Petra is just 43 kilometers from the city of Palma. The Church of Saint Peter, the Convent of San Bernardino, and the Sanctuary for the Bonany Virgen are some of the most important points in the municipality. The first is a gothic set constructed between the 16th and the 17th century. The convent is where Friar Junípero first went to school, while the origins of the sanctuary date to the early 17th century. Of course, there are also areas linked to the famous missionary. The Friar Junípero Serra Museum exhibit allows you to learn about his life and work. In order to see the house where he was born, you must go to the neighborhood of Barracar, the oldest one in the town. Both stories show a country home that was typical for the 16th and 17th century. A festival is held in his honor on the third Sunday of September, with activities like floral offerings and float parades.
Universal Majorcan
Professor Herbert Bolton said that the United States had to poles of equal founding signification: the lands of New England colonized by the English pilgrims arrived in 1620, and the group of missions established by Fra Juniper Serra starting in 1769 in what the Spaniards, called Alta California.
The Franciscan only wanted to plant a civilization humanitary and prosperous in those inhospitable lands. The fame of his virtues, and the acknowledgment of his miraculous intervention in the recovery of a nun whose illness took her to the border of death, have elevated him to the altars with the distinction of Blessed.
Pope John Paul II (1988) recognized in him the exemplary model of the unselfish evangelizer, true glory of Majorca, his natal land that claims him as its illustrious son and venerates him. He is a universal Majorcan.
Biblio: ·300 Juniper; El Apóstol de California: Sus albores ( Bartomeu Font Obrador, Ed. Conselleria Cultura 1989)