Father Serra is buried at Carmel. Though he walked all the way to Mexico City from Monterey to get a 'bill to rights' to protect the natives from the Spanish Commandante, some of their descendants are haters.
This was a young man who decided that he wanted to be a missionary when he had the opportunity to stay in Spain and be a professor.
He traveled to all the missions regularly to make sure they were operating well and that the Indians were being treated well.
His biggest headache was having to run interference with soldiers who wanted to do their own will and not comply with the rules established by Spain and the Franciscan order as to how the natives should be treated.
This was a man who when he heard that George Washington and his soldiers were suffering at Valley Forge he got up a collection of money and sent it to Washington.
The people who did the defacing are idiots.