Father Mugártegui - Philosophy from a Founder of Mission San Juan Capistrano
Father Mugártegui’s signature from one of the registers of Mission San Juan Capistrano. Mugártegui lived an extraordinary life. He was Basque and born in Markina-Xemein, Spain, on October 31, 1736, became a Franciscan, a professor of philosophy, and finally a missionary in the Americas. He was a founding missionary of Mission San Juan Capistrano in 1776, serving there until returning to Mexico in 1789.
Father Mugártegui - Philosophy from a Founder of Mission San Juan Capistrano
Mission San Juan Capistrano was founded in the final months of 1776 by missionaries Junípero Serra, Gregorio Amurrió, and, arriving just after the official founding, Pablo Mugártegui. Serra and Mugártegui originally met aboard the ship Santiago while sailing to California from Mexico in 1774. Both were former professors of philosophy in Spain who had become missionaries. Their shared backgrounds were a source of mutual respect that each expressed towards one-another in letters.
Markina-Xemein, Mugártegui’s home village in northern Spain in the Basque province of Biscay. (TurismoVasco)
Father Mugártegui spent thirteen years at Mission San Juan Capistrano before returning to Mexico in 1789. He was the lead missionary during his tenure, overseeing the mission’s rapid relative growth in its early years. By the time he left California, the mission’s population had grown to nearly 800 baptized Acjachemen, with well over 5000 domesticated animals, and over 3000 bushels of annual agricultural produce (Engelhardt, San Juan Capistrano).
While impressive, these statistics are but a small indication of the arduous efforts Mugártegui exerted to achieve them. The evangelization process was perhaps the most challenging of his many roles. He worked with a small number of Cochimí people who were brought from Baja California to help model the typical agrarian and Catholic lifestyle the Spanish colonists wanted to impose on the local Acjachemen people. With the help of translators from Mission San Gabriel, he likely learned the local Acjachemen language in order to assist with evangelization efforts and management of the community. While doing so he established relationships with individuals including Tàclec and his son Paat, leaders of the nearby village of Sagivit, Raunet, the leader of the large village of Putiidem, and Ompsil, another important leader of the village of Acjacheme. He also influenced the election of Paat as the mission’s first recorded alcalde (SJC Baptism #519). His efforts apparently paid off because early visitors indicated that the Acjachemen people were among the most receptive to mission life compared to the peoples of other missions in the province.
The first entries in the marriage register of Mission San Juan Capistrano. The first marriage was between two Cochimi Indians, Saturnino and Brigida from Mission San Borja in Baja California. Mugártegui likely intended for their marriage to serve as an example to the Acjachemen people. The second marriage was between a leader of the village of Acjacheme (near today’s mission site), Ompsil, and his wife Nereinem from Pange (at the mouth of San Mateo Canyon).
Father Mugártegui’s legacy today is perhaps most apparent in the mission’s buildings and the layout of downtown San Juan Capistrano. Mugártegui oversaw the construction of today’s Serra Chapel, which was completed in its first incarnation by about 1782, as well as most of the south wing of the quadrangle, which was his residence and perhaps the oldest extant building in California. According to archaeologist Jack Williams, it was likely Mugártegui, too, who designed the trapezoidal plaza with the mission buildings on the north end, housing for the Acjachemen families along the west and east sides, and a building for the cabildo (town council) on the south end. His influence even extends beyond the mission and village, because it was Mugártegui who may have established the mission ranchos at Trabuco and San Mateo. His legacy is still therefore very much visible throughout today’s southern Orange County.
Mugártegui originally directed the construction of the building on the left, which is the south wing of the quadrangle of Mission San Juan Capistrano. While the building was rebuilt several times, it is likely the oldest extant building in the state of California. This was Mugártegui’s residence during his time at the mission. Just before he returned to Mexico in 1789, the mission built its first kiln that was used to make red brick tile, seen in this photo.
After returning to Mexico, Mugártegui resumed life at the Apostolic College of San Fernando in Mexico City. The college’s purpose was to house and train missionaries and Mugártegui’s experience in the field apparently helped elect him to the position of superior in 1790. By 1792, he was named the professor of philosophy, likely training new missionaries, some of whom later came to California. He later attained positions within the Franciscan Order in Mexico, including president of his chapter in 1795 and Custody (leader) of the Franciscan Province of Santo Evangelio in and around today's Mexico (Real Academia de la Historia)
The Parroquia de San Fernando is the last standing portion of the College of San Fernando, the origin of the vast majority of California missionaries. Mugártegui is likely buried here.
While this sketch of Mugártegui’s life is relatively comprehensive compared to the lives of many other missionaries in California, very few of his writings have survived. Historians do not have any significant window into his or many other missionaries’ thoughts and worldviews other than what can be generalized from their being Franciscan missionaries.
Fortunately, hitherto undiscovered texts are consistently coming to light, especially as historical material continues to be digitized by numerous institutions around the world. While researching Father Mugártegui, I came across a letter he wrote on March 17, 1800, that was digitized by the Library of Congress. The letter was written for the purpose of endorsing a book authored by Father Miguel Hidalgo, the former Dominican president of the Baja California missions. For a full transcription and translation of the letter, please see the bottom of this post.
Mugártegui’s letter is an interesting window into the worldview of a California missionary outside of his missionizing activities. It helps contextualize how missionaries saw the broader world, which was experiencing rapid changes during a time period now considered to be a part of both the Enlightenment and the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. As community builders inspired by the teachings of the Catholic Church and operating within the tradition of Spanish missionization of the Americas, missionaries struggled to grapple with these rapid changes. Mugártegui expressed particular concern with the scientific discoveries emerging from the Enlightenment. In his letter, he argued that the pursuit of a scientific understanding of the universe threatened the ability of mankind to sharpen its moral focus. In “abandoning the governance of faith, trusting in natural reason,” he argued,
they began to form the world and configure matter to its purpose, subject it to the laws of motion, attraction, centripetal and centrifugal virtues; make prodigious calculations of the magnitude, distances of celestial bodies etc.; and when on such a lengthy journey we could expect some discoveries that would lead to knowledge of the greatness of God, some of them instead crashed into the rock of Materialism, others of Naturalism, Deism, and even, Atheism, and other horrors.
He used his background in philosophy to support his argument, writing
Socrates (says his Disciple Xenophon) did not want to devote himself to the trivial investigation of nature or the stars, because it seemed to him to be both very challenging and of very little use for human life. Their [the Greek philosophers] frequent debates were about what was pious, or impious; about honesty, or dishonesty; fair, or unfair; sobriety, or insanity. After him, the Disciples of Aristippus of Cyrene and Aristo of Chios affirmed that moral philosophy among all pursuits was worthy of all the attention of man, due to the benefits it brings with it. What will we get (they said) from being elevated above Perseus and the Pleiades, and contemplating from there the nature of all things, movements of celestial bodies, if this does not make us more prudent, more just, more modest? If these are the sentiments of the rational gentile philosophers, what should be those of the Christian? He knows that one is necessary, that there is only one science of health, and the doctrine that leads to eternal happiness, this is what our holy Religion teaches, and what the M.R.P. Minister [Hidalgo] summarizes so well, beginning from the creation of the world, and continuing its progression, not based on dreams or vain conjectures, but on the holy Books, which God himself dictated.
While at first glance it may seem uninteresting that a Franciscan missionary like Mugártegui rejected scientific epistemology, a closer reading reveals a more nuanced argument. Mugártegui makes a careful distinction between the value that derives from the pursuit of philosophical knowledge and that which derives from knowledge of the physical world. He essentially urges extreme caution in trying to understand the physical laws of the universe due to their corrupting nature, but stops short of claiming corruption as an inevitability. Rather, he argues that the ever present need to pursue moral edification should take precedence over all else. This is not to say that Mugártegui avoided making this assertion on a firm theological basis, but that he shared the perspective of the ancient Greek philosophers that intellectual energy should primarily be invested in the betterment of one's being. While he returns to the Catholic theological perspective that the divinity of the Bible forms the basis of truth, his strong appeal to the wisdom of the “rational gentile philosophers” confirms his perspective that people outside of the church were capable of exhibiting moral characteristics consistent with living a good life. Additionally, while Mugártegui does not acknowledge the problem concerning the origin of what is pious as discussed in Socrates’ conversation with Euthyphro, although he alludes to the text, an analogy emerges in his implication that moral wisdom does not derive from a commitment to Catholic theology alone. Since missionaries were primarily concerned with building communities among peoples who had traditions and religious perspectives that were completely unaffiliated with Christian traditions, such a perspective was no doubt helpful in establishing normative moral standards consistent with maintaining the integrity of a community even if the community’s members were unable or unwilling to grasp the nuances of Catholic morals and ethics.
All of this said, Mugártegui was of course a devoted Catholic. He dedicated his life to his faith and spreading that faith around the world. While his philosophical perspective concerning science seems somewhat backward today, in the context of the times it is perhaps better characterized as cautionary. In today’s world, such a cautionary perspective about new technologies like AI may provide important spaces for thought about how to address the many concerns related to the impact of these technologies on our communities. Perhaps Mugártegui’s urging for us to devote time to improve our moral characters in order to also improve our communities is just as appropriate today as it was in 1800.
In July of 1802, Mugártegui was granted permission to be reincorporated into the College of San Fernando, indicating that he was no longer Custody of the Province of the Holy Gospel. The next year, the missionary Father Geronimo Boscana arrived at the college. While it cannot be said for certain, it is likely that Mugártegui and Boscana spent time together. The significance of their relationship in the history of Mission San Juan Capistrano cannot be overstated. It was Boscana who would go on to write the most significant ethnography of an indigenous people in California during the Spanish and Mexican eras. He spent the years 1814-1826 at Mission San Juan Capistrano learning and recording all he could about the Acjachemen people with the intention of passing it along to his successor to assist in the missionization process. Was Boscana influenced by Mugártegui? Given Mugártegui’s high status as a retired missionary who had spent well over a decade in the field, and later in high positions within the Franciscan order, it would not be surprising. Perhaps Boscana had learned a lot about the Acjachemen people from Mugártegui before ever setting foot in California in 1806. In any case, their time together was likely short as Mugártegui signed the book of decrees at the college for the last time on October 31, 1804, indicating that he died sometime shortly thereafter (Real Academia de Historia).
Mugártegui’s letter is a small window into the intellectual perspectives of California missionaries. It reminds us that the missionaries were generally very well educated and respected in their communities, despite often falling short of appreciating the equally intellectual and complex culture of the indigenous peoples. It’s worth considering that the California Indians by and large abided by the very moral standards Mugártegui promoted. It is my hope that by devoting more time and thought to understanding this history, we can move towards a greater appreciation of our diversity as well as the underlying threads that forever connect us.
Mugártegui’s residence behind a bed of flowers; such a scene inspired Charles Francis Saunders in the early part of the 1900s to write Capistrano Nights.
Dedication by Fr. Pablo Mugártegui in Compendio Historico, Sacro-Profano, Teologico-Dogmatico: Para la Instruccion de los Jovenes, y en Gran Manera Util Y Deleitable a Todo Genero de Personas, by El M. R. P. Fray Miguel Hidalgo, del Sagrado Orden de Predicadores, Director de la Milicia de Jesuchristo de esta Ciudad de Mexico. It was printed by Don Mariano Joseph de Zuniga y Ontiveros, calle del Espiritu Santo, ano de 1801
Transcription
Parecer del M.R.P. Fr. Pablo Mugártegui, de la Regular Observancia de N.S.P. San Francisco, y actual Custodio de esta Provincia del Santo Evangelio.
Excelentisimo Senor.
He leído con el cuidadoque intima el superior encargo el Compendio historical sacro-profano, teológico-dogmatico, y filosofico-christiano, que intenta dar a luz el M.R.P. Mro. Fr. Miguel Hidalgo de la Orden de mi Gran Padre Santo Domingo para instrucción de la Juventud, y me persuade, que el Señor haya excitado el espíritu del R.P. Mro. en tiempos tan calamitosos, en que mucha parte aún de los que se criaron en el seno de la Santa Iglesia, se han agregado al número de los blasfemos que dijeron a Dios: aparte de nosotros; no queremos la ciencia de tus caminos [Job. 21, 14]. Dejada la ciencia de los Santos, que con seguridad podía conducirlos a su fin, dirigieron el rumbo por el peligroso camino de la inflante ciencia, no considerando (dice San Bernardo [Serm. 4. De Asc. Dai.]) quantos males acarreo a todo el género humano haber emprendido este camino su primer Padre: aún no existían los hombres sino en el, quando este destemplado apetito los perdió, y ahora se empeñan en lo mismo, para que el nuevo error sea peor que el primero: y si el inicio la perdición del mundo, el lo disponga para su consumación. Traspasando los términos que señalaron sus Padres, y aquella sobriedad que pide el Apóstol [Ad Rom 12.], se engolfar en este abismo grande, y abandonando el gobernalle de la fe, fiados en la razón natural, se metieron a formar el mundo, configurar a su propósito la materia, sujetar a las leyes del movimiento, atracción, virtudes centrípetas y centrífugas; hacer cálculos prodigiosos de la magnitud, distancias de los cuerpos celestes &c.; y cuando de viaje [end page] [start page] tan prolijo podíamos esperar algunas noticias que condujeran al conocimiento de las grandezas de Dios, se estrellaron unos en el escollo del Materialismo, otros del Naturalismo, Deísmo, y aun Ateísmo, y otros horrores, que la Serpiente astuta sobre todos los animales de la tierra se reservaba para aquellos en quienes se acercaron los fines de los siglos. Lo vano de esta ociosidad laboriosa conocio aun sin luz de fe uno, a quien estos mismos ensalzan sobre modo.
Socrates (dice su Discípulo Xenofonte [Apud. Euseb. Caes. 1. 14. De Praeparar. Evang. C. 61. & alibi]) no quería cantarse en la nimia investigación de la naturaleza ni astros, por parecerle estudio de mucha dificultad y poquísima utilidad para la vida humana. Sus frecuentes disputas eran sobre lo piadoso, o impío; sobre lo honesto, o torpe; justo, o injusto; sobriedad, o insania. Después de él, los Discípulos de Aristipo Cereneo y Ariston Chio afirmaba, que la moral Filosofía entre todas era digna de toda la atención del hombre, por los provechos que se trae consigo. Que sacaremos (decían) de ser elevados sobre el Perseo y las Pleiadas, y contemplar de allí la naturaleza de todas las cosas, movimientos de cuerpos celestes, si esto no nos hace más prudentes, más justos, más modestos? Si estos son los sentimientos de los cuerdos Filósofos Gentiles, ¿cuáles debieran ser los del Christiano? Sabe este, que uno es necesario, una sola es la ciencias de salud, y la doctrina que conduce a la eterna felicidad. Esta es la que enseña nuestra santa Religión, y la que con tanto acierto compendia el M.R.P. Mr. comenzando de la creación del mundo, y continuando sus progresos, no fundado en sueños ni vanas conjeturas, si en los Libros santos, que dictó el mismo Dios. Distribuye el tiempo en diversas edades o épocas, y acomodándose al gusto de la Juventud, entrevera lo síncrono de las historias profanas, (como lo han hecho Historiadores Eclesiásticos muy clásicos, que sin embargo de lo fabuloso y dudoso que Marco Varron sospechaba el tiempo que corrió antes y después de la guerra de Troya hasta las Olimpiadas, no quisieron omitir aquellas tradiciones que conservaba cada Nación). Expone [End Page] [Start Page] con tanta claridad como erudición los principios, dogmas, y quanto conduce a un perfecto conocimiento de la Religión: ameniza su Compendio con una Selva de infinitas noticias, exemplos, sentencias, curiosidades, en qué puede el ánimo fatigado recrearse. En él los Jóvenes hallarán instrucción, los Instruidos erudición, los Padres de familias, y otros a quienes incumbre, un auxilio oportuno para el desempeño de su obligación, y todos generalmente mucha utilidad. Por lo que, y no contener cosa opuesta a nuestra santa Fe, buenas costumbres y Regalías de S. M. juzgo al Autor muy digno del superior permiso que solicita. Este es mi sentir, salvo meliori. Convento de N.P.S. Francisco de Mexico 17 de Marzo de 1800.
Excelentisimo SEÑOR
Fr. Pablo Mugártegui
Translation
Opinion of M.R.P. Fr. Pablo Mugártegui, of the Regular Observance of Nuestra Senior Padre Saint Francis, and current Custody of this Province of the Holy Gospel
Very Excellent Sir
I have read with the care that the higher order requires the Compendium of Historical Sacred-Profane, Theological-Dogmatic, and Philosophical-Christian, in which M.R.P. Minister. Fr. Miguel Hidalgo of the Order of my Great Father Santo Domingo, attempts to assist in the instruction of youth, and I am persuaded that the Lord has excited the spirit of the R.P. Minister in such calamitous times, in which many, even of those who were raised within the Holy Church, have been added to the number of blasphemers who said to God: “apart from us; We do not want the knowledge of your ways [Job. 21, 14].” Leaving aside the science of the Saints, which could surely lead them to their end, they directed their course along the dangerous path of inflated science, not considering (says Saint Bernard [Serm. 4. De Asc. Dai.]) “how many evils it brought to them the entire human race had undertaken this path with its first Father”: men did not yet exist except in Him, when this intemperate appetite led them astray, and now they insist on doing the same thing, so that their new error is worse than their first: and if the perdition of the world has begun, He will arrange it for its consummation. Transcending the terms indicated by their Fathers, and the sobriety that the Apostle asks for [Ad Rom 12.], they became engulfed in this great abyss, and abandoning the governance of faith and trusting in natural reason, they began to form the world, configure matter to its purpose, subject it to the laws of motion, attraction, centripetal and centrifugal virtues; make prodigious calculations of the magnitude, distances of celestial bodies etc.; and when on such a lengthy journey [end page] [start page] we could expect some discovery that would lead to the knowledge of the greatness of God, some instead crashed into the rock of Materialism, others of Naturalism, Deism, and even, Atheism, and other horrors, which the cunning Serpent over all the animals of the earth had reserved for those in whom the ends of the ages approached. The vainness of this laborious idleness was known even without the light of faith by one, whom these same people highly exalt.
Socrates (says his Disciple Xenophon) did not want to devote himself to the trivial investigation of nature or the stars, because it seemed to him to be both very challenging and of very little use for human life. Their [the Greek philosophers] frequent debates were about what was pious, or impious; about honesty, or dishonesty; fair, or unfair; sobriety, or insanity. After him, the Disciples of Aristippus of Cyrene and Aristo of Chios affirmed that moral Philosophy, among all pursuits, was worthy of all the attention of man, due to the benefits it brings with it. What will we get (they said) from being elevated above Perseus and the Pleiades, and contemplating from there the nature of all things, movements of celestial bodies, if this does not make us more prudent, more just, more modest? If these are the sentiments of the rational gentile philosophers, what should be those of the Christian? He knows that one is necessary, there is only one science of health, and the doctrine that leads to eternal happiness, this is what our holy Religion teaches, and what the M.R.P. Minister [Hidalgo] summarizes so well, beginning from the creation of the world, and continuing its progression, not based on dreams or vain conjectures, but on the holy Books, which God himself dictated. He devotes time into various ages or epochs, and adapting to the taste of the youth, he glimpses the synchronicity of profane stories (as very classical Ecclesiastical Historians have done, who despite how fabulous and doubtful Marco Varron suspected the course of time before and after the Trojan War until the Olympics, they did not want to omit those traditions that each nation preserved). He exposes [End Page] [Start Page] with as much clarity as erudition the principles, dogmas, and everything that leads to a perfect knowledge of Religion: he enlivens his Compendium with a comprehensive tome covering current events, including examples, prose, and curiosities, in which the tired spirit can recreate. In it, the youth will find instruction, the educated will find erudition, the parents of families, and to others to whom it concerns, timely help for carrying out their obligations, and to all generally very useful. Therefore, since it does not contain anything contrary to our holy Faith, good customs and Royalties of His Majesty, I judge the Author very worthy of the superior permission he requests. This is my feeling, except meliori. Convent of N.P.S. Francisco of Mexico March 17, 1800.
Very excellent sir,
Fr. Pablo Mugártegui
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Part 6: The Great Stone Church (A future post)
Part 10: Richard Henry Dana at Dana Point
My Story with Phil Brigandi (1959-2019)