In our churches we began this year the practice of the discipline, with a great number of penitents and great devotion from the people. We also delivered sermons, with the Christian catechism, to the garrison, with extraordinary results.
A certain father added that a sick Indian had lost the faculty of speech before he had confessed, so that he could not receive an exhortation to a pious death. Accordingly, he urged him to attempt at least to pronounce the name of Jesus. The sick man obeyed, and uttered it obscurely so that he could scarcely be heard. The father continued to urge him to speak more distinctly. Finally with a moderate effort he uttered it with the greatest distinctness, made a complete confession, and on the following day left his bed well.
Father Miguel Gomez [38] was sent to a tribe at a considerable distance. At first he gave all his attention to learning the names of those who had not yet been washed in the holy waters of baptism; and there were brought to him sixty, besides some others who are known as Visaians. And to all these, after he had sufficiently demonstrated the vanity of idols and the truth of the Christian belief, he imparted baptism, with so great a degree of consolation to them all, although they were old men, that they all marveled. But before dawn, behold some others, men and women of very great age, who had hidden by the gate of our house that they might be initiated by means of the same sacrament. Accordingly sixty, along with six children, were initiated; and in this number was included the chief of the place, a man already more than sixty years old.
Residence of Bohol
This residence is subject to the preceding one, that of Zebu. The harvest reaped in it your Paternity will learn from the letter of Father Valerio Ledesma [39] herewith enclosed. He says: "In accordance with the direction of your Reverence I visited the island of Bohol and gave my first attention to collecting the people, who were scattered everywhere, into one place. To many I suggested means of peace, and proposed efficacious remedies; and at last I succeeded in getting a thousand men, the greater part of whom had been trained in the use of arms, to leave their mountains, from which it had been impossible to draw them before, and to assemble at one spot. We also attempted to attract a number of barbarian inhabitants of the mountains, who had never looked upon any mortals before they saw our fathers, making use of all of the offices of humanity and of the allurements suitable to their nature, and we succeeded. We assigned them a settlement near the river, where they have now built a church, to which they flock on Sundays. We have baptized one hundred and twenty of their children, or even more. The adults have not only laid aside all of their fierceness, but pray for baptism with the greatest ardor, singing chants, and night and day recite the Christian faith.
"On the day sacred to St. Anne, to whom the church was dedicated, the conversion of a certain old chief, on whom they all look as a father, made a beginning for the conversion of the rest. He on bended knees begged me with the most humble prayers that I would bathe him in the sacred fount. His example greatly confirmed in their purpose those who were ready for baptism, and excited others to desire it; so that one after another, to the number of more than one hundred, came as suppliants for baptism. In Visaia I baptized eighty-nine adults at one time, and a few days later ninety-four—partly children, partly adults; and on another day all the rest of the natives. Leaving here I crossed a mountain; and the Lord obtained as spiritual gain twenty-nine children, with faces like those of angels; and with the cleansing water we sprinkled them in the name of the Holy Trinity, along with three adults whom I had taken with me that they might hear the sacrifice of the mass, and might by word and example be more accurately instructed in the Christian faith. After we had gone some distance thence, we came to a hamlet in which the natives had built a convenient church in preparation for our arrival, extending over a space of ten cubits. Here we began to spread our net, or rather the net of Christ, and caught in it all the fish that were there; for all the leading men and women, with old and young, great and small, cast themselves at the feet of Christ Jesus, recognizing Him as the true God and ardently pleading to be joined to Him in faith through the mystery of baptism. And here I began to recognize the favor which God had shown me, in calling me forth from España in these days; for this single instance was enough reason to call me forth. On the very first occasion when we baptized, we plunged a hundred persons in the sacred fount; on the second, all the rest without exception.
"When I was once explaining to a fierce and barbarous fellow the great glory of paradise and the dire pains of hell, he answered, just as if he had been possessed by a demon, that he had rather go to hell than to paradise; and, as he was one of the chiefs in that region, he carried a great many with him to the same decision of a perverse mind. But I did not hesitate to attack the foolish fellow again and again, and I insisted upon the horror and the eternity of the torments with great vehemence of language; but he answered that he certainly ought to go, after this life, there, where his parents and the rest of his ancestors had departed, rather than anywhere else. Then I responded that he had better just try the force of fire; but he, with hands as hard as his heart, did not hesitate to snatch up some burning coals from the hearth. However, a few days later, his mind divinely changed, he ran out into the fields and meadows, and, calling all his tribesmen together, he urged them to accept the Christian sacraments, with such zeal that he had no equal among the Visaians."
In another letter sent to the father-visitor from the same place, the same Father Valerio writes that another father had written to him that in the islands Lobo and Dita he had sprinkled four hundred persons, chiefly infants, with the most holy waters. Thus within the interval of three months more than a thousand had been initiated by the same sacraments, and numberless others are left burning with the same desire. Therefore the members of our Order declare that the time is come for the salvation of that island, and eagerly wait for workers.
But your Paternity will learn of a more glorious fruit from these missions in Bohol from the letters of Father Gabriel Sanchez and Father Cristofero Ximenez, [40] who have been assigned to that mission. [41] In letters written in the month of October, Father Gabriel writes as follows: "Our Lord has singularly blessed our attempts and labors. For after the flocks of the heathen were gathered in one place they were converted to God with such earnestness, so completely without pretense, that I can say nothing else than that God their Maker and Redeemer has desired by some peculiar favor in their calling to add them to His flock—inasmuch as within two months two thousand mortals have yielded themselves to the laws and customs of Christ, by accepting baptism. And it is my opinion that, if some fathers are ready, the whole of them will accept the yoke of Christ. It is beyond the power of language to tell with what spiritual joy I am affected when I see men who are almost savages of the forests hastening down from the mountains to supplicate the benefits of baptism. Nay, the very children, like to angels, taught by I know not whom, now repeat the Christian faith. Indeed, a few days ago one came to me not ignorant of his catechism, whom I had not seen for ten years, and with great earnestness begged me not to refuse to baptize him. The catalons, or priests of the idols, also come, and show by so many proofs that they desire baptism with all their hearts, that it is necessary to satisfy their desires. Truly, my Father, I abound in delight, I rejoice, I exult; nor is there anything in this world set before me than to serve our Lord God with all my heart, and to desire that all should be turned to the worship of His Divine Majesty. On Sunday, in church and elsewhere, there were counted seven hundred persons. If your Reverence were to see at sunset a hundred mountain boys and girls who have been newly added to Christ marching in procession along the bank of the river, praising God in harmony and chanting all together the Christian faith, he could not help dissolving in tears of joy. A few days ago in Dita five hundred were purified with holy baptism. Thus in the whole region of Bohol we may now easily count three thousand Christians. At the beginning there were only eight hundred; now, by the accession of a new blessing of God, twice thirteen hundred have been added in baptism."
With regard to another brief mission undertaken by a priest, the same Father writes as follows: "God adorns and enriches this Tobigon [42] people with so many heavenly gifts that I do not dare depart hence, and break the thread of our most happy progress. The church is filled with people morning and evening; no one is anxious about food, although they may not have it, or may have to bring it from a distance. All their care is to be Christians, and to be initiated in baptism. In these fifteen days in which we have instructed them in the rudiments of the Christian faith, there have been baptized more than two hundred and fifty adults. There remain forty catechumens, for the rest will be baptized after our return.