PALÓU, FRANCISCO

Missionary; b. Palma, Majorca, Jan. 22, 1723; d. Querétaro, Mexico, April 6, 1789. He entered the Franciscan Order in 1739 and studied under Junípero serra. Palóu was ordained in 1747, and two years later went to Mexico as a missionary. He and Serra were assigned to the missionary Apostolic College of San Fernando, Mexico City. From 1750 to 1760 he served in the Indian missions of the Sierra Gorda, north of Querétaro. In 1767 he went to Lower California to work in the missions left vacant by the expulsion of the Jesuits, and he eventually became missionary president of that area. Palóu remained in charge of the missions of the Lower California Peninsula until the region was transferred to the Dominicans in 1773. In that year he went to the newly opened mission field of Upper California, where he became temporary superior because of Serra's absence in Mexico. During this period he began his Noticias de la Nueva California (1874), a history of the first years of California's colonization. He also accompanied two expeditions to the San Francisco Bay area, acting as diarist. In 1776 Palóu founded Mission San Francisco, where he served during most of his years in California. He assisted the dying Serra at the latter's Mission San Carlos in 1784. Upon the president's death, Palóu again assumed temporary charge of the upper California area and began his classic biography of Serra, the Relación histórica de la vida y apostólicas tareas del Venerable Padre Fray Junípero Serra (1787). Recalled to San Fernando College in 1785, he was elected superior in 1786 and held office until he died.

Bibliography: f. palÓu, Life of Fray Junípero Serra, tr. and annot. m. j. geiger (Washington 1955). h. e. bolton, Palóu and His Writings (Berkeley 1926).

[e. d. burnett]