Balearic government wants 2013 to be declared “Friar Juniper Serra year”

Balearic President José Ramón Bauzà and his Education Minister Rafael Bosch said yesterday that they want to see 2013 be declared “Friar Juniper Serra year” throughout Spain. Speaking yesterday at San Francisco college in Palma, the President paid tribute to the “pioneering spirit” of the Franciscan monk born in Petra in the 18th century. Against difficult odds of disease and conflict with non-Christian people with whom they came into contact, Serra founded the California missions at a time when the North American state still belonged to the Spanish. 2013 is the 300th anniversary of his birth.