Other events which happened at this time in Japon and the Philippinas
[The circumstances in Japon were such that many of the converts were obliged to spend six, or eight, or even fifteen years without confessing, while some of them had not seen a confessor within forty years. Hence the fathers Fray Thomas and Fray Alonso were anxious to go up into the country to continue the good work which they had begun. The vicar-provincial, Fray Francisco de Morales, sent father Fray Alonso de Mena to the kingdom of Fixen,[49] where there had been no church up to this year 1606. A certain captain, Francisco Moreno Donoso, had taken some Franciscan fathers with him on a journey, and on the voyage had been delivered from great danger by the intercession of our Lady of the Rosary. He was therefore devoted to this our Lady. Although the kingdom of Fixen is very near Nangasaqui, the king had always been unwilling to admit preachers of Christianity; but this king had a great regard for Captain Moreno Donoso, who went to visit the king with father Fray Alonso; and the captain made the king many gifts, refusing to accept anything in return except a chain. The king showed him such favor that the captain took advantage of the opportunity to ask permission that father Fray Alonso might establish convents and churches in the kingdom. The king was pleased to grant it, insisting only that the sanction of a great bonze, named Gaco, should first be secured; he was a native of Fixen, and was the most highly regarded man in Japan because of his learning. The king sent his own secretary to go before the bonze, to tell him of the poverty, the penitence, the contempt for the things of this world, the modesty, the humility, and the courteous behavior of the father. The bonze, seeing that it was the pleasure of the king, said that such a man might very well receive this permission. In conformity with it three poor churches and houses were built—one in Famamachi under the patronage of our Lady of the Rosary; the second in the city of Caxima [i.e., Kashima]. named for St. Vincent; and, after some time, another one at the king’s court [i.e., Saga], for which at that time permission had been refused. Father Fray Alonso and his companion, when he had one, got the little they needed for their support from Portuguese and Castilians in Nangasaqui, that they might avoid asking for alms from the Japanese, and might thus give no opportunity for the bonzes to complain against them, and to find a pretext for sending them out of the country. Father Fray Alonso remained in this kingdom; and the order persevered until the persecution, when all the religious who had been hiding there were ordered to depart from Japon. Father Fray Alonso found in this kingdom some Japanese who had been baptized in other kingdoms, but had not been well taught in the faith, or who had forgotten the good teachings that they had received at their baptism. They were guilty of much irregularity in their marriages; and some of them had assumed to baptize others without knowing the essence of the baptismal form, so that it was difficult to determine which of them had received valid baptisms. These imperfectly prepared converts had also done harm by endeavoring to sustain arguments against the opponents of Christianity, and, being insufficiently grounded in the faith, they had spread false impressions of the Christian religion. Notable cases of conversion occurred, there being some instances well worthy of remark in the court; and finally the sanctity of the life of the missionaries caused them to be called xaxino padre, “fathers who despise the world.” The father Fray Juan de Los Angeles, or Rueda, came to live at Fixen in the following year, 1607.
In this year 1606 of which we have been speaking, there died at sea father Fray Domingo de Nieva, who was on his way to act as procurator of the province. He had labored much and well among the Indians of Bataan and among the Chinese. Father Fray Domingo was a native of Billoria in Campos, and a son of the convent of San Pablo at Valladolid. He was a man of ability and of good will. When nearly all the lecturers in theology from that convent, together with the lecturers in arts, and many of their most able and learned disciples, determined to go to the Philippinas, father Fray Domingo joined his masters. He suffered his life long from headache. Being sent to Bataan in company with three other fathers, he, as the youngest, had to carry a very heavy burden of duties. He was fortunate enough not to suffer from any further diseases, the Lord being pleased not to add any to his constant headache. His mortification, fasting, and discipline were very great. He wrote some devout tracts in the language of the Indians, and some others in that of the Chinese. He had printed for the Chinese in their language and characters an essay upon the Christian life, with other brief tracts of prayer and meditation, in preparation for the holy sacraments of confession and the sacred communion. He wrote a practically new grammar of the Chinese language, a vocabulary, a manual of confession, and many sermons, in order that those who had to learn this language might find it less difficult. He was prior of Manila; and in the third year of his priorate the news arrived of the death of father Fray Pedro de San Vicente, who was going to España as definitor in the chapter general and as procurator for this province. Since it was necessary to send another in his place, father Fray Domingo received the appointment to the duty. Like his predecessor, he died on the voyage from the islands to Mexico.]
Chapter LXV
The foundation of Manavag in Pangasinan and the deaths of some religious
In the year 1605 the missionaries to Pangasinan, not contented with the fruitful results of their labors in the level region of that province, took under their charge the village of Manavag, situated among the mountains at a considerable distance from the other villages. The first entry into this village was made by the religious of our father St. Augustine in the year 1600; they built there a church named after St. Monica, and baptized some children. The village was so small, however, that it was not possible for a religious to find enough to do there to justify his continued residence; and accordingly it was visited from Lingayen, the capital of that province, which was at that time in their hands. It caused them a great deal of labor, since they were obliged to travel three days if they went there by water, and two if they went by land; and therefore it was seldom visited, and little good resulted to the village. Inasmuch as the whole population were heathen, they required much persuasion to lead them to baptism, and a great deal of attention to their religious instruction. On this account, those fathers placed a juridical renunciation of the said village in the hands of the bishop, Don Fray Diego de Soria. The bishop, being a religious of our order, asked his brethren to take charge of this village, since there were in it many baptized children, and no other body of religious could care for and guide them. The bishop, in asking the religious to take this matter in charge, was laying upon them no small burden; yet the need was almost extreme, and the great labor brought with it great reward—for, as the apostle says, each man shall be rewarded at the last judgment in proportion to his labors. Hence they determined to assume the charge, and the superior sent there father Fray Juan de San Jacintho,[50] a devoted religious and an indefatigable laborer in the teaching of the Indians. He went to Manavag in the year mentioned, and the fact was spread abroad among the neighboring villages. On account of the great love which they had for the order, and especially for the religious who was there (for he was like an angel from heaven), some other hamlets were added to that one, and the village of Manavag was made of reasonable size. The Negrillos and Zambales who go about through those mountains were continually harassing this village, partly because of their evil desires to kill men, and partly for robbery. They often came down upon it with bows and arrows, and with fire to burn the houses and the church which was practically all of straw. They committed murders, and robbed women and children. Those in the village being thus terrorized, and the men being unable to prevent the evil, since their enemies came when they had gone out into the fields, it was determined to take as patroness the Virgin of the Rosary, that she might aid them in this need. They accordingly dedicated a new church to her, and solemnized the dedication with many baptisms of adult persons. Within a few months, there was not a heathen within the village—a clear proof that the presence of heathen in the country is due solely to a lack of missionaries. Wherever the missionaries are, all are immediately baptized; and not only those of that village which has the missionaries, but some of their neighbors also, participate in the teaching of the religious, and in the favors of our Lady of the Rosary. This is plain from a miracle which occurred a few years after, and was verified before the vicar-general of this country, who at that time was father Fray Pedro de Madalena. It happened thus. Four leguas from Manavag, in a village of Ygolote Indians who inhabit some high mountain ridges, there lived an Indian chief, a heathen, by the name of Dogarat, who used sometimes to go down to the village of Manavag, and to listen out of curiosity to the preaching of the religious. Since the matters of our faith are truly divine, the Indian began to incline toward them, and even toward becoming a Christian. He therefore learned the prayers, and knew them by heart; and the only thing which held him back was the necessity of leaving his vassals and his kinsmen if he was baptized, and going away from the washings in a river of his village, where they used to gather grains of gold, which come down with the water from those hills and ridges where they are formed. God our Lord, to draw him to the precious waters of baptism, brought upon him a severe illness. When he felt the misery of this disease, he sent to call the religious who was at that time in Manavag, father Fray Thomas Gutierrez, who came to his village, called Ambayaban, and visited the sick Indian, giving him thorough instruction in the matters of our holy faith. When he was thoroughly prepared he baptized him and named him Domingo. By the aid of the Lord he recovered, and used to attend church on feast days. He asked for a rosary, which the religious gave him with a direction to say the prayers of the rosary every day, that the Sovereign Lady might aid him. He went out hunting once; and in order that the rosary, which he always wore about his neck, might not interfere with him or be broken by catching in a branch, he took it off and hung it on a tree, and with it a little purse in which he was carrying a trifle of gold. It happened soon after that some Indians set fire to the mountain to frighten out the game. The fire kindled the tree where the rosary was hanging, and burnt it all to ashes. Some time afterward Don Domingo came back for his rosary, and discovered the destruction which the fire had wrought, and the tree in ashes. As he was looking among them he found his rosary entire and unhurt, while everything else was burnt up, and the purse and the gold were consumed, though they were close to the rosary, which did not show a sign of fire. The Indian, amazed, went and told his story to father Fray Thomas, who for a memorial of this marvel kept the miraculous rosary among the treasures of the church, giving the Indian another in its place. There it remained, in token of the esteem and respect which our Lady willed that the fire should pay to her holy rosary.
[In the month of June, 1607, father Fray Juan Baptista Gacet ended his labors happily in the convent of Sancto Domingo at Manila. He was a son of the convent of Preachers at Valencia, and a beloved disciple of St. Luis Beltran, whom he succeeded in the office of master of novices at Valencia. When St. Luis returned from the Indias, the Lord moved father Fray Juan to go to them, as he desired to reap a harvest of souls, and feared that they might strive to make him superior in his own province. He received the approval of St. Luis, and went to the Indias at the time when master Fray Alonso Bayllo went out from his convent of Murcia, by command of our lord the king and of the general of the order, to divide the province of Vaxac from that of Sanctiago de Mexico. Being threatened with a superiorship in the province of Vaxac, father Fray Juan did what he could to avoid it. When a company of religious under the leadership of father Fray Pedro de Ledesma passed through Nueva España on their way to the Philippinas, father Fray Juan decided to accompany them, though he was already of venerable age; and he reached Manila in 1596. Here he was greatly honored, and, being too old to learn the Indian languages, was retained in the convent of Manila to act as confessor and spiritual guide to a number of devout persons in the city. He was made definitor in the first provincial chapter, and was later obliged to accept the office of prior—having no other country to flee to, as he had fled from España to the Indias, and thence to the Philippinas, to avoid this elevation. He was given to devout exercises and to prayer, reading often from some devout book, usually from St. John Climachus, and afterward discussing the passage, and making it the basis of devout meditation. After leaving the office of prior, he returned to his life of devotion and abstraction.
On the twentieth of July in the same year, father Fray Miguel de Oro ended his life in the province of Nueva Segovia. He was a native of Carrion de Los Condes; and he took the habit and professed in San Pablo at Valladolid. He afterward went to the religious province of Guatemala, where he remained for some years, but afterward returned to España. In 1599 the plague attacked all España and raged with especial violence in Valladolid. Father Fray Miguel, with four other religious of our order, devoted himself to the care of those who were plague-stricken. After the plague he retired to the convent of La Peña de Francia; but his memory was constantly stirred by the recollection of his service among the Indians, and in 1601 he went with some other religious to Manila. He was assigned to the province of Nueva Segovia, where, although on account of his great age he was unable to learn the language, his holy example was of great value. He was of great help and comfort to the minister whom he accompanied, doing all that he could to make it possible for the minister (who knew the language) to work among the Indians, and to write in the Indian language compositions and spiritual exercises, which were of service to the ministers that came after them. He used to wear next his skin a thick chain, weighing ten libras; and, that the other brethren might not perceive the marks of it on his tunics, he used to take care to wash and dry them apart. He died as a result of a fever caused by the heat of the sun. Father Fray Miguel was of swarthy complexion, with black and very prominent eyes which inspired fear. After his death he remained handsome, fair, and rosy, which caused those present to wonder-all supposing that these were signs of the glory which his soul already enjoyed.]