Junipero Serra: Pioneer, Missionary, Saint

by Agnes Repplier

Junípero Serra, “the Apostle of California,” possessed an intrepid, pioneering nature, a missionary spirit, and—as evidenced by his 2015 canonization—a saintly heart. Originally published in 1933, this life of Serra is, in the words of editor Jeremy Beer, “one of the best non-academic biographies of a saint ever to be written in the English language.” Detailing the legacy of the saint’s “troubled and triumphant career,” Repplier charts Serra’s course from professor of philosophy to president of the California missions, providing great insight into the character of the saint, the missionary and native cultures, and the vast tableau of historical figures and events of the period.To tell the life of a saint is a work of history as much as it is a project of evangelical zeal. Junípero Pioneer, Missionary, Saint unifies these endeavors. As Beer writes in closing his “May this book serve to reintroduce both St. Serra and Agnes Repplier, two extraordinary children of the Church, to a world that unjustly impugns the one, and has unjustly forgotten the other.”

Genres: Catholic, Biography

230 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2020

About the author

American essayist. Educated at the Convent of the Sacred Heart, Eden Hall at Torresdale, Philadelphia, and later at the Agnes Irwin School. Repplier was reportedly expelled from two schools for "independent behaviour" and illiterate until the age of ten. She received mentoring in writing by a nun who was herself a noted writer, Mary Paulina Finn, who published books, poetry and plays under the pseudonym M. S. Pine.