The Augustinian Recollects in the Philippines
[The following is translated and condensed from Provincia de San Nicolás de Tolentino de Agustinos descalzos de la congregacion de España é Indias (Manila, 1879).]
Archbishopric of Manila
In this archbishopric the Recollect fathers have charges in the provinces of Manila, Cavite, Laguna, the district of Morong, Bataan, Pampanga, Zambales, and Mindoro.
[In the province of Manila, they have (1878) charges in the following villages: La Hermita, with 1,767½ tributes, and 6,747 souls; Las-Piñas, with 1,149½ tributes, and 4,771 souls; and Caloocan, with 2,166 tributes, and 7,511 souls.]
District of Morong
This district, which is governed by a political and military commander (who is at the same time administrator of the public funds), takes its name from its capital village, which is located on the shore of the lake of Bay. This district was created in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-three. The villages of this district which are located on the lake are under the care of Franciscan fathers; Angono, Cainta, Jalajala, and Bosoboso of seculars; and we ourselves possess the two following. [These are the villages of Antipolo, with 1,074 tributes, and 3,547 souls; and Taytay, with 2,479 tributes, and 8,435 souls.]
Province of Bataan
This province is located in the island of Luzón, and is bounded on the north by the provinces of Pampanga and Zambales, on the east by the bay of Manila, and on the south and west by the sea of China. It is governed by an alcalde, and is in charge of the Dominican fathers, with the exception of Mariveles, Bagac, and Morong, which are in charge of the Recollect fathers.
The missionaries of our corporation performed their first labors of conquest in this territory. Here were founded the oldest villages on our list; and here took place the first persecutions of our long-suffering predecessors, who had the glory of watering with their blood the country that they were evangelizing, the one that furnished to the province of San Nicolás their protomartyr.
Fray Miguel de Santa Maria, accompanied by Father Pedro de San José (who, although he had been a calced Augustinian, had become a Recollect in Manila), and by brother Fray Francisco de Santa Mónica, were the first to leave the convent of San Juan de Bagumbayan; and prepared by prayer and penance, and full of the spirit of God, set forth to announce His mysteries to the idolaters and heathen, sent legitimately to the mountains of Mariveles to illumine its inhabitants with the light of the Catholic faith. They found those natives enveloped in the most barbarous idolatry, adoring the sun, the moon, the cayman, and other filthy animals. These people regarded certain old men, as corrupt and as deceived as the divinities whom they were serving, as the ministers of those deceitful gods. The customs of those people were very analogous to the doctrines that directed them. Every kind of superstition was practiced; homicide was a praiseworthy and meritorious action; and their sacrifices on some occasions were human lives. In that vineyard so filled with wickedness the above-mentioned fathers announced the triune and one God, the mystery of the incarnation, and the eternal duration of the future life. The missionaries suffered more than one can tell from the inhabitants, who were opposed to and stubborn toward their teaching. In their bodies did they submit to hunger, and to the intemperance and inclemency of the elements; and in their truly apostolic spirit they suffered mortal anguish because of the blindness of their neighbors, which was in proportion to the great love of God and the zeal for His glory which glowed brightly in their hearts.
[The Recollects have charge of the villages of Mariveles, with 588 tributes, and 1,852 souls; Morong, with 870 tributes, and 3,154 souls; and Bagac, with 496½ tributes, and 1,743 souls.]
Province of Zambales
This province is located in the island of Luzón, north of Manila. It is bounded on the north by the gulf of Lingayen and the province of Pangasinan, on the east by the chain of mountains called Mariveles, on the south by Bataan, and on the west by the Chinese Sea; and is more than thirty leguas long in a north and south direction, and seven wide.
The preaching of the Recollects in this territory is mingled with the beginnings of that religious family in the Filipino archipelago. One may say that this was the region where the first discalced missionaries and the parishes established by them tasted the first-fruits of their evangelizing zeal, those first-fruits being offered to the Catholic church as a testimony of the purity of their doctrine, and submitted to the crown of España as its most faithful and disinterested vassals, Although they arrived at these shores in the year one thousand six hundred and six, in the following year they had already overrun this province—to whose inhabitants they taught the mysteries of our religion, and gave helpful instructions in the social life, in contradistinction to their barbarous state.
The first who sowed the seed of the gospel in the province of Zambales were the calced Augustinian fathers. Because of the lack of the above religious, the captain-general of these islands and their metropolitan cabildo entreated the vicar-provincial of the Recollects to assign religious for the spiritual cultivation of that unfilled vineyard. In the year one thousand six hundred and nine, our laborers went to Zambales, although visits had been made two years previously by those who were laboring in the province of Bataan, in order to increase the gospel seed. The meekness and resignation of the fathers in the midst of so much wretchedness and hardship arrested the attention of those barbarians; and the fathers succeeded in catechizing and converting many through their gentleness and kind treatment, and reduced them to settlements.
The Recollect fathers were charged with the spiritual administration of this province until the year one thousand six hundred and seventy-nine. In that year, being obliged to go to take charge of the province of Mindoro, and to preach the holy gospel there, they were forced to hand over the missions of Zambales—eleven in number—to the Dominican fathers, who assumed charge of them.
After the lapse of some years, and without explanation of the causes which could induce the above-mentioned Dominican fathers to cease to give spiritual food to those Christian communities with their accustomed zeal, it is a fact that the discalced Augustinians again took charge of that province, by the month of October, one thousand seven hundred and twelve; and again undertook the direction and continuation of their spiritual conquests until the year one thousand seven hundred and eighty-five, when they were compelled once more to leave it, for lack of religious. The secular priests assumed the missions, with the exception of the mission of Botolan, which was retained by the Recollects until one thousand eight hundred and fourteen. There was a residence for the missionaries in each of the villages, and even in various visitas there were suitable churches and convents of cut stone, when we left this province in the last century. On assuming it anew in the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-six, the father provincial of the Recollects, Fray Blás de las Mercedes, attested that only ruins and desolation were found. Since that time they have labored without ceasing in the beautifying and adorning of the house of God, restoring the old ruins and building anew; until they have succeeded in making the churches worthy the majesty of the Catholic worship—already having, besides, suitable edifices for the residences of their missionaries.
[The order has the spiritual charge of the following villages: Subic, with 761½ tributes, and 2,749 souls; Castillejos, with 917½ tributes, and 4,013 souls; San Marcelino, with 1,165½ tributes, and 4,847 souls; San Antonio, with 1,053 tributes, and 4,722 souls; San Narciso, with 1,564½ tributes, and 7,597 souls; San Felipe, with 1,262 tributes, and 5,063 souls; Cabangaan, with 685 tributes, and 2,584. souls; Iba, with 1,007 tributes, and 3,896 souls; Palauig, with 761 tributes, and 3,380 souls; Botolan, with 1,374 tributes, and 5,200 souls; Masinloc, with 1,647 tributes, and 6,541 souls; Bolinao, with 1,795 tributes, and 5,971 souls; Bani, with 1,036½ tributes, and 4,288 souls; Santa Cruz, with 1,753½ tributes, and 7,366 souls; Balincaguin, with 1,122½ tributes, and 4,138 souls; Alaminos, with 1,669 tributes, and 7,436 souls; Agno, with 1,271 tributes, and 4,971 souls; Dasol, with 781 tributes, and 2,697 souls; San Isidro, with 597 tributes, and 2,337 souls; and Anda, with 833 tributes, and 3,180 souls.]
Province of Cavite
Coincident with the time of their arrival at Manila, the discalced Augustinians began to labor in the conversion of the infidels who inhabit the provinces conterminous to the capital. They dedicated themselves with apostolic zeal to the preaching of the gospel and the administration of the sacraments, with their gaze directed to the needs of the future. They paid attention to what would be found by experience, in succeeding times, to be a convenience and a necessity—namely, to have convents of the Observance in the most important settlements of the archipelago, in order to give shelter to the religious worn out in the tasks of preaching; while at the same time those houses were to serve as the base for their premeditated plan, to establish in these islands the corporation of which they were members, in a perfectly organized condition.
They founded the convent of Cavite, by apostolic and royal authority, in the year one thousand six hundred and sixteen. It was dedicated to St. Nicholas of Tolentino, was constructed solidly, and was spacious, with a church which was suitable for the functions of worship. Cavite was a suitable point, because of its great commerce and the foreigners who go there in throngs. Thus, with their good example and indefatigable zeal, they could do much good to needy souls.
This convent was at first supported by the alms of the faithful; and afterward it acquired some incomes of its own through the gifts of various devout persons, in houses, shops, and plots of ground.
In the year one thousand seven hundred and nine, Don Pascual Bautista and other inhabitants of that port founded the brotherhood of our father Jesus in this church.
The first prior of this convent was Father Andrés del Espiritu Santo, who was born in Valladolid, in January, one thousand five hundred and eighty-five, his parents being Don Hernando Fanego and Doña Elena de Toro. He studied philosophy there, and asked for the religious habit in our convent of Portillo in the year one thousand six hundred, and professed in that convent the following year. He devoted himself to the study of the Holy Scriptures in the convent of Nava until the year one thousand six hundred and five, when he determined to offer himself for the conversion of the Indians, in the mission that was about to go to Filipinas. Having been assigned to the province of Zambales, he uttered the first words of his apostolic preaching at Masinloc in the year one thousand six hundred and seven, where he succeeded in converting and baptizing two thousand people, in founding a village, and in erecting a dwelling and a church with the advocacy of St. Andrew the apostle, November eighteen, one thousand six hundred and seven. In the year one thousand six hundred and nine, without abandoning his parish, he had to aid Father Jerónimo de Cristo in the reduction of Bolinao; and when after a short time the latter died, he was appointed vicar-provincial, although continuing to care for and to increase his flock at Bolinao, where he succeeded in converting one thousand six hundred souls. He concluded his charge in the year one thousand six hundred and twelve; and in the year one thousand six hundred and fifteen he was elected vicar-provincial for the second time. In that term he finished the establishment of the convent of Cavite, constructing an edifice of stone with a dwelling to accommodate ten religious. In the year one thousand six hundred and eighteen, at the completion of his term as superior, he was chosen commissary to the court of Madrid. There he accomplished, with great success, not only the negotiations for despatches suitable for the mission, but the selection of the men whom he conducted [to Filipinas] in the year one thousand six hundred and twenty-two. As soon as he reached Manila he was again elected superior [and held that position] until the celebration of the first provincial chapter, on February six, one thousand six hundred and twenty-four, when he was elected first definitor. In the year one thousand six hundred and twenty-six he was elected provincial; he visited the ministries during his term, and began the missions of Japon. He made great improvements and additions in the churches and convents of Manila and Calumpang; and labored greatly in repairing the church and convent of Cebu, which had suffered from a fire. He was elected provincial for the second time, in the year one thousand six hundred and thirty-two, and definitor in the chapter of thirty-five. In the year thirty-eight he asked to be allowed to retire to a cell, but was elected prior of Manila.
After the conclusion of that office, he was retired to the convent of Cavite and then to that of Manila, where he died holily at the beginning of one thousand six hundred and fifty-eight. He was seventy-eight years of age, and fifty-seven in the religious life, fifty-two of which he employed in the Filipinas Islands, establishing this province on a solid basis of religion.
[The villages in charge of the Recollects in this province are as follows: Cavite, with 412½ tributes, and 2,319 souls; Imus, with 3,830 tributes, and 14,439 souls; Cavite-Viejo [i.e., “Old Cavite”], with 2,658 tributes, and 8,265 souls; Rosario, with 2,005 tributes, and 6,906 souls; Bacoor, with 3,959 tributes, and 13,827 souls; Perez-Dasmariñas, with 1,124 tributes, and 3,785 souls; Silang, with 2,701½ tributes, and 9,369 souls; Bailen, with 931 tributes, and 3,697 souls; and Carmona, with 904½ tributes, and 3,101 souls.]
Province of Batangas
In this rich province of the island of Luzón, flourishing through its products and its active trade with the capital, of extensive territory and densely populated, the discalced Augustinians were not assigned with the intention of a permanent stay, in the olden times, to preach the gospel to those natives.
However, present legislation regarding the service of parish churches in this archipelago has, at the same time while it has varied in a certain manner our traditional method of support, introduced us into some of the parishes of the province of Batangas; and at the same time when we have been obliged to cede villages in Visayas—which were our offspring, and had been converted by our predecessors, and whose history was identical with the ancient glories of our corporation—in exchange we have received parishes organized by the sweat and apostolic fatigues of ministers of the religion of Jesus Christ, who were not members of our religious family.
[The villages administered by the Recollects are as follows: Rosario, with 4,259½ tributes, and 17,040 souls; Santo Tomás, with 2,832 tributes, and 9,748 souls; Lobo, with 805½ tributes, and 3,200 souls; and Balayan, with 5,434 tributes, and 24,154 souls.]
Province of Laguna
The territory of this province, whose coasts enclose the great lake of Bay, had been administered by the Franciscan fathers, in most of its extent, from the times of its reduction. But in the year one thousand six hundred and sixty-two, they invited us to share in the ministries on the opposite coast, in the neighborhood of the port of Lampon; and although those missions were not very desirable, on account of the wretchedness of the country and the small number of tributes, they were received as very meritorious for heaven, although but little profitable when looked at from a worldly standpoint.
The Recollect fathers Fray Benito de San José, Fray Francisco de San José, and Fray Clemente de San Nicolás having been assigned, with three other companions, to the village of Binangonan, established the first house and church, with the title of San Guillermo; and two religious remained there. Afterward they went to the village of Baler and established a convent, under the patronage of St. Nicholas of Tolentino. The third was the village of Casiguran, with the advocacy of our father St. Augustine. The fourth was established in Palanan, with the title of Santa María Magdalena. The discalced Augustinians resided for forty years in those convents founded on the coasts of the Pacific, exclusively consecrated to the service of God, and the sanctification of their neighbors, and they attained both objects with great spiritual advantages.
We had religious there of pure virtue, who were imitating the virtues of the dwellers in the desert. From those missions went forth our father Fray Bartolomé de la Santísima Trinidad, son of the convent of Madrid. He lived much retired from intercourse with men; and when he was elected provincial, in the year one thousand seven hundred and one—at which time all said that he was a person unknown in Manila—Archbishop Camacho uttered these words: “The election of the discalced Augustinians has been and is, properly, an election by God and by the Holy Spirit.” While so great advance did the missionaries on the opposite coast make in their own sanctification, not less was the gain in the vineyard entrusted to their care. They made many Aetas and heathen children of the Catholic church, and directed those souls along the paths of eternal life. They had the special glory of numbering, among those whom they directed, some privileged women endowed with the gifts of heaven, and raised by the spirit of God to a height of Christian perfection which confounds our lukewarmness in His service. One of these was Sister Juana de Jesus, a native of the village of Binangonan de Lampon,[1] an oblate nun of our order, who elevated herself with the steps of a giant, even to the greatest and most complete purification of her spirit, by her abstraction from worldly affairs, by her heroic practice of all the virtues, by her fervent daily communion, and by the most lofty contemplation and the most clear vision that God vouchsafed her of the mysteries of our holy religion.
In the lamentable period of the missions between the years one thousand six hundred and ninety-two and one thousand seven hundred and ten, when no religious came to us from España, our Recollect family was obliged to abandon this territory which it had in trust, for the lack of evangelical laborers. That action was taken in the provincial chapter of one thousand seven hundred and four, and the missions above mentioned, which we had served for more than forty years, were returned to the Franciscans.
At present we have only the following village in the province of Laguna: [Calauan, with 957½ tributes, and 2,734 souls.]
Province of Pampanga
This province, lying north of Manila—including the district of Tarlac, which was separated from the province in the year one thousand eight hundred and seventy-three—is bounded on the north by Pangasinan, on the south by the bay of Manila, on the east by Nueva Ecija and Bulacan, and on the west by Zambales and Bataan. In this province, which was begun by the Augustinian Observantine fathers (who still have it in charge), permission to found missions in the mountains of its territory which are on the Zambales side was granted to the Recollect fathers, by virtue of certain acts that were drawn up in the superior government without summoning the father provincial, because of the reports of certain persons and the instance of other private individuals. By those acts the conde de Lizárraga, governor of Filipinas, charged the father provincial, Fray José de San Nicolás, to assign missionaries to the localities of Bamban and Mabalacat. The said father, because of his great experience of these islands and their inhabitants, explained to the vice-patron the impossibility of those missions living, and the little result that could be expected from them on account of the fierce and untamable nature of the mountaineers. His petition had no effect, and three missionaries of great merit and learning were sent. By dint of great hardships, and, by living in the same manner as the Indians, they succeeded in baptizing many; but when they learned the fickleness of the Indian nature, and that it was as easy for them to become baptized as it was to take to the mountains to continue their former mode of life, the missionaries proceeded more cautiously in giving them the benefit of the regeneration.
[In this province the Recollects minister to the following villages: Mabalacat, with 2,627 tributes, and 11,163 souls; Capas, with 564 tributes, and 1,923 souls; O’Donnel, with 308½ tributes, and 1,159 souls; and Bolso, with 144 tributes, and 749 souls.]
Province of Mindoro
This province, directed by an alcalde-mayor, includes the island of the same name, that of Marinduque, that of Luban, and others less densely populated. Its boundaries are: on the north, the strait of Mindoro; on the east and south, the sea of Visayas; and on the west, the Chinese Sea.
In its extent, it is one of the foremost islands of the archipelago. Its land is mountainous, its climate hot; and during the rainy season it also exceeds other provinces in humidity, whence results the richness of the soil. There are found all the products of the country in grains and foodstuffs. However, that most fertile country fails of cultivation in its vast areas because of the scarcity of laborers, and has not been touched by the hand of man. Its conquest was begun in the year one thousand five hundred and seventy, in the district of Mamburao, by Juan de Salcedo; and it was completed the following year, along the coasts from the cape of Burruncan to that of Calavite, by Miguel Lopez de Legaspi. The rest, with the exception of the mountains in its center, has been gradually subdued by the zeal of the regular missionaries. The calced Augustinian fathers began to diffuse the teaching of the gospel in this island, and founded the village of Baco, from whose convent the religious went forth to the spiritual ministry of the converted Indians, who were then very few.
By cession of the Augustinians, the Franciscan fathers entered this island. The said fathers were not satisfied with preserving that already reduced, but extended the light of the faith through the districts of Pola and Calavite, until they were transferred to Camarines and Ilocos by the orders of their superiors.
The fathers of the Society of Jesus came in to fill the breach left by the Franciscans. They founded the village of Naujan, which was governed to the great gain of those Christians by Father Luis de San Vitores, who left behind in that point a reputation for virtue and holiness which was retained for many years among the Indians. That father was withdrawn, to begin the conversion of the Marianas Islands. His associates followed him, and the Christian souls of Mindoro remained under the direction of the secular priests who were placed there by the archbishop for their direction.
When the Recollect fathers had to leave the ministries of Zambales which they had conquered and established at the cost of their blood and by heroic labors, an order came at that same time from the court of España, decreeing that the island of Mindoro be entrusted to a religious family chosen from those existing in this country. The governor of Filipinas, by the advice of the archbishop, thought to compensate the Recollects for the loss of their primitive religious conquests in the province of Zambales, by conferring on them the parishes of Mindoro.
The Recollects resigned themselves to this disproportionate change, since the exertions made to avoid it availed nothing. By virtue of the order issued by his Excellency, the captain-general, Don Juan de Vargas, directed to the province of San Nicolás (decreeing that it should take charge of the missions of Mindoro), the then provincial, Fray José de San Nicolás, assigning laborers for that new acquisition.
Father Diego de la Madre de Dios was assigned to the district of Baco, which belonged to the bachelor Don José de Rojas; Father Diego de la Resureccion, to the curacy of Calavite, taking the place of Licentiate Don Juan Pedrosa; Father Blas de la Concepcion, to the parish of Naujan, replacing the priest Don Martin Diaz. All the above was effected in the year one thousand six hundred and seventy-nine.
The Recollects entered upon the preaching in Mindoro, in obedience to the orders of the government. That was their reason for believing that their stay in that territory was not to be transitory, but that they could contemplate the organization of that territory upon foundations intended for its increase and the greater welfare of its inhabitants. For that purpose they planned to make the best division possible of mother missions and those annexed, assigning for each of the regular missionaries the barrios and visitas which were nearest his residence, in order that he might aid all of them in their needs.
The apostolate of the Recollects in this island continued without interruption until the year one thousand seven hundred and eighty-four, when the scarcity of men in the province of San Nicolás forced them to renounce it. They reassumed their missions there in the year one thousand eight hundred and five, when the cause that occasioned their cession ceased to exist.
[The villages and missions in charge in this province are as follows: Calapan, with 1,335½, tributes, and 4,495 souls; Naujan, with 1,687½ tributes, and 5,408 souls; Puerto-Galera, with 544 tributes, and 1,655 souls; Sablayan, with 756½ tributes, and 2,520 souls; Mangarin, with 366 tributes, and 859 souls; and Boac, with 3,117 tributes, and 13,562 souls.]
Bishopric of Jaro
The provinces of Romblon, Calamianes, and Negros, which are administered by the Recollect fathers, were formerly included in the spiritual jurisdiction of the bishopric of Santísimo Niño de Cebú. At present they are comprehended in the bishopric of Santa Isabel de Jaro, which was created by apostolic bull dated May twenty-seven, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five. That bull was issued by his Holiness Pius IX; it dismembered several provinces of the archipelago from the bishopric of Cebú, and constituted the fourth bishopric of Filipinas, which is suffragan to the metropolitan of Manila.
District of Romblon
This district, which is composed of a group of islands, today forms one politico-military commandancy, which includes the villages of Romblon, Banton, Badajoz, Cajidiocan, Odiongan, Looc, and Magallanes. All those villages can be called the creation of the Recollects, who, when they touched this territory, encountered a small number of Christians scattered through the mountains of what is now the chief district. By exposing their lives (and also losing them when the honor of God, or the interest of the monarchy of España, demanded it), they have succeeded in establishing many important villages from the wild settlements that they received.
The few Christians of those islands composed the annexed village or visita of the curacy of Ajuy in the island of Panay; and as it was very troublesome for the cura charged with their spiritual nurture to visit them, because of the risk that he ran in crossing over, and the strength of the currents, he maintained there a secular assistant who administered the sacraments.
The priest Don Francisco Rodriguez, charged with the unquiet and uncomfortable life in that benefice, being worn out, discussed with the father-provincial of the Recollects, Fray José de la Anunciación, a satisfactory exchange. He also renounced his right to the proprietary curacy, whereupon the bishop of Cebú, Don Pedro de Arce, with the consent of this superior government, gave us the spiritual administration of Romblon, Sibuyan, Usigan (or the island of Tablas), Simara, Banton, and Sibali[2] (which is called Maestro de Campo by the Spaniards). The province of San Nicolás received those places, for they considered them as the entrance into the Visayas Islands, and a good stepping-stone for their religious to go to the lands of Cebú and Caraga. Consequently, the Recollects began to increase and organize what had until then been useless, in the year one thousand six hundred and thirty-five.
[The villages and missions in the Recollects’ charge are the following: Romblon, with 1,341 tributes, and 5,858 souls; Badajoz, with 711 tributes, and 3,356 souls; Banton, with 1,181½ tributes, and 4,717 souls; Cajidiocan, with 1,304 tributes, and 7,132 souls; Odiongan, with 5,705 souls; Looc, with 5,449 souls; and Magallanes, with 283½ tributes, and 859 souls.]
Island and province of Negros
This island, located to the south of Manila, is bounded on the north by the Visayan Sea, on the south by the sea which separates it from Mindanao, on the east by the channel which separates it from Cebú, and on the west by the sea that separates it from Paragua. It is one hundred and twelve leguas from Manila; its length north and south is forty leguas, and its breadth from east to west eleven.
The centuries of the conquest tell us that already was the religious habit of the discalced Augustinians known in this most fertile province; for in the year one thousand six hundred and twenty-two, brother Fray Francisco de San Nicolás, a native of Cádiz, made a voyage from Negros to Manila. During that voyage he suffered terrible storms, escaping as by a miracle. That voyage was on business for the service of the church, which proves that, in its beginnings, the Recollects had sown the seeds of the gospel in that territory. In the year one thousand six hundred and twenty-two, father Fray Jacinto de San Fulgencio founded the convent which was called Binalgaban, and which exercised spiritual care over one thousand five hundred families. The said mission passed to the Society of Jesus. The divine Goodness wrought some wonderful events for the conversion of this island of Negros. [One of these is mentioned.]
But that germ was to produce its abundant and wonderful fruits in the nineteenth century. The observation of the prodigious improvements which four religious who entered this island with the rich treasure of religion, to promote the spiritual and material welfare of their fellows, have been able to produce, was reserved, in the designs of Providence, for our epoch. By the force of their preaching the Catholic worship is receiving an increase of a hundredfold; the villages are dividing, and the parishes are multiplying; the population is assuming a new character of culture and civilization; those Indians are becoming affable, industrious, and enterprising; and they are very rapidly attaining the moral and material recompenses due to their labor.
His Excellency, the most illustrious Don Fray Romualdo Jimeno, bishop of Cebú, under date of April fifteen, one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight, represented to the superior government the scarcity of native priests for supplying the curacies in this province, petitioning at the same time that the spiritual administration of the said province be entrusted to one of the excellent orders in Filipinas. The governor and captain-general, Don Narciso Clavería, conde de Manila, assented to the proposition of the diocesan, and entrusted the island of Negros to the province of the Recollect fathers, by his decree of June twenty, one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight. The very reverend father-provincial, Fray Joaquin Soriano, received such an arrangement with due thanks; and immediately sent the vice-patron his nominations for the curacies of Siaton, Cabancalan, and Amblan—of which those chosen assumed possession in the following year, one thousand eight hundred and forty-nine.
From that date the population has increased greatly. The barrios have risen to be settled villages, and what were visitas have become canonically-erected parishes. Agriculture has received a rapid and enormous impetus; and the uncultivated lands, which were full of brambles, have been transformed into productive fields. That most fertile soil yields the rich products of sugar, abacá, and coffee, and that with an abundance unknown in other regions of this archipelago. Churches have been built, and convents for the decent housing of the Spanish priest and the holy functions of our order. Roads have been built, which have made communication easy. Solid bridges of great beauty have been constructed; the waters of the rivers have been taken to fertilize the fields; and in the neighborhood of the rivers a number of hydraulic machines and steam engines have been set up, the natural sciences being called in to adapt their most powerful aid to the work. The natives of this island, instructed and continually stimulated by their parish priests, have proved by experience the value of agriculture, when it is favored by nature and when they coöperate with their labor; and what labor can do when aided with intelligence that does not become weakened before troubles, but is directed with untiring constancy and endurance.
[The villages and missions of this province in charge of the Recollects are as follows: Cagayan, with 1,251½ tributes, and 4,521 souls; Siaton, with 1,806 tributes, and 8,512 souls; Zamboanguita, with 1,060 tributes, and 4,0150 souls; Dauin, with 1,261½ tributes, and 5,855 souls; Bacong, with 1,816½ tributes, and 8,020 souls; Nueva-Valencia, with 1,400½ tributes, and 5,387 souls; Dumaguete, with 2,806 tributes, and 12,824 souls; Sibulan, with 1,222½ tributes, and 4,817 souls; Amblang, with 1,436 tributes, and 5,744 souls; Tanjay, with 1,941½ tributes, and 9,698 souls; Bais, with 752½ tributes, and 3,204 souls; Manjuyod, with 841 tributes, and 4,063 souls; Tayasan, with 987½ tributes, and 4,009 souls; Guijulngan, with 331 tributes and 1,441 souls; Tolong, with 353 tributes; Bayauan, with 51 tributes, and 291 souls; Inayauan, with 95½ tributes, and 316 souls; San Sebastian, with 148 tributes, and 436 souls; Escalante, with 2,133½ tributes, and 5,429 souls; Cádiz, with 1,187½ tributes, and 3,842 souls; Saravia, with 2,140 tributes, and 9,825 souls; Minuluan, with 1,854½ tributes, and 9,637 souls; Bacolod, with 1,905½ tributes, and 8,059 souls; Murcia, with 1,400 tributes, and 6,500 souls; Sumag, with 1,179½ tributes, and 3,772 souls; Valladolid, with 2,567½ tributes, and 9,430 souls; San Enrique, with 1,155 tributes, and 4,463 souls; La-Carlota, with 1,131 tributes, and 3,068 souls; Pontevedra, with 1,451½ tributes, and 4,683 souls; Ginigaran, with 2,185½ tributes, and 9,728 souls; Isabela, with 832 tributes, and 3,171 souls; Gimamaylan, with 1,641 tributes, and 6,402 souls; and Cabancalan, with 1,550½ tributes, and 6,449 souls. The missions of Inagauan, San Sebastian, and Bayauan, were established in 1868, while that of Tolon had been established in 1855. In the twenty-eight villages above mentioned, there are about forty Recollect missionaries, who are in charge of two hundred thousand souls. The fertility of the island of Negros and the opening up of the country in modern times have caused a great increase in population from the near-by provinces of Cebú, Bohol, Iloilo, Antique, and Cápiz. Agriculture has been greatly advanced and other improvements brought in by the Recollects.]
Province of Calamianes
These islands, located to the south of Manila, form in their multitude an archipelago. Many of them of small extent, are inhabited; others are the temporary habitation of the natives, who go thither to sow their fields, because those lands are suitable for farming; and others form a civil village and are religiously organized. The northern boundary of this archipelago is the Chinese Sea; the eastern, that of Visayas; the southern, the island of Paragua, which is included in this province; and the western, the Chinese Sea. The capital is about one hundred leguas from Manila. It has a military government and an alcalde-mayor for its judicial business. As regards religion, all the parishes existing in Calamianes belonged to the bishopric of Cebú from the time of their reduction until the bishopric of Jaro was erected, when all these parishes passed to its jurisdiction.
In the year one thousand six hundred and twenty-two, the numbers of the discalced Augustinians were increased by the second and third missions who had come from España, and by certain men who had taken the habit in the convent of Manila. Consequently, they were prepared to undertake new enterprises for the increase of the faith, and to go to points distant from the metropolis in order to spread the knowledge of the Christian name to those people who were living in heathendom.
[The early details of this mission have been fully given in previous volumes. The villages and missions of this province (a number of which are islands) in charge of the Recollects are as follows: Cuyo, with 2,392 tributes, and 9,475 souls; Agutaya, with 519½ tributes, and 2,258 souls; Paragua, with 618½ tributes, and 3,219 souls; Dumaran, with 785 tributes, and 1,416 souls; Puerto-Princesa, with 573 souls; Culion or Calamian, with 871½ tributes, and 2,438 souls; and Balabac, with 581 souls. The Recollect martyrs of the province of Calamianes are as follows: Francisco de Jesus María; Juan de San Nicolás, 1638; Alonso de San Agustin; Francisco de Santa Mónica, 1638; Juan de San Antonio; Martin de la Ascension; Antonio de San Agustin, 1658; Manuel de Jesus y María, 1720; Antonio de Santa Ana, 1736. The fathers of this province held in captivity were Onofre de la Madre de Dios, Juan de San José, Francisco de San Juan Bautista, and Pedro Gibert de Santa Eulalia.]
Bishopric of Cebu
Province of Cebú
[The Recollects land at Cebú on their first arrival from Spain, and are later conceded a chapel by Bishop Pedro de Arce near the city, where they found a convent. We translate:]
... In later times, the edifice has been improved and modified; the most notable of these changes was that of a few years ago, which has made the convent larger and more beautiful, thus making it possible for it to attain its object—namely, the entertainment of the religious who go to Visayas, and of the sick, who are compelled to go to Cebú to be cured of their ailments. The church is also very large, and suitable for the celebration of religious functions with the solemnity and splendor of the Catholic worship. The faithful of Cebú and of the immediate village of San Nicolás attend that church, in order to fulfil the Christian precepts and receive the sacraments. As there are always religious instructed in the Visayan language, many devout persons daily frequent the church of the Recollects....
In the beginning of its foundation, this convent had in charge the spiritual administration of the souls in the island of Maripipi, by concession of the above-mentioned bishop; but later, through the force of various circumstances that occurred, the natives of the said island went to the curacy of Bantayan, and the convent remained free and without any obligation so far as they were concerned. At present the religious of the community labor as far as possible in the welfare of the souls of those near by, moved only by reasons of charity, and by the greater glory of God, which they seek in its entirety.
[The Recollect villages in this province are as follows: Danao, with 2,797½ tributes, and 13,012 souls; Mandaue, with 2,408 tributes, and 11,034 souls; Liloan, with 1,385½ tributes, and 6,962 souls; Consolación, with 982½ tributes, and 4,277 souls; Compostela, with 3,830 tributes, and 4,856 souls; Catmon, with 965½ tributes, and 4,988 souls; Carmen, with 4,259½ tributes, and 5,588 souls; Camotes Islands, with 1,158 tributes, and 5,660 souls; Pilar, with 1,145½ tributes, and 5,600 souls; and San Francisco, with 1,304 tributes, and 5,831 souls.]
Island of Bohol
Situated in the center of the Visayas Islands, and bordered on its eastern part by the island of Leyte, having the great island of Mindanao on its southern side, and being very near the island of Cebú on the north, Bohol formed an integral part of the territory of that province until the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, when a royal order dated July twenty-two was received in which the creation of the new province of Bohol was decreed.
The true beliefs of our holy order were received in that territory from the first time of the preaching of the gospel in this archipelago. The people of Bohol believed in the God of the Christians as quickly as He was announced to them, and became docile sons of the Catholic church without opposing that obstinate resistance to the good news which was experienced in the other islands, and which cost the life of one of its first apostles. If they remained in their first heathendom, it had not come to take the gross forms of a corrupted idolatry, applying the great idea of the divinity to despicable objects. Free of this inconvenience, when the majesty and grandeur of our God was manifest to them, they revered His adorable perfections. Even though there were perverse inclinations in the hearts of those natives, they were not given to polygamy; and when the holy law of God was explained to them, and the respect that the sanctity of marriage (which was elevated by Jesus Christ to the dignity of a sacrament) merits among Christians, they received these doctrines without any repugnance, since they were already free from the great obstacles which perversity and corruption, elevated to their highest power—namely, to have polytheism and idolatry as their foundation and support—can present against those doctrines. In the year one thousand five hundred and ninety-five, the Jesuit fathers, Torres and Sanchez,[3] came to this island, and very soon established the Catholic religion in Baclayon. Later, they founded a church and convent in Loboc; and then went to a site called Talibon, and overran the rest of the island, where they were able to conquer the difficulties which presented themselves in the way of submitting to their rule—born rather of repugnance to the Spaniards than of systematic opposition to the Christian faith. When Legaspi passed by Bohol and anchored at Jagna[4] in the year one thousand five hundred and sixty-four, he already had occasion to observe that same thing; and the explanation given him by a Moro from Borneo whom he had found there trading, was, that two years before eight vessels from the Molucas had committed great outrages, and those pirates had said that they were Castilians; and since they were of the same color and bore the same arms [as the Spaniards], the people of Bohol imagined that the Spaniards would do the same thing to them as the men of the eight Portuguese boats had done.[5] When Christianity had acquired a great increase in that island, hell, angered by those spiritual improvements, availed itself of the instrumentality of certain Moros of Mindanao, in order, if possible, to choke the seed of the gospel. Knowing that the best means of attaining that object was to make them rebel against the Spaniards, who had brought to them the happiness of their souls, hell stirred up a rebellion which had the same causes, and was invested with the same forms as the insurrection of Caraga, and was of more lasting effect. The missionaries having absented themselves in order to celebrate in Cebú the beatification of St. Francis Javier, which was celebrated in the year one thousand six hundred and twenty-one, two or three criminals who were wandering through the mountains seduced the tribes, as the messengers of the diguata [i.e., divinity], to refuse obedience to the Spaniards, to abandon their settlements, and to unite together on the heights in groups, to make themselves feared. Of six villages formed by the Jesuit fathers, only two remained faithful[6] to the king of España; while the rest took arms against the constituted authorities, and formed bands which displayed a hostile attitude in the hills and high places—so that it was necessary to employ force and violent measures, in order to make them return to the fulfilment of their duty. Exemplary punishments were inflicted, which procured a partial result. But that subversive idea was one of fatal consequences, and produced some pernicious fruits so lasting that they have come down almost to our own days.
Entrance of the Recollect fathers into the island of Bohol
If in the seventeenth century a rebel voice—which emancipated from their obedience and respect to the authorities many unthinking persons, who adhered to the sedition—sounded in the mountains of Bohol, in the eighteenth century that voice, instead of having been completely extinguished, had continued to increase. We have admitted the valiant character of those natives, and granted their natural aptitude in the use of weapons; concurrent with these were various other causes which aroused and increased their disaffection, which had been extended to a very considerable number. Captained by intrepid leaders—as for example, Dagahoy, Ignacio Arañez, Pedro Bagio, and Bernardo Sanote—they had formed a body of insurgents in the mountains of Inabangan and Talibon. That gave the superior government plenty to think about, because of the many years that the insurrection was in existence; and because it always continued to increase until Fathers Lamberti (the missionary of Jagna) and Morales[7] (of Inabangan) were sacrificed by them, a little after the middle of the past century. In such condition, then, was public order in the province of Bohol; and the Spanish name enjoyed so little respect in that restless and disorganized island when, inasmuch as the Jesuit fathers had left all the Spanish dominions, their administration was adjudged to us, in the year one thousand seven hundred and sixty-eight. Father Pedro de Santa Bárbara was assigned as cura of Baclayon, and other Recollect religious to the villages of Loon, Maribohoc, Tagbilaran, Dauis, Jagna, Dimiao, Loboc, and Inabangan, which are the eight missions existing in that island in the above-mentioned epoch. A most difficult undertaking was offered to the zeal and loyalty of the first Recollects who entered Bohol. A great prudence united with the greatest zeal, great valor with a knowledge of all the difficulties, and a foresight of all the results, were necessary to rise superior to that so difficult situation, and to fulfil their social and religious trust in so delicate circumstances, as was advisable to the service of religion and the greater dignity of our country. When the father vicar-provincial of our new ministries, who was then the cura of Baclayon—a religious of great energy, of proved zeal, and of not common daring—found himself in peaceful possession of the spiritual administration of all the reduced villages, he thought seriously of probing to the bottom the beginning and progress of the rebellion, its actual condition, and the disposition of their minds. He established correspondence with the leaders, held several conferences with them, acquired their utmost confidence, and succeeded in obtaining the submission of Dagahoy; and the other leader, Bernardo Sanote, also returned to the service of God and of his Majesty. The Recollects proceeded with so fine tact to make themselves masters of the wills of those untamable mountaineers, that, in a short time after their arrival, they no longer needed an armed force for the security of their persons—although until then pickets of soldiers were maintained in nearly all the villages for the defense of the ministers. Consequently, the soldiers were able to retire from Loay, Maribohoc, and Loon, but always remained in Inabangan, Jagna, and Tagbilaran—not for the purpose of protecting the ministering fathers, but to prevent all devastation and disorder on the part of those who were not subdued. A general amnesty was granted to all the delinquents who had taken to the mountains. That produced many submissions, although it did not wholly extinguish an evil whose roots were so old, and which responded to so many causes as had contributed to its growth. Its final consequences lasted until the beginning of the present century; and when it was believed necessary to obtain the complete tranquillity of the island and the entire extinction of the rebels, an expedition was formed in the time of General Ricafort, composed of one thousand one hundred men—who were enrolled in Cebú, and were embarked to fulfil their destiny on May eight, in the year one thousand eight hundred and twenty-seven. The governor of Cebú, Don José Lázaro Cairo, commanded those forces. He was accompanied by the ex-father-provincial, Fray Miguel de Jesus, parish priest of Danao; and by father Fray Julian Bermejo, ex-provincial of the calced Augustinians, parish priest of Boljoon. The outcome of the expedition was all that could be desired; insubordination ceased to exist in the interior of Bohol, and the last remnants of the emancipated came to an end in all parts of the island. The fruits of peace began to appear; and from that time all the inhabitants, at the same time while they acquired the habits of obedience and respect, began to experience a new era of prosperity, and the satisfaction consequent on the social life. From that time the population has greatly increased; and all the inhabitants remain faithful to their duties, very respectful to all authority, and faithful vassals to the king of España.
For more than one century all this island has been under the spiritual direction of our province. During that time the number of the Catholics has increased in so prodigious a manner that it has been raised to a number almost triple what it was when we received it. At that time it was an integral part of the province of Cebú. At present it forms a province by itself, and is one of the most populous of the archipelago; and its people are closely settled and compact, active and industrious, diligent and laborious.
We received eight missions in this province, which were the eight regularly organized villages which then existed. Their spiritual direction occasioned great sorrows to the ministers of that time, some of these even succumbing as victims to the insolence and obstinacy of their own children. Today we count one hundred and ten years of our existence in that district, and we cannot write of those natives a single page like those of their old history, which was full of disagreeable, and some horrible, relations—whether because the Recollects had an understanding of the peculiar dispositions of those Indians, and the means suitable to gain their respect and obedience; or whether, perchance, one might say that the people of Bohol have had sufficient penetration to observe in their conduct certain manners so considerate and so full of demonstrations of benevolence, which sentiments of compassion and interest in the adversities and lack of resources of their parishioners, would cause in the minds of their new parish priests. Whichever of these may be accepted to explain the long period of our stay in Bohol, exempt from all trouble, and the steady increase in our enjoyment of the consideration and confidence of our protegés, we shall always make known the facts—very surprising and very gratifying to our corporation—that were already begun to be observed from the year one thousand seven hundred and sixty-eight, when the first Recollects went to that island. They were received without any opposition, obeyed without repugnance, and were loved and respected; and these mutual relations have continued without any lapse until the present time.
[The towns of this Recollect province are the following: Loon, with 3,097½ tributes, and 17,202 souls; Calape, with 2,627 tributes, and 8,187 souls; Tubigon, with 2,109½ tributes, and 10,008 souls; Inabangan, with 1,568 tributes, and 7,024 souls; Getafe, with 144 tributes, and 3,912 souls; Talibon, with 1,089 tributes, and 8,558 souls; Ubay, with 669 tributes, and 2,844 souls; Candijay, with 738 tributes, and 5,030 souls; Guindulman, with 1,994½ tributes, and 9,600 souls; Sierra-Bullones, with 541½ tributes, and 2,235 souls; Duero, with 1,175½ tributes, and 5,352 souls; Jagna, with 2,431 tributes, and 11,829 souls; García-Hernandez, with 1,225½ tributes, and 6,847 souls; Valencia, with 1,307½ tributes, and 7,099 souls; Dimiao, with 1,717½ tributes, and 8,280 souls; Lila, with 879 tributes, and 4,023 souls; Carmen, with 749 tributes, and 3,575 souls; Bilar, with 1,281½ tributes, and 5,669 souls; Balilijan, with 1,051½ tributes, and 5,998 souls; Catigbian, with 651½ tributes, and 2,759 souls; Loboc, with 2,469 tributes, and 11,430 souls; Sevilla, with 996½ tributes, and 4,835 souls; Loay, with 1,759 tributes, and 8,171 souls; Alburquerque, with 1,191 tributes, and 5,319 souls; Baclayon, with 2,609 tributes, and 11,142 souls; Tagbilaran, with 1,954 tributes, and 11,081 souls; Paminguitan, with 5,705 souls; island and village of Dauis, with 1,889 tributes, and 9,090 souls; Panglao, with 1,457 tributes, and 6,543 souls; Maribojoc, with 3,372 tributes, and 18,200 souls; island and village of Siquijor, with 1,740 tributes, and 7,800 souls; Canoan, with 1,465 tributes, and 7,082 souls; Laci, with 1,180½ tributes, and 5,403 souls; and San Juan, with 1,143 tributes, and 5,280 souls.]
The province of Bohol at the present time
After having mentioned in rapid survey the villages of which this province is at present composed, which are otherwise so many quiet groups of honest and industrious natives—who form, in the religious estate, the same number of parishes canonically established, each one with its own pastor, who is charged to watch over them through the functions of religion, and to dispense the sacraments and other benefits of religion to the souls of his respective parish—and having enumerated the communities that make up the general total of the population of what is now one of the most populous provinces of the archipelago: a meditative mind goes back about one century with the desire of ascertaining the state of the province in that time, since now we are seeing its condition in our own time. It has been stated above, in the introduction, that the villages having regular ministers were eight in number. In regard to canonical legislation then in force, those ministers had the character of missionaries, and not of parish priests. They labored in the salvation of souls with the apostolic zeal generally recognized (and denied by no one), which is characteristic of the fathers of the Society of Jesus. But the social state of those natives was a hindrance to the abundant fruit that ought to be expected from the fervent devotion and charity of so distinguished missionaries.
The insurrections which took place in Bohol in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries had succeeded in forming a considerable body of malcontents who raised the banner of rebellion and disorder; and the disorder at the same time when it destroyed the obedience of most of their subjects to the authorities, also influenced very directly the advancement of Catholicism, and gave as a result that all those who took to the mountains, thus being separated from the immediate neighborhood of the eight churches then existing, returned to the habits of heathenism at the same time when they passed to the camp of freedom. Other things also were added to the causes which diminished the abundant fruits of the priestly ministry. That coldness of the people of Bohol toward the Spanish name, observed long before by Legaspi at the time of the discovery, and certain opposition inspired by some captious natives who favored but little the very zealous ministers of Jesus Christ (who were sacrificing their own existence for the eternal salvation of those souls), placed this territory in an abnormal condition, taking from it the forces necessary for its advancement and prosperity. Above all, peacefulness had left those shores, a loss which made it impossible to give signs of life and social and religious increase. One hundred and ten years have elapsed since the discalced Augustinians first entered Bohol. They did not go there as conquistadors; they did not go to preach the name of Christ to heathenism and idolatry; they did not go to make new vassals for the king of España of a people who had not sworn their obedience. The mission of the Recollect fathers to the island of Bohol was to continue the tasks of the Jesuit fathers; to preach the divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, just as the Jesuits did; and to present themselves to the observation of those natives in their apostolic and religious bearing, as worthy imitators of so zealous priests. They also had the thorny task of inculcating habits of gratitude and obedience in discontented minds; and of reducing a considerable number of rebels to the payment of the royal tribute, who had already begun a struggle, with some pretensions to triumph. The hope of religion and society in the discalced Augustinians, in the difficult circumstances through which the island of Bohol was passing when they took charge of its administration, was that peace would be extended to the remotest corners of its territory, so that the religious beginnings would have an efficacious influence on the misguided multitude, and Spanish authority would completely dominate men and things which had been separated from its beneficent influence. Facts are demonstrating with the greatest clearness that the Recollects attained abundantly the end of all their aspirations. At present we are experiencing that the reality exceeds the hopes that could animate them when they entered on their task. The universal harmony that this province enjoys in the present century, and the state of prosperity in which all the natives live, as well as the growth of population, and the increase of culture, religious fervor, and instruction that they enjoy—all this speaks very loudly in favor of the preaching of the Recollects in Bohol. These considerations also demonstrate with the greatest clearness that, even if the Recollects were not its conquistadors, they are without dispute the instruments employed by Providence for its political and religious advancement; and that they are with all propriety the pacifiers and restorers of the beginnings of Christian society in that island, which was in confusion until that time. As soon as they entered, a relation of sympathy was established between them and their protegés, as hidden as it was intimate, by virtue of which they were enabled to direct all their individual forces to the attempt at perfection and the improvements that they had planned. As they always directed these successfully, and were always obeyed with promptness, they were enabled to realize the material and intellectual transformation of that district newly entrusted to their care. There are at present thirty-three parishes in this province, according to the preceding relation. In each one of them has been erected a Catholic temple, sufficient in itself alone to give glory to the hand that has directed it. In all of those parishes there is a parish house—more or less elegant, but always sufficiently solid and suitable—which is teaching to the present generation (and the future one also) the fatigues that the Recollect must have endured who placed the first stone and finished the work, in each of those parishes (which are a like number of villages), public halls have been constructed under the direction of the parish priests. In all of them schools for both sexes have been erected, where religious instruction is given to them. Since this exercises its proper influence on the minds of the youth, it has succeeded in forming the present generation—who are established in all the beliefs of our true religion, exactly observant of the practices which it imposes upon them, thankful and respectful to the ministers of Jesus Christ, and very diligent in the fulfilment of their social duties, all those who pay tribute to his Majesty being comprehended in this obligation.
The number of those who paid tribute in this island could not have been very large in the eight missions that existed when the island came into our possession, when one considers the state of insubordination in which that multitude were living, most of whom were separated from organized society and in revolt in the interior of the territory. In proportion as it continued to assume its normal state, and commenced to enjoy the peace that it has at the present time, its population continued to increase, and in the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight was more than one hundred thousand souls; in one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, the total of its population was increased to one hundred and fifty thousand; at present the island of Bohol, which is a province, has a population of two hundred and sixty thousand souls.[8]
This prodigious increase of inhabitants in an area so small, and amid conditions so little advantageous for agriculture, has no other explanation than the conscientious and constant labor of the regular parish priests, each of whom notes in his respective parish register with scrupulous niceness the heights and depths of his district, without any of the alterations that can modify the statistics of his village escaping his eye; and who assigns to their respective dwellings men and women, and youths and old people, with the correct date of their birth. From this patriotic labor it results that the obligations of the royal treasury are satisfied by all the people of Bohol at the moment when they become of proper age.
Reflecting upon the advantageous conditions by which the character of those peoples has been modified, and how they have been completely withdrawn from those untamable and savage forms of life which lasted until the last century, and that they have at present become fond of work, respectful to authority, and grateful in their social intercourse, we can infer that the ministers of the order who are at present watching over the necessities of their souls are laboring tirelessly in the confessional, are preaching the word of God without cessation, and are consoling the sick in their most remote dwellings. In the midst of so many lofty occupations of the religious ministry, the Recollects have been able to study even the physical necessities of their protegés, and the ingenious manner of making these lighter. To their direction is owing the different industries proceeding from the products of the earth, which, prepared and elaborated with due intelligence, furnish other kinds of business, permitted and honorable, which afford abundant means for the life and support of those natives. If agriculture does not furnish most abundant products, because of the nature of the soil in Bohol, those natives do not for that reason sleep in inactivity; they go to seek their living where they can find it. They do not abhor work, which is the true fount of all means of subsistence. They undertake voyages by land and sea, with the praiseworthy purpose of making their living by virtue of their fatigues and labors. This is the exact description of the inhabitants of Bohol; and this is what has been obtained from those people (from whom religion and the country expected so little) by the province of San Nicolás de Tolentino, by means of the worthy children of its bosom whom it sent to that land, and through those who have continued, furthered, and perfected the arduous attempt at the culture and civilization of those natives....
The Recollects of Mindanao
[The entrance of the Recollects into Mindanao, and the earlier years of their preaching there, have been already given in preceding volumes of this series.]
Division of parishes in Mindanao
Although it is clear that the fathers of the Society of Jesus entered this land in the year one thousand five hundred and ninety-six to procure its spiritual conquest, by permission of the cabildo governing the vacant see of Manila, and that the call of the gospel resounded in the site Tampacan [misprinted Jampacan], when our soldiers retired the fathers of the Society had to do the same. In the year one thousand five hundred and ninety-nine, the Observantine Augustinians took this vineyard in their charge, and father Fray Francisco Xaraba[9] went to cultivate it with a companion; but undeceived, [and seeing] that only war could open the way for their preaching, because of the exceeding ferocity of the people, they abandoned the undertaking and returned to Cebú. The missionaries of the Society returned [to Mindanao], and preached on the river of Butuan; and those who were then converted by them formed a visita of a village in Bohol.
After the deed of arms above mentioned, the Recollect missionaries, with the necessary permits from the bishop and the royal vice-patron, founded the first convent and village of Tandag, and then the convent and village of Jigaquit; a third village and convent on the river of Butuan, whence they continued their conquests and went up the river of Butuan to the interior of the island, to a lake called Linao; and the fourth village and convent, fifty leguas from Butuan. Then they went to Cagayan,[10] where they also founded a church and convent; whence they crossed to the island of Camiguin, where they did the same; and lastly in the island of Surigao and Bislig. Eight settlements, perfectly organized in the social order, with churches suitable for the public worship of our true religion, with convenient buildings for the habitation of their ministers—where they could practice the exercises of the monastic life, and whence issued the splendors of their edifying holiness to illumine the dark shades of idolatry and paganism, served as the original basis for the spread of the faith. After that, they continued to found many other villages dependent on the first, which were then considered as visitas or subject villages. Some of those villages came in later times to be the residences of our Recollect ministers, according to the available number of religious that the corporation possessed, or according as the necessities or growth of population in the said subject villages demanded.
Our predecessors also succeeded in getting to the lake of Malanao, and the village of Iligan, and Bayug. As there were certain questions regarding the spiritual jurisdiction, his Majesty defined them, marking out the limits of religious zeal between the two families (who were equally inflamed with the desire for the salvation of souls), by drawing a line from the point of Suloguan to the cape of San Agustin, and assigning the administration on its western side to the most religious fathers of the Society of Jesus, while our peaceful possession was marked on the eastern side. Lastly, when the reverend Jesuit fathers left the islands, the administration of Zamboanga was adjudged to us in the year one thousand seven hundred and sixty-eight, as well as the villages of Lubungan, Dapitan, and Misamis (and consequently their barrios—some of which, as time went on, came to be villages).
Present administration of the Recollects
Her Majesty Doña Isabel II decreed the establishment of the house of Loyola on October nineteen, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, with permission to go to the missions of Mindanao and Joló. September ten, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, another royal order was issued, declaring that the missionaries of the Society of Jesus have exclusive rights in the planting and successive development of the effective missions in Mindanao; and that the same were to take charge of the administration of the curacies and missions already reduced by the Recollect Augustinian religious as fast as these were vacated by the death or transfer of those who serve them with canonical collation or under title of temporary incumbent. Her Majesty, desiring at the same time to concede an indemnification, and to give proof of the appreciation with which she views the services bestowed on the Church and on the state by the above-mentioned Augustinian religious, has been pleased to grant to the province of San Nicolás de Tolentino the administration of the curacies of the province of Cavite or of the diocese of Manila which are served by the native clergy.
May nineteen, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, another royal order was issued, dictating instructions for the compensation of curacies accorded to the province of San Nicolás de Tolentino in return for those in Mindanao which they were to surrender to the Jesuit missionaries. In that order it was decided that in every certified instance of a vacancy in Mindanao, and its surrender to and occupation by the Jesuit fathers, indemnification therefor was to be made to the Recollect fathers, in Cavite and the diocese of Manila, with the curacy which might be vacant at that time, even if it were in charge of a temporary incumbent; and if there were more than one curacy vacant, then the wishes of the vice-patron were to be followed, after first hearing the very reverend archbishop, the provincial of the order, and the council of administration. Should there not be any curacy vacant, then [indemnification was to be made] with the first which should become vacant. As obedient subjects to the orders of her Majesty, from that date we relinquished, in the same order in which they fell vacant, the ministries that we held in Mindanao; and we handed over Zamboanga, Tetuan, Lubungan, Dapitan, Butuan, Surigao, Jigaquit, Davao, Bislig, Cattabato, Mainit, Dinagat, Balingasag, Alubijid. In exchange we received the curacies in the district of Morong—namely, Antipolo and Taytay; the village of La Hermita, in the province of Manila; Calauan, in Laguna; Cavite port, and Rosario, in the province of Cavite; Boac, in the island of Marinduque; and the villages of Rosario, Santo Tomás, Balayan, and Lobo, in the province of Batangas. The sacrifice made by the Recollect corporation by ceding parishes created by it and watered with the sweat and blood of its most eminent members, nourished by the doctrine of apostolic men to be revered by us, and very worthy of our imitation, is equal to the respect with which the Recollects have always received the orders of their august monarchs, and to the obedience and adhesion with which they have always served in this archipelago as Catholic priests, and in the shade of our Spanish banner.
[The Recollect villages still in Mindanao are as follows: Tandag, with 1,783½ tributes, and 3,957 souls; Cantilan, with 189½ tributes, and 7,366 souls; Cabuntog, with 990 tributes, and 3,731 souls; Numancia, with 862½ tributes, and 3,366 souls; Cagayan, with 2,585½ tributes, and 11,499 souls; Jasaan, with 1,2821½ tributes, and 5,878 souls; Iponan, with 1,078½ tributes, and 5,570 souls; Alubijid, with 1,210 tributes, and 4,989 souls; Iligan, with 1,098 tributes, and 4,577 souls; Misamis, with 1,561½ tributes, and 6,419 souls; Jimenez, with 2,178½ tributes, and 8,616 souls; Catarman, with 1,202 tributes, and 5,105 souls; Sagay, with 1,218 tributes, and 5,482 souls; Mambajao, with 1,684 tributes, and 5,246 souls; and Mahinog, with 1,037 tributes, and 4,382 souls. In the time of La Concepción (ca. 1750), the Recollects had charge of thirty-six villages in Mindanao and dependent islands; in 1852, they had charge of eighteen, and were showing rapid increase when they were ordered to transfer them to the Jesuits. The martyrs and captives of the Recollects in Mindanao are as follows: Juan de la Madre de Dios, killed 1723; Brother Juan de San Nicolás, martyred; Jacinto de Jesus y Maria, martyred; Alonso de San José, killed 1631; Juan de Santo Tomás, killed 1631; Pedro de San Antonio, killed July 21, 1631; Agustín de Santa María, killed May 16, 1651; Lorenzo de San Facundo, captured 1635; Hipólito de San Agustin, captured May 20, 1740; Antonio del Santo Cristo, captured 1754; Estéban de San José, killed by Moros, March 28, 1764; José de Santa Teresa, killed in combat with Moros in 1770; and José de la Santísima Trinidad, captured 1774.]
Marianas Islands
[These islands were in charge of the Jesuits, but after the expulsion of the Society were given to the Recollects, who had them in charge during 1768–1814, when they abandoned them because of their few laborers. The Recollects reassumed that field in 1819, and in 1879 had there seven priests.]
Tables showing tributes and number of souls in Recollect provinces and villages, at various times
In 1751, as published by father Fray Juan de la Concepción
In 1839, by the prior provincial, father Fray Blás de las Mercedes
| Provinces | Tributes | Souls | Regular ministers |
| Tondo | 1,777½ | 8,498 | 2 |
| Cavite | 2,277½ | 12,228 | 1 |
| Pampanga | 744 | 5,781 | 2 |
| Zambales | 4,171½ | 19,997 | 6 |
| Mindoro | 1,400½ | 6,675 | 3 |
| Capiz | 1,793 | 9,544 | 2 |
| Calamianes | 2,959½ | 15,342 | 5 |
| Cebú | 22,285 | 123,503 | 20 |
| Misamis | 5,046 | 36,591 | 7 |
| Caraga | 6,140 | 29,292 | 5 |
| Zamboanga | — | 5,704 | 1 |
| Marianas | — | 6,982 | 3 |
| Total | 48,594½ | 278,137 | 57 |
In 1851, by the prior provincial, father Fray Juan Félix de la Encarnacion
In 1878, by the prior provincial, father Fray Aquilino Bon de San Sebastian
[A note at the end of the volume states that the Recollects of the province of San Nicolás of the Philippine Islands numbered, in 1879, 1,004 deceased friars who had labored there.]
[1] This town is on the Pacific coast of Luzón, and is provincial capital of Infanta (now annexed to province of Tayabas). It is near the port of Lampón, which was used in the seventeenth century as a harbor for the Acapulco galleons, as being more accessible than any port in San Bernardino Strait. See U. S. Philippine Gazetteer, pp. 553, 554, 578.
[2] This name is still retained, as an alternative appellation of Point Concepción, which is on the southeastern coast of Maestro de Campo Island, off west coast of Mindoro.
[3] Referring to Gabriel Sanchez and Juan de Torres (Vol. XII, pp. 301, 310–313). The former entered the Society in its Toledo province, about 1589; and, seven years later, went to join the Philippine mission. He spent some twenty years in labors among the Visayan natives; and died at Palapag, aged forty-eight years, on January 1, 1617. Juan de Torres was born at Montilla, in 1564, and entered the Jesuit order at the age of nineteen. He came to the islands with Sanchez, in 1596, and the two were colaborers in Bohol. After many years of work in the Visayas, Torres was obliged by ill-health to return to Manila; he then learned the Tagál language, and labored among the mountaineers of Bondoc. He died at Manila, January 14, 1625. (See Murillo Velarde’s Hist. Philipinas, fol. 11, 30.)
[4] The name of a point and a village on the southeastern coast of Bohol.
[5] See Legazpi’s account of this, in Vol. II, pp. 207, 208.
[6] These were Loboc and Baclayon; see Murillo Velarde’s account of this rebellion (Hist. Philipinas, fol. 17, 18). It was put down by Juan de Alcarazo, alcalde-mayor of Cebú, with fifty Spaniards and one thousand friendly Indians (1622). Murillo Velarde says: “The Boholans are the most warlike and valiant among the Indians.”
[7] Giuseppe Lamberti, an Italian, was born November 25, 1691; and entered the Jesuit order October 15, 1716. In the following year, he set out for the Philippine missions; and finally was slain by the natives, January 24, 1746. Sommervogel thus mentions him (Bibliothèque, iv, col. 1412), but does not speak of Morales.
[8] The present population of the island of Bohol is 269, 223, which is all civilized. See Census of the Philippine Islands: 1903, Bulletin No. 7, “Population of the Philippine Islands” (Washington, 1904), published by the Department of Commerce and Labor.
[9] Pedro (according to Pérez) Jaraba was in Manila in 1598–99, and went as a missionary to La Caldera in 1603. In the following year, he died at Manila.
[10] The Cagayán (river and town) of Misamis, in northern Mindanao. Camiguín also here refers, not to the island of that name near Luzón, but to one on the coast of Misamis. Bislig is on the eastern coast of Surigao province. There is no present application of the name Surigao to an island; the reference in the text is apparently to one of the two larger islands dependent on Surigao province, which are Dinágat and Siargao.