The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 45, 1736 / Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century

by Unknown

SCHOOL OF SANTA POTENCIANA

It was erected by Governor Dasmariñas, by virtue of an express royal mandate contained in the instructions which were delivered to them August 9, 1589,[6] in which section 27 reads: “Upon your arrival at the Filipinas Islands, you shall ascertain how and where, and with what endowment, a convent for the shelter of girls may be founded, so that both those who should come from here and those, born there, may live in it, so that they may live modestly and after being well instructed may go out therefrom to be married and bear children.” That zealous governor, with the efficacy and activity which distinguished his government, did what his Majesty ordered him; for, in a royal order of January 27, 1593, the measures which had been taken with the city are approved and ordered to be continued, namely, that the said convent should be founded in the church of San Andres. Shortly afterward that pious institution must have been completed, as is inferred from another royal order of June 11, 1594: “The rules and regulations,” says his Majesty to the governor, “which you have made for the girls’ school have been examined and are approved, and thus you shall have them observed.” It was further provided how they were to act at the wheel, or in the parlor. The chaplain was also to be the manager and he was to be an approved person of forty years old or upward. The clothing of the collegiates, of the mother superior, and the teacher, was to be modest and cheap, and was sent by his Majesty. The governor was authorized to name the sum which was to be paid annually by any other woman who wished of her own accord to enter the institution, in order to take shelter therein, provided that such sum should be moderate.[7]

There is no copy of the first rules of this school in existence, for they probably perished with its archives, and ten or twelve inmates in the awful earthquake of 1645, which overthrew the edifice and destroyed the greater part of the city. In fulfilment of a royal order of November 27, 1686, and superior rulings of March 15, 1691, Doctor Silva, then chaplain of said school, published, in the following April, the ordinances of Santa Potentiana, which merited royal approbation November 14, 1825, in which year the newly printed rules were ordered to be observed.

In 1736 the free inmates were the daughters of Spaniards who had served his Majesty in the islands. They were aided with what was necessary for their support and clothing, and the physician and the medicine for the sick were paid for them, besides a suitable funeral for the dead. The funds of the college did not permit, in case one married, to give her a suitable dowry, but such a one received two hundred pesos from the charitable fund which was established for that purpose in 1686 by Don Cristóbal Romero, castellan of the fort of Santiago, and in the time of Governor Tamon, fifty pesos more, which he gave from his own purse, to each one of the inmates when she was married. In 1729, Auditor Don José Antonio Pabon founded for the same purpose another charitable fund by giving 2,823 pesos, which the royal treasury owed him on account of pay, but that foundation had no effect until 1749. The funds were in charge of the managers, who very commonly were the royal officials, and were increased by investing them suitably, until the time when they entered the royal treasury with the other incomes of the school. At present that school occupies a house which was bought at the royal account, for its ancient site has been destined for the building of a fortification. From the same treasury, the expenses of a small chapel, a physician, apothecary shop, infirmary, clothing for the pupils, and six servant girls are met, which are estimated at 700 pesos annually; and those of a sacristan, four faginantes [i.e., fagot-gatherers], and one purchaser. By a provision of the Superior Board of the royal treasury of September 22, 1808, money was subscribed for the maintenance of a rectress, a portress, and twenty-four inmates at the rate of one and one-half reals per day to each one, and monthly from the royal magazines, 46 baskets of pinagua[8] rice of 15 gantas, 25 quintals of wood, and 17 gantas of cocoanut oil for their light.