ARTICLES

Holy Man of Santa Clara

Archdiocese Archives Hold Reports of Prophecies and Miracles

By John-David Black

Pope John Paul II reminds us in his encyclical The Church in America, that the "fruits of holiness have flourished from the first days of the evangelization of America." Challenging us to recall the memory and efforts of these American saints, he notes that, "their example of boundless dedication to the cause of the Gospel must not only be saved from oblivion, but must become better and more widely known among the faithful of the continent."

This challenge may also apply to those saintly Americans whose cases for beatification or canonization are pending. The life of Padre Magín Catalá, fits into this category. A man of exemplary character and apostolic commitment, he served the faithful of San José for thirty-six years at Old Mission Santa Clara. When Catalá died on November 22, 1830, nearly the entire population of the pueblo of San Jose, as well as all of the converted Indians of the surrounding region, crowded into the mission church to obtain some relic of "the holy man of Santa Clara."

More than a missionary, more than a beloved padre, the eminent sanctity and heroic virtue of Magín Catalá was renowned in northern California for a hundred years after his death. So great was the local cult that regularly solicited the holy man's intercessions, and so numerous the stories of prodigies and remarkable answers to prayer that adorned his life and legacy, the Jesuit fathers of Santa Clara University were compelled to petition the archdiocese in 1884 to begin the canonical process and formally investigate the life and times of Catalá. In mid summer of 1888, the ecclesiastical court was convened in Santa Clara and began taking sworn testimony in the case. Sixty-two eyewitnesses presented the court with a litany of miraculous events that occurred during his earthly life, as well as many testimonies of answered prayer following his death. His surviving parishioners portrayed a man wholly committed to the spiritual welfare and temporal benefit of the numerous Indians of the Santa Clara Valley. Padre Catalá fasted every day, eating or drinking nothing until noon, and then only taking two meals the rest of the day consisting of scant portions of corn meal and milk. In true Franciscan spirit, he gave no allowance to the flesh, seeking to utterly insulate himself from worldly allurements. The friar often spent whole nights kneeling in prayer before the crucifix in the church, and during the day when he could not be found around the mission, his neophytes knew they would find him in the church, contemplating the Savior. Several witnesses testified under oath that they had on occasion found him suspended above the floor while he knelt before the crucifix, and the corpus, having detached from the cross, embraced the holy friar in midair. (This "miraculous crucifix" hangs today above the tomb of Padre Catalá in the mission church at Santa Clara University).

Padre Catalá's parishioners testified that he often admonished them with supernatural ability, knowing spontaneously the intimate secrets of their lives, particularly when they were experiencing temptation to err in faith or morals. In many cases, with amazing accuracy the good padre even knew in advance the hour of a parishioner's death. Several witnesses also testified that in cases of extreme pastoral necessity, Padre Catalá was -- like Saint Francis, Saint Anthony, and Mary of Agreda -- known to bilocate, that is, be present in two places at one time. One such instance occurred when some soldiers were taking him to a distant household to administer the sacraments to a terminally ill parishioner. Padre Catalá made the attempt to go to the house, but his own ill health prevented him from traveling the distance. Noting the exhaustion of the friar, the soldiers sat him down under a tree -- where they could clearly see him -- to rest for a while. As he sat there he characteristically gave himself to prayer and meditation. After a while he got up and came to the waiting soldiers and told them to take him back to the mission, saying that they no longer needed to go to the house because the sick person had already received the sacraments. Later, the family in question affirmed emphatically that Padre Catalá had come to the house and administered the sacraments, though the soldiers were equally emphatic, claiming that he was never out of their sight, and that he never made it to the house.

Many of the prodigies that adorned the life of Saint Francis were also readily apparent in the life of the holy man. He once led a procession from the mission to San Jose and back again along "the Alameda," prayerfully seeking an end to a severe drought that threatened the livestock and the crops. Witnesses testified that before the procession had ended, dark clouds had gathered to the north and a uproarious storm swept over the region and ended the drought. The Indians replanted and a bumper crop was brought in that year. On another occasion, the Indians complained to the padre that a swarm of locusts were destroying the crops. Padre Catalá asked that some of the locusts be brought to him in a jar. The Indians brought the jar to him and he then placed it on the altar in the church. After a season of prayer, Padre Catalá released the captive locusts into the field again and publicly commanded the rest of the swarm to follow them into the sea. Within moments, the black cloud of locusts headed west over the Santa Cruz mountains, and according to the sworn testimony of at least nine eyewitnesses, including the padre at Mission Santa Cruz, so many locusts washed up on the beach that they were knee deep for three or four miles along the shore.

Many also testified at the hearings that the holy man's prayers often saved women in desperate cases of childbirth. In fact, the unanimous testimony of his surviving parishioners was that no woman -- during his lifetime or after his death -- who had sought his intercession in a life-threatening delivery ever failed to obtain a happy outcome. After his death, some midwives kept relics from Padre Catalá's habit to use in desperate cases; they testified before the court that they never once lost a mother or a child when they invoked the intercessions of Padre Catalá.

For the modern faithful of the Bay Area, the most pertinent aspect of Padre Catalá's legacy was his prophetic insight into the future of the region. In the final years of his life, he warned parishioners of "foreigners" (i.e., the American colonists) coming from the east who would usurp the Catholic faith of the mission era, portraying these developments as an unmitigated disaster for the California Indian. Padre Catalá spoke of the discovery of gold in California, warning the Indians that its seductive charm would bring evil on them. As a result of this discovery, he predicted that many Spanish Californians would loose their lands and suffer poverty; and the Indians would be scattered across the region.

In Padre Catalá's day, the outpost of Yerba Buena, which later became the city of San Francisco, was nothing more than sparsely populated frontier settlement. But Padre Catalá predicted that it would suddenly become a great city and that people from all over the world would come here by the lure of great wealth. This prediction was made in the 1820's -- as late as 1848, there were only a few tents and a couple of adobe buildings at Yerba Buena with less than five hundred people living there. Nobody could have imagined in their wildest dreams that -- with the discovery of gold -- it would take only three years for San Francisco to become a world-renowned metropolis with a population over 30,000. Even more amazing was Padre Catalá's prediction that San Francisco would be destroyed by an earthquake and fire at the height of its prosperity. When the catastrophe occurred in 1906, there were those alive who recalled this amazing prophecy from the mission era. Their testimony helped stir support for Padre Catalá's canonization.

As he warned his parishioners of their clouded future, Catala challenged them to preserve their religious heritage and never forget the simplicity and Gospel poverty they learned from the Franciscans, for soon the friars and the missions would be gone and long forgotten. Padre Catalá knew he would not live to see this tragic period of California history. He died in 1830, and after their secularization in 1833, the missions began their descent into decay and ruin. Though many witnesses testified before the ecclesiastical court of the miracles and prodigies associated with Padre Catalá, it was his consistent example of sanctity and virtue that made the most lasting impression on them. Those who knew the man believed that he was favored by heaven for his sanctity and faith. In their estimation, he lived a life of "heroic virtue" and they honored him without apology; as a result, the local clergy had difficulty in discouraging the popular cult that grew in anticipation of his canonization. Owing to the complexity and expense of promoting the canonical process, the cause for Padre Catalá's canonization was allowed to lapse without his being declared venerable. Today, "the holy man of Santa Clara" has been all but forgotten among the Bay Area's faithful. Nonetheless, his cause is open and rests in the archives of the San Francisco archdiocese.

In an attempt to identify with the Franciscan heritage in California, I embarked on a nearly 700 miles journey -- on foot -- to all of the California missions. Walking the entire length of the El Camino Real, I discovered that the spiritual pioneers of the California frontier still labor in prayer for the Golden State. Our California forefathers incessantly call the faithful of the West Coast to recall their spiritual roots in this region, and to return to the simplicity of their spiritual heritage. In this materialistic culture, there is something comforting about walking along the trail of our spiritual forefathers.

When I discovered the local aspect of that heritage in the person of Padre Magín Catalá, I was inspired to make a another pilgrimage to the five Northern California missions he was known to have served at or at least visited. I set aside nine days to walk in pilgrimage from Mission Dolores to Mission Carmel (finishing at the tomb of Padre Junípero Serra) to recall our local heritage, and to seek the assistance of the saints to evangelize the Golden State. As I did my short pilgrimage to Mission Carmel last June, a handful of the Bay Area's faithful joined me in pilgrimage along the way for short distances. It was a blessed, and we found the experience moving. We have determined that it would be worthwhile to make this pilgrimage an annual event. We are in the preliminary planning stages, with a tentative objective to make the pilgrimage in a relay fashion during the last nine days of every June. If you would like more information, feel free to contact me at sfpilgrimage@hotmail.com.

For those who are interested in hearing his personal conversion story along the mission trail, or who would like more information about Padre Catalá, Black is available as a speaker through Saint Joseph's Communications. Contact Kadee Della Donna at (626) 331-3549.

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