Remembering the wonder-working lesser-known missionary Magin Catalá at Santa Clara Mission on the 193rd anniversary of his death
All are invited November 22: The Holy Man of Santa Clara is celebrated every year at a Solemn High Mass at the high altar at the Mission where he labored
Father Magin Catalá is not nearly as widely known as St. Junipero Serra, but although Father Catalá died 193 years ago, on November 22, 1830, he is still revered even now. Many have come by various means to know about him and to love him the same way the people of his time did, as the Holy Man of Santa Clara.
Father Magin Catalá was a Franciscan missionary who served at the eighth California Mission, which was named for Saint Clare (Santa Clara) of Assisi. Father Catalá first arrived at the mission in 1794, seventeen years after it was founded by Saint Junipero Serra in 1777. He labored there with love and great personal sacrifice for thirty-six years until his death.
The goal of this piece is to introduce you to the life, labors, prophecies, and other wonders recorded about this saintly man, to the miraculous crucifix that became closely associated with him, and to how the cause for Servant of God Father Catalá’s canonization was opened and later stalled.
In addition, I want to tell you how, if you are in the area, you can join in the yearly celebration of Father Catalá, at a traditional Latin Mass at the seldom-used high altar at the restored Mission Santa Clara Church, which now serves as the chapel for Santa Clara University. You may want to come, especially, to savor the music. Two choirs will join to sing The Mission Mass music composed by Franciscan missionaries for the California Missions, with motets to honor St. Cecilia and Father Catalá.
El Profeta
A 1909 book titled The Holy Man of Santa Clara OR Life, Virtues, and Miracles of Fr. Magin Catalá, O. F. M.by Father Zephyrin Engelhardt, O. F. M. contains first-hand accounts of many marvels associated with Father Catalá, which were collected by an ecclesial commission to support the cause of his canonization. (The letters still can be viewed in the University of Santa Clara Library Archives.)
One of the most notable things recorded by Father Engelhardt was that those who knew Father Catalá called him El Profeta, the prophet. He prophesied events that happened while he was alive that he had no earthly way of knowing anything about. For one of many examples, he asked for prayers for the soul of his mother on what turned out to be the exact day of her death, even though it was months before the news reached him from Spain. And it’s hard not to be astonished when you realize that Father Catalá predicted many major changes that would come to that part of California after he died. More about his prophecies later.
The Valley Before and After
Some historical background is necessary to grasp Father Catalá’s contribution to the south San Francisco Bay Area and to appreciate the accuracy of some of his prophecies, which will be quoted further down in this article.
Mission Santa Clara, like all the other California missions, was founded in what was then called Alta California, which was part of Mexico, when Mexico was under Spanish rule. The mission’s territory included much of the peninsula on the west side of San Francisco Bay, from present-day Palo Alto to the present City of Santa Clara.
Father Catalá, along with another priest, Father José Viader, administered all the activities on that huge expanse of land. The two of them alone taught the faith, administered the sacraments, and guided all the work necessary to teach, feed, clothe, and house the growing population of Indians at the mission, who by 1795 numbered one thousand five hundred and forty-one.
It’s hard to imagine so few priests doing so much, but they taught the natives how to build and to farm and to tend tens of thousands of heads of cattle and sheep on the vast lands of the Mission, and to do myriad other tasks. Even though the goodwill of missionaries is disputed in this cynical age, their intention was always to hand the lands back to the Indians. The disciplined work ethic and skills the friars taught were meant to enable the natives to sustain themselves after they were on their own. And above everything else, the faith they taught was intended to save their charges’ immortal souls.
Father Catalá oversaw the planting of orchards that became the first of many more that were later planted and harvested in the major packing and canning industry that flourished at the beginning of the 20th century. By 1915, there were 7,829,677 fruit trees in the valley. The beauty and fragrance of the blossoming of millions of fruit trees gave the Santa Clara valley a new name that has a lot of worldly charm, the Valley of Heart’s Delight, a name that lasted until after WWII when residential neighborhoods began to crowd out the orchards.
Father Catalá also oversaw the construction of a three-mile-long irrigation canal to bring in water from the river named for Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe (Our Lady of Guadalupe) near the Pueblo of San José to the mission for cooking, washing, and irrigation. He then supervised the planting of four rows of black willows and western maples on either side of an avenue (called the Alameda) along the canal. The trees provided not only shade and beauty for those who traveled between the San José Pueblo and the mission but also protected them from free-ranging herds of black, longhorn cattle!
(The Alameda of Catalá’s time was later obscured by the street layout of the new city of Santa Clara, and another street now is called by that name.)
By 1822, eight years before Father Catalá’s death, Mexico seceded from Spain, and as a consequence, all the California missions came under Mexican governance. This change eventually brought the missions to an end and the natives were displaced to their great harm.
Mission Santa Clara was secularized in 1836, six years after Father Catalá died.
Because the valley had been transformed by agriculture and ranching, the natives could no longer sustain themselves in their previous way of life, and they had few choices about how to make their living after the missions were shut down. Many went to work on Mexican-owned ranchos that were formed from parcels of Mission lands.
The first American settlers, who were mostly Protestants, arrived in the Santa Clara Valley in the early 1830s. I’ve read historical accounts of how large numbers of them even squatted in the decaying mission buildings after secularization. When the California Trail opened in 1844, thousands more American immigrants flooded in.
The few natives who did receive land grants after secularization were often swindled out of them, and the lands that belonged to them were given or sold to Mexican and American adventurers.
After the forces of the young United States of America won the Mexican-American war, the valley eventually became part of the state of California. As you can see in the following prophecies, Father Catalá seems to have presciently known about the Protestant Americans too.
From The Holy Man of Santa Clara: “It appears that Almighty God in those days allowed His servant a distinct view of the future of California. There were still many witnesses alive in 1884 who under oath declared that the holy man had preached substantially as follows: People from almost all the nations of the earth will come to this coast. Another flag will come from the East and the people that follow it will speak an altogether different language, and they will have a different religion. These people will take possession of the country and the lands. On account of their sins the Californians will lose their lands and become poor, and many of their children’s children will give up their own religion.
‘The Indians will be dispersed, and will not know what to do, and they will be like sheep running wild. Heretics will erect church buildings, but these will not be true temples of God. …. ‘I shall not see this,’ he exclaimed, ‘but there are those alive that will see it. There will be no Franciscans here then, but other Fathers will arrive.’”
The “other Fathers” turned out to be Dominican and Jesuit priests.
In 1851, California’s first Bishop, Dominican Joseph Alemany, ordered the last Franciscan Friar, José Suárez del Real—who administered the former Mission as a parish—to turn over what remained of the mission buildings and lands to Jesuit fathers. The Jesuits immediately founded the first college in the state, which later became Santa Clara University.
Father Catalá also clearly predicted the rise of San Francisco and the earthquake of 1906 and the subsequent fire that caused most of the destruction after the quake.
How well known this prophecy was known even seventy-six years after Catalá’s death is proven by a letter that was published on December 4, 1908 in the San Francisco Catholic newspaper, the Monitor, two years after the earthquake.
The author of the letter signed W. S. Thorne, M. D. wrote, “While I was a student at Santa Clara College fifty-one years ago, our teacher of rhetoric was the Rev. Father White.
“I well remember one bright afternoon in a recitation room, fronting the garden, gay with bright flowers, seated around the table our class of about eight with Father White at the head, his genial face beaming on us, while he related the following: 'Many years ago, a Father connected with the early missionary work of this church, held the deserved reputation of seer or prophet.
His was a most holy and remarkable character.’
“Among his many prophecies was the following: ‘At the place now called Yerba Buena (the site of San Francisco) there shall one day arise a great and populous city. This city will be built by a race of foreigners and they will possess the land. This city will flourish and its inhabitants will become rich and powerful, and when at the height of its prosperity it will perish by earthquake and fire. ...’”
“Three days before the catastrophe of April 18, 1906, I related the above prophecy at a dinner.”
How shocked Dr. Thorne’s dinner companions must have been when they recalled his words a few days later after the earth did quake in San Francisco and the city then began to burn!
Ascetic, Mystic, and Miracle Worker
Father Catalá, like many of the great saints, practiced great penances and ate and slept very little. Witnesses saw Father Catalá levitate when he was praying for hours, sometimes all night without sleeping, in front of a life-size crucifix in the church, and several said that Christ detached His hands from the cross and laid them on Father Catalá’s shoulders.
Not only did Father Catalá levitate like St. Joseph of Cupertino, he was also reportedly seen several times during his life in two places at once, bilocating like St. Padre Pio is said to have done.
The Miraculous Crucifix and the Mission Church
Over the years after the mission was founded and before the current Mission Santa Clara church was built, five church buildings in five different locations were built and later abandoned or destroyed after floods, earthquakes, and fire.
When Father Catalá arrived in 1794, the third church had been completed ten years earlier. In 1818, an earthquake severely damaged the 1784 church, and Father Viader and Father Catalá built a temporary adobe building that was used until a fifth Mission Church building was finished in 1825.
A little more than 100 years later, long after Father Catalá’s death, the fifth building burned down in 1926. An article from the Madera Tribune issue of October 25, the day of the fire, reported that the crucifix was rescued by students and priests. The hermetically sealed tin box containing Father Catalá’s remains was saved from the ashes. After a widened reinforced concrete building was built to replace the adobe and redwood structure, his remains were re-buried in a vault under the gospel side of the rebuilt side altar where the crucifix now hangs. A marble grave slab, which used to have gold filling the letters carved in it, hangs on the wall to the left of the altar.
The very same crucifix loved by Father Catalá now hangs over a side altar to the right of main altar in the current Mission Church building.
The “Catalá Crucifix” was probably carved in Mexico and brought to the Mission with other decorations for the fifth mission church in 1802 or 1803.
It resembles crucifixes of Mexican and Spanish origin dating to this period. The following words, which describe Cristo Aparecido, another famous crucifix that reportedly appeared miraculously in Mexico in the previous century, could very well apply to this one.
“Bloody, tortured, the lifeless head crowned with thorns, and matted hair, bowed slightly to the right. Sinew, muscle, and veins were all visible in his emaciated arms.” The description mentioned the ‘exaggerated realism’ of the sufferings of Christ … detailed depictions of blood, torn skin, and open wounds.”—Jennifer Hughes. Biography of a Mexican Crucifix: Lived Religion and Local Faith from the Conquest to the Present.
A Yearly Commemoration
Every year for about the last fifteen years, a lay group with the cooperation of interested priests has sponsored a commemoration of Father Catalá. The group started with rosary processions from the nearby Oratory of Our Mother of Perpetual Help to Mission Santa Clara, followed by prayers at the altar of the crucifix. Later, Vespers were added to the commemoration. When the Jesuits who run SCU granted the group permission for a traditional Latin Mass once a year, they began to include a Traditional Latin Mass in their yearly commemoration. The commemoration is scheduled as close as possible to Father Catalá’s November 22 death anniversary, and when it falls on this date, St. Cecilia is also honored. This year the commemoration will be held on his actual death anniversary, on November 22, the evening before Thanksgiving. See the flyer below.
After the Mass, the choir sings the same evening hymn that Father Catalá would lead the converted natives in singing at the close of every day.
Hail Mary, blessed of God and full of grace, The Lord is with thee, Purest of our race! Blest are thou, Dove of purest, spotless white,
Sole woman, never touched by sin’s chill blight! With one voice earth and heaven thee acclaim
As Queen, — God’s Mother, — Virgin free from stain! So shall it be! —Forever sound our strain! With one voice earth and heaven thee acclaim.
Pending Canonization
The process for Father Catalá’s canonization was initiated by Archbishop Alemany of San Francisco in 1882, testimonies were collected from those still alive who knew him, and necessary documents were submitted to Rome in 1909, but his cause has stalled since then. Members of a prayer group dedicated to praying for Father Català’s intercession and canonization spoke to a Franciscan at Mission Santa Barbara several years ago about the status of the holy man’s cause. They were told that the Franciscans planned to pursue the cause after certain funds donated to them for the cause of Saint Junipero Serra’s canonization were spent on related projects consistent with the donors’ wishes.
Homily Excerpt
Following is an excerpt from a homily given at the Traditional Latin Mass celebrated in 2017 in front of the miraculous crucifix by Canon Raphael Ueda, a priest of the Institute of Christ the King.
“Like St. Paul, who exclaimed, ‘I judge myself to know nothing among you, but Jesus Christ and Him Crucified,’ and like St. Francis, the father of his order, Catalá appears to have centered all his affections in Christ Crucified. At the foot of this great Crucifix, the devout missionary looked for inspiration as to what he should preach, guidance out of his difficulties, consolation for the stubbornness of his flock, strength to persevere, and even rest for his body.
“Naturally, the sufferings of the Savior very often provided the subject for this holy man’s sermons and instructions, since his mind and heart were so absorbed by his Crucified Love that he seemed to feel at home nowhere save at the feet of the Crucified. And he tried by every means to excite a similar devotion for the Passion of our Redeemer in the hearts of all, and therefore, besides preaching on the subject, he had the stations of the Cross erected along the Alameda ....
“And one of many miracles happened during the procession along the stations of the Cross.
“One year, about 1823, the whole valley was suffering from a great drought. It had not rained during the entire preceding winter, nor in the spring that succeeded it. About 500 sheep perished. In other places the people suffered similarly. The inhabitants, therefore, asked Father Catalá for relief.
“He invited all the people to join him in prayer for rain. It was the month of April. A day was set apart for a solemn procession to beg Heaven for pity upon the people. After Holy Mass, during which Father Catalá preached, the procession set out from the church and wound its way through the Alameda halfway to San Jose and then turned back.
“The great Crucifix, surrounded by many burning candles, was carried in the procession. When the praying multitude had reached the last station of the Way of the Cross …, a black cloud was seen far away in the mountains to the west. It grew larger and wider and approached rapidly. When they were about 300 or 600 feet from the church, the rain began to fall in torrents and it was accompanied by a heavy wind. Much rain fell for seven or eight days.”
Some Final Words
Long after his death people were known to say these words in times of trouble, “Soul of Father Magin, help me!” As recorded in the chapter titled “Miracles after his Death” in The Holy Man of Santa Clara, time after time “those that invoked him experienced the benefits of his intercession many years after ….” Lost things that were despaired of were found and sick people were cured after people called on the holy man for help, and promised a Rosary, a Holy Mass, or a Novena of Holy Masses.
We too may find these words helpful in these present times of trouble, when we couple them with similar promises.
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