Serra was beatified by Pope John Paul II on September 25, 1988, and many are pushing for his canonization, or promotion to the sainthood. However, Native American groups are opposed to this, on the grounds that his missions enslaved their people.
Serra was born into a humble family on the Spanish island of Mallorca in the Mediterranean Ocean.
Serra's intellectual acumen and enormous willpower secured his appointment as a professor of theology at the tender age of twenty-four.
Junipero Serra is still a well-known figure in California, a virtual icon of the colonial era whose statue stands in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park and in the U.S. Capital.
Present were FatherSerra, three of his Franciscans, Governor Felipe de Neve, and the ex-sergeant, José Ortega, now a lieutenant after FatherSerra's unsuccessful campaign to have him appointed governor of California.
Serra and de Neve was of utmost importance to the missionaries, for the governor had been in the territory almost five years and now, for the first time since his arrival, had agreed to discuss the establishment of a new mission.
Serra had received word that six new Franciscan padres were being sent from the College in Mexico City but there were other difficulties to be solved.
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