seen assisting the laborers with his own hands. And what a happy day it
was for Monterey when the first Mass was sung in the restored mission
after years of vandalism and neglect! The old statues which had escaped
the ravages of time were replaced in their niches, the sanctuary lamp
was re-lighted for the Sacramental Presence once more enthroned on His
altar and the organ pealed forth the ancient Latin hymns of the Church
once more. Another very significant event of this restoration was that
Father Casanova had the four bodies contained in the vaults of the
mission exhumed and placed on new vaults, built however near the
original spots "on the gospel side of the altar, within the sanctuary."
The four bodies are the remains of Fathers Junipero Serra, Juan Crespi,
Francisco de Lasuen and Julian Lopez. Another good outcome of this event
was that it exploded the utterly unfounded story that a Spanish ship had
carried away the remains of Junipero Serra to Spain. The vestments on
each body were found in a perfect state of preservation at the time this
work was done in 1882.

For years the saintly Serra's body was buried under a pile of debris,
but his "sepulchre has become glorious" in spite of all. And since the
restoration of this mission, the feast of Saint Charles Borromeo, (its
Patron Saint) has again been celebrated here every November the
twenty-fourth, and a relic of Saint Charles which Father Junipero Serra
brought from Spain, is as of old carried in procession. While this is of
course a Catholic festival, reverent visitors of various creeds attend
it. The mission is guarded by a care-taker, living in the premises of
what remains of the old mission orchard.

It was also due to Father Casanova, that Mrs. Leland Stanford donated,
in 1890, the Serra Monument[3] which crowns a slope just above the spot
where this wonderful missionary said his first Mass in Monterey.