Junipero Serra to be made a saint by Catholic Church.

Pope Francis announced earlier today that Junipero Serra, once "Father Presidente" of the Spanish California missions, would be canonized on a papal visit to the U.S. in September. 

Pope Francis called Serra "the evangelizer of the Western United States."

Serra, who founded nine missions in California including the Carmel Mission and Mission San Antonio, has had a controversial legacy since he passed away in 1784. 

Venerated by some, questions have been raised about how Native Americans were treated in the mission system. As I reported in a Weekly cover story in 2011, even Serra himself had regrets during his time: 

Did the natives suffer more, or less, because of Serra and his legacy? For the natives who experienced the initial contact and agreed to baptism, the effect was traumatic: a forced adherence to a culture and religion they scarcely understood, the deaths of thousands due to disease, and the constant threat of corporal punishment.

"I am willing to admit that in the infliction of [flogging], there may have been inequalities and excesses committed on the part of the some of the priests,” Serra wrote, “and that we are all exposed to err in that regard.”

But by the time the next wave of settlers arrived, many of the surviving natives had learned Spanish and mastered trades like carpentry and weaving. They’d also learned that some form of assimilation was a matter of survival.

Serra's legacy is a complex one, and whether he deserves to be sainted will no doubt continue to be debated. But he was seen by his contemporaries as tireless in his devotion:

"He would pass nearly the whole night in watching and prayer,” Father Francisco Palou writes, 'so that the sentinels, when they changed watch… used to say,'We don’t know when the [Father] sleeps.'"

When he did, the Father would often “cry out in his sleep, using these words: "Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto."

And what many might not know, he had a penchant for causing himself pain: 

Pain was his pastime. He actually sought it out to better experience what Jesus Christ dealt with, hence the self-mutilation.

"Serra [was] one of a small group of ascetics within the Order known as ‘fervents,’” historian James Sandos writes. "To increase the pain and further mortify the flesh, [he] embedded pieces of metal into the cords of the discipline [or whip] as well as into the hair shirt he wore." He also held candles to his skin in front of crowds. When he beat himself before groups in Mexico City, devout followers offered to take his place, if only to stop the spectacle.