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Buona sera, amici!
As you know, I spent a long time exploring the history of California, which was hugely shaped by Franciscan missionaries like Junípero Serra. What I didn’t know was that I was going to stumble upon two basilicas on my Italian adventure that had a major impact on the founding of the Golden State!
The first, the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli, arose at the request of Pope Pius V in 1569, and over 110 years came to enfold a tiny chapel called the Porziuncola. It was here in 1209 that St. Francis founded the first order of the Frati Minori, to which California’s padres belonged, and where he died in 1226.
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Now, if you translate the Italian name of this basilica into Spanish, as spoken by Franciscan Juan Crespí over 500 years later, you might notice something familiar about the name given to a southern California river: Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río Porciúncula. Yes, folks, the enormous city of Los Angeles takes its name from the tiny Porziuncola chapel here in Umbria, over 6,000 miles away!
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Of course, a mere three miles away, is the town that gave rise to my favorite saint and patron of all animals, Francesco Bernardone, known today as St. Francis of Assisi! It was here that this wealthy son of a merchant forsook his wealth and parties and founded an order of poor beggar priests. He was reported to have charmed flocks of birds and talked a wolf out of eating people so it wouldn’t be killed!
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The Franciscan Order spread to Spain in the late 1300s and to New Spain (Mexico) in the mid 1500. Originally, the Jesuits were in charge of the Spanish missions in Baja California for 70 years, but after they were blamed for the Esquilache Riots in 1766, King Carlos III expelled them from all Spanish territories. In California, at the dawn of northward explorations, Governor Gaspar de Portolá carried out this expulsion, and the Franciscan order moved in to take over the existing missions and press north to build 21 more!
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That’s a lot of home state history to originate in this tiny patch of Umbria! With storm clouds overhead and patches of rain falling, these basilicas were quiet and calm, more like the saint they memorialized than the chaotic events of conquest that came after. I’ll take these memories with me when I return to the state shaped in their honor!
Ciao per adesso!
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Total Ground Covered: 703.7 mi (1,132.3 km) |
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