[1] See account (mainly derived from Aduarte) of the foundation of the Dominican province of Filipinas, in Reseña biográfica, i, pp. 1–29. Fray Juan Crisóstomo was one of the Dominican friars in Mexico, and was sent to Spain and Rome in 1581 to make arrangements for the opening of the new Filipinas mission; no information is available regarding previous events in his life. Having assembled the members of his mission at Sevilla, he set out with them for Nueva España (July 17, 1586); but the hardships of the voyage made him so ill that he was obliged to remain a long time in Mexico, not being able to reach Manila until 1589. There he was so affected by age and broken health that he could do little; and finally disease carried him away, and he died probably late in 1590 or early in 1591.
[2] The mission of the Jesuit Sanchéz to Spain, and its results, are described in VOLS. VI and VII of this series.
[3] Juan de Castro, a native of Burgos, entered the Dominican order at that place, and soon after his ordination went to Nueva España, where he spent most of his life in Guatemala. Being sent to Madrid on business of his order, he encountered there Fray Juan Crisóstomo (1585–86), through whom he became so interested in the projected mission to Filipinas that for its sake he declined proffered honors and dignities. He conducted to Manila the mission of 1587, and was elected provincial at the first chapter-meeting (June 10, 1588). In May, 1590, Castro and Benavides went to China to preach the gospel, returning to Manila in March, 1591. The suffering and hardship which they endured in China broke down the health of Castro, who was already an old man; and he died in 1592.
[4] Juan Ormaza de Santo Tomás was born at Medina del Campo, in September, 1548. His studies were pursued at Salamanca; after graduation he spent several years in teaching and was engaged in this occupation at Valladolid when Crisóstomo went thither to secure missionaries for Filipinas. Ormaza enlisted in this new field, and, after arriving at Manila, he was assigned to the district of Bataan. Here he “reduced to two villages, with some visitas annexed, the thirty-one hamlets among which the Indians were dispersed; made bridges over the rivers; hindered with palisades (which those people call tabones) the inroads of the sea, which had ruined their grain-fields; and adorned the churches with altars, sacred images, and paintings.” During 1610–14 he was engaged in the missions of Japan; the rest of his life, except 1619–21 and 1623–25, when he ministered to the Chinese in the Parián and in Binondoc respectively, was spent at the Manila convent—where he died on September 7, 1638. (Reseña biográfica, i, pp. 86–91.)
Pedro de Soto was a native of Burgos, and pursued his priestly studies at Valladolid; soon after his graduation he joined the Filipinas mission. His first charge was in Pangasinan, where he labored zealously, amid great opposition and hostility from the natives. A serious illness at last compelled him to return (1599) to Manila, where he died.
[5] Juan Cobo, a native of Castilla, joined the Dominican order at Ocaña, and was a student at Avila and Alcalá de Henares. He came to Nueva España with the mission of 1587; during his stay there (prolonged another year, on account of certain business of the order) he rebuked the viceroy of Mexico so boldly that the latter ordered Cobo to be exiled to the Philippines. Arriving at the islands in May, 1588, he began his labors among the Chinese of the Manila Parián, and later went among those of Tondo. In 1592, Cobo was sent by Dasmariñas as ambassador to Japan; having fulfilled his commission he set out on the return to Manila, and is supposed to have perished by shipwreck, as nothing more was ever known of him or his ship.
[6] “Peña de Francia is a lofty mountain in the province and diocese of Salamanca, twelve leguas from this city and seven from Ciudad-Rodrigo. On its rugged summit is the celebrated convent-sanctuary of this name, where the community resided from Easter until November 2, at which time they went down to another house, on the slope of the same mountain, only two or three brethren remaining above for the care of the sanctuary.” (Reseña biográfica, i, p. 95, note 1.)
[7] Pedro Bolaños was master of novices in the convent of Peña de Francia when he decided to enter the Filipinas mission, and was then sixty years of age. He labored among the natives of Bataan for a little while; but the responsibilities of this work, the hardships of missionary life, and his advanced years, were too much for him, and he died before he had spent a year in Filipinas. (Reseña biográfica, i, pp. 95–97.)
[8] Juan de la Cruz, labored first among the natives of Pangasinan, and was afterward sent among those of Bataan, where he became very proficient in the Tagál language. He was provisor of the archdiocese under Benavides, until the latter’s death; then he returned to Bataan, where he died, probably near the end of 1605. (Reseña biográfica, i, pp. 100, 101.)
[9] Apparently meaning the Jesuit Alonso Sanchéz, who was then in Nueva España, on his way to Spain.