Over the years, Blessed Junípero Serra and the California missions have been depicted in various art forms — notably this year in “Junípero Serra and the Legacies of the California Missions,” an exhibit running to Jan. 6, 2014 at The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.Each of the missions, of course, offers a wealth of historical art and artifacts, and are available for visiting. The missions — and many Catholic parishes and schools around California — also are graced with statues of Father Serra, provided by the William H. Hannon Foundation, whose late founder was an avid devotee of the missions and the missionary himself.Lesser known, perhaps, is stained glass artwork that is found in parishes up and down the state. At Holy Cross Church in Santa Barbara, for example, are depictions of the six missions in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles (and Father Serra himself), by liturgical artist Isabel Piczek. More stained glass can be found at Our Lady of the Assumption, Ventura, just a few miles from the ninth and last mission founded by Father Serra.And up north, at Mission San Rafael Arcángel in San Rafael (north of San Francisco, stained glass in the newer parish church depicts the patron saints of each mission, organized in “north to south” order (or vice versa, depending on where you start looking). {gallery width=100 height=100}gallery/2013/1108/serraside/{/gallery}
