absolutely beautiful.
Also, many of the Missions have wonderful sacred art and artifacts; some
have more than Carmel, in fact, but what they have here is really amazing.
The most incredible thing that Mission
Carmel has, which no other Mission does, is the grave of Father Serra. In the church, before the altar are three
graves. One is Father Serra’s. Another is Father Fermin Lasuen’s, who
founded the next nine Missions after Father Serra. Since we had been learning about him on our
trip, it was special to visit his grave, as well. There are also many relics of Father
Serra. You can see a part of his coffin,
for example. Since Carmel was Father
Serra’s headquarters, you can also visit his room there, which is where he
died. There are some nice relics at
other Missions, but the vast amount directly related to Father Serra make
Carmel a unique place.
The grave of Fr. Serra, before the altar
Father Serra's room, in which he died
The Blessed Sacrament chapel
San Juan Bautista
From Carmel, we went to Mission San Juan
Bautista. Although it doesn’t have as
much as Carmel, this is a great Mission to visit. The church and courtyard are beautiful, as is
the Mission’s location. There is an
original dirt section of El Camino Real at this Mission, and it is in a cute
little town off highway 101, at the end of a street, making up one part of
a square surrounded by other historic buildings that have been preserved and
are open to visitors.
After visiting the Mission, we ate
lunch at the “Mission Café” just down the road.
One thing about San Juan Bautista is that I found it to be the last
Mission located in a really beautiful location with a beautiful drive to get
there (with the exception of our last Mission, San Francisco Solano).
Our Lady of Guadalupe chapel
Mission Santa Cruz
After leaving San Juan Bautista, we
headed to Santa Cruz. Although there was
a wonderful drive through the mountains, as we approached Santa Cruz, the
traffic became horrendous, and the city itself was crowded and kind of dirty. We arrived at Mission Santa Cruz shortly
before 3:00, and it was a good thing we did, because the old Mission is a small
chapel located next to the new church, and it closes at 3:00. There is very little to see at Mission Santa
Cruz, so our lack of time turned out to be no problem, but the chapel itself is
nice, and of course it is holy ground.
It is free to visit, just make sure you don’t get there too late.
We camped that night at New Brighton
State Beach, which is a campground I would definitely like to visit again. (The state hadn’t even gotten around to
boarding up the bathrooms yet, which provided us with an unexpected
luxury). One major problem, though, was
that the traffic the rest of the day and the next morning, around Santa Cruz,
continued to be terrible.
