Above and surrounding her is a golden halo and rays, a piece that the Spanish most appropriately call an esplendor, a word that could be translated in English as halo or aureole. In the background is a large silk cloth embroidered with flowers in soft delicate colors that Fr. Serra himself ordered from China. ~ Description by Marian Horvat
Nuestra Señora de Belén, Our Lady of Bethlehem, is the oldest Madonna in California and the second oldest in the United States. The statue of Our Lady of Bethlehem was once placed on the main altar of Carmel Mission, over the tabernacle with the crucifix on top. Our Lady of Bethlehem now sits in a small side chapel.
On July 16, 1769, Fr. Junipero Serra planted the traditional great cross on a hillock overlooking the harbor and said Mass under a canopy of twigs. Spain thus established its presence in present-day California atop Presidio Hill with the official founding of Mission San Diego de Alcalá. Our history books tell us that this Mission, called the Mother of the Missions, is the first of the State’s 21 missions. What they fail to report, however, is that Our Lady of Bethlehem was there from the outset. Into that first humble chapel of Mission San Diego her statue was placed, and here she would reign for one year…
The statue of Our Lady of Bethlehem eventually found its way back to Mission San Carlos, which had been moved to Carmel, about five miles south of Monterey.
Marian T. Horvat, Ph.D.