Journal of San Diego History (original) (raw)

The Journal of San Diego History
Winter 1976, Volume 22, Number 1
Contents of This Issue

The Death of Fray Lu�s Jayme
Two Hundredth Anniversary
By Msgr. Francis J. Weber

One of the brightest chapters in the history of humankind is that which relates the spiritual accomplishments of North America's Franciscan pioneers.

And perhaps the most glorious and long-lasting of the many contributions associated with the disciples of Saint Francis is the distinction of having provided the proto-martyrs for such areas of the New World as Mexico, Canada and the United States.

In North America alone, no fewer than 115 friars willingly underwent the supreme sacrifice in a saga of dauntless courage, inspiring heroism and wholehearted devotion unparalleled in ecclesiastical annals.

The Franciscans were especially lavish in bestowing their blood and virtue on the Church in California. Prominently etched onto the Golden State's martyrology are the names of six outstanding friars whose testimony for Christ is forever a monument to Christian endurance and bravery.

On the eve of the nation's bicentennial, the People of God gather at San Diego to honor the memory of Fray Lu�s Jayme, a cherished member of that Seraphic contingency who effected the initial triumph of religion and civilization in what was to become the thirty-first commonwealth of these United States. It was just two hundred years ago that the soil of the Pacific Slope was reddened by the blood of that youthful friar.

Sixteen of the Franciscans who carried the banner of Christ along El Camino Real hailed from Mallorca, the largest of the Balearic Islands, off the Spanish coast. Lu�s Jayme was one of those who bore in his temperament and exemplified in his demeanor the charm of that picturesque isle which writers have long referred to as the "spiritual god-mother" of California.

Melchor Jayme was born in the tranquil farming village of S