He is considered the most important chronicler and historian of the New Philippines;[a] Mariano Errasti ranks Morfi among the most prodigious figures in five centuries of Franciscan work in America.
He was appointed Chaplain to Teodoro de Croix's 1777-1778 expedition through the Provincias Internas in the north of New Spain.
[2] He consulted at least 200 government and Franciscan documents, from 70 different authors,[4] and he added his keen observations to frankly chronicle life in northern New Spain.
He wrote in 1782, for instance, that the Hopi of the Rio Grande were better off, despite having maintained independence from Spanish rule, than other tribes which had not.
[5] He died at 48 years of age on October 20, 1783 at the same Convento Grande de San Francisco where he was ordained.