Santa Clara University home California Legacy Project California Legacy Project
PRINT PAGE:   Plain Text | Graphics Bookmark and Share
SEARCH: California Legacy Heyday SCU
Radio Productions | Radio Anthology | Segment Scripts | Author Index |
**CLPRA scripts are working drafts for recording sessions. Recorded performances may vary due to editing for broadcast.**
Cleve Hallenbeck (ND-ND) and Juanita H. Williams (ND-ND) http://tinyurl.com/Hall-Will Click the below to hear radio segment.
Father Magin's Alameda
From Legends of the Spanish Southwest, 1938. Reader: Daniel Maloney

Tree on The Alameda, photograph by Charles Stelling, 1947, courtesy of San José Library California Room. "This tree on The Alameda was 148 years old when this photograph was taken in 1947. A commemorative plaque at its base read: "Tree planted in 1799, by Padre Magin Catala, O.F.M. Catala Club, University of Santa Clara, 1934." Larger.
Evil spirits have long haunted California's oldest sites, but what happens when these mysterious beings meet a missionary in battle?

Not long after the completion of Mission Santa Clara in 1777, Father Magin, a priest at the mission, supervised the construction of The Alameda. The tree-lined walkway attracted evil spirits, until Father Magin came to the rescue.
Padre Magin . . . began reciting the exorcism for evil spirits. Suddenly the watching crowd were startled by a loud cry of agony, as of many voices, coming from the alameda; then came a horrible howling, cursing, and screaming that made the terrified watchers blanch from fear. Then followed a chorus of unearthly groans from the retreating demons; a great cloud of dust arose over the poplars and the air seemed charged with sulphurous fumes. After the dust had cleared, the people . . . rushed to the head of the lane and there they saw their beloved Padre Magin returning to them in triumph; the birds were coming from all directions to the trees, making the air vibrant with their joyous music. . . . And so the old alameda has survived to this day.
"Father Magin's Alameda" was an oral legend before being recorded by Cleve Hallenbeck and Juanita H. Williams in 1938.

–Contributed by Jessica Barganski.