The Quiz: Mallorca was the birthplace of what famous Catholic priest who is an integral part of California history?
A Andres Quintana
B Junípero Serra
C Francisco Vazquez de Coronado
Junípero Serra was born in Mallorca in 1713 and grew up to be a Roman Catholic priest and missionary of the Franciscan order. He founded the first nine of 21 Catholic missions in present-day California with the purpose of converting Native Americans. He was beatified in 1988 in Vatican City and was canonized a saint in 2015, even though many see his work as brutal subjugation of Indigenous peoples. The surviving missions are among California’s oldest structures.
The correct answer to this quiz is Junípero Serra.