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Days after St Junipero Serra was canonised by Pope Francis, a statue of him has been defaced in California in what local police say is a hate crime.
The vandalism of the statue of St Junipero at Carmel Mission, where he is buried, came three days after the canonisation in Washington, DC.
Vandals damaged statues, gravesites and signs and poured green and white paint on doors, police said.
“Saint of Genocide” was written on a headstone, paint was splashed on a toppled St Junipero statue and headstones were splattered with dark red paint.
A police report noted that the paint splattered on gravesites was on graves of Europeans, not Native Americans.
The vandalism occurred the night before a Mass was celebrated at the Carmel Mission honouring the saint.
Volunteers cleaned up most of the destruction before the Mass began.
The Facebook page for the Carmel Mission put out a call for volunteers to help clean up after discovering the destruction on September 27.
A post urged prayers that “the people who did this take responsibility for their actions on this sacred property and that they seek reconciliation”.
St Junipero is a controversial figure, with some Native Americans contending that he was more an oppressor than a saint.
A New York Times report stated that historians agree that he forced Native Americans to abandon their tribal culture and convert to Christianity.
The article also stated that he had them whipped and imprisoned and sometimes worked or tortured to death.
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News category: World.
