Check out this page on the San Carlos website for reference materials and links as well as recommended reading.
Reminders that the Spanish established missions in California are hard to miss. Less familiar are the Spanish presidios (military forts), four of which were strategically placed along the California coast. Click here to read about Spanish and Mexican California – The Presidios of Alta California
California’s first Catholic Cathedral [1849-59] and the smallest Catholic Cathedral in lower 48: Here’s a link to a short documentary about the cathedral which was produced by the City of Monterey in conjunction with 2013 Monterey History Fest.
Click here to watch a video of San Carlos Cathedral, produced by Gary Keller, Regents’ Professor and Director, Hispanic Research Center, Arizona State University as part of his Missions of el Camino Real de California project.
Junipero Serra was canonized on September 23, 2015, during Pope Francis’ visit to the US. Here is a website created by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops; a very comprehensive site that includes a biography, his travels and legacy, and canonization.
An oak tree at the edge of Monterey Bay, just west of today’s Fisherman’s Wharf, figured prominently in the history of Monterey. Sebastián Vizcaíno’s 1602 expedition anchored in Monterey Bay, and as was the custom at that time, a Mass of thanksgiving was celebrated under that oak tree. In June, 1770, Gaspar de Portolá led an expedition, which include Junipero Serra, to found a presidio and establish a mission in Monterey. That expedition also celebrated Mass under that oak. Thereafter it was called the Viscaino-Serra Oak. The tree died in 1904, was pushed into the bay but was recovered at Fr. Mestre’s urging, and was propped up behind the Royal Presidio Chapel until it fell to pieces in the early 1990s. Here’s a link to a blog on the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History titled A Tree and a Chair. Many Californians will remember Huell Howser and his syndicated TV series California’s Gold; here’s a link to a program Monterey’s Trees – California Gold.
One of the statues in the church is Santa or Saint Rosalia, the “Little Saint”. The statue has her holding a human skull. In the middle ages, when thew plague was raging through Europe, a hunter carried her bones through the streets of Palermo, Italy, and the plague ceased. Read more about this fascinating story here.
We’ve also uploaded some documents which provide historical background or instructions for docents.
Fr. Peter led a tour of the Chapel for the docents. Using a hand held digital voice recorder we were able to record much of what he said