Since the strictness of that convent was then extreme, it lit up in great measure the devotion and modesty of ours, the will of all going well alongside the rare mildness of their customs. The more serious inmates of the house did not fail to praise the humility, poverty, and circumspect behavior of our fathers; and consequently not a few of them were determined to follow their purpose and accompany them on that holy undertaking, and to enjoy so good examples. They requested this from the father commissary, but he, being so exact in matters of attention and courtesy, excused himself prudently, in order not to anger the prelates of the province; and, besides, because he had no order from the king, nor any subsidy with which to pay the expenses of any more persons than he had brought from España, although he esteemed the desire that they showed to aid him. He went immediately to Mexico, leaving the fathers of La Puebla very enamored and sad. They were received in that magnificent city with kindness and extraordinary devotion by the most learned father, Fray Diego de Contreras—to whom was given, after a few years, the church of Santo Domingo, the primatial church of the Indias. He was then professor of rhetoric in the noted university, and rector of the college of San Pablo whose venerating community went out to meet them in solemn procession and with pomp, when they entered their gates. The learned master gave proof of his ardent charity in his hospitality and cordial kindness, making them very happy. He prepared a room for them, in which they remained, where they received all comfort and aid, until the father vicar-provincial rented a comfortable house, into which he and his subordinates, and the brethren whom he had with him moved, in order not to give occasion for so much ceremony and so many compliments; hoping for the near opportunity to depart for the port of Acapulco.
That one—although formerly a secular lodging, now a very strict convent—could rival the most famous monastery in the matter of observance; for, giving themselves to continual prayers, rigorous fastings, harsh mortifications, and severe penances, all of them were opposing themselves to the best of their ability in the war against the flesh. They did not leave the house unless summoned for some work of charity, such as to confess or to preach, which they performed very willingly, and to the profit and good of souls. They voted unanimously not to strive to obtain for themselves or for others, under any pretext, in person or through others, any offices within the order, or out of it—in order to give, as was actually seen, a solid foundation to the province which they afterward erected so humbly. Their rigid mode of life there was bruited through the city, and the most noble and the wealthiest, with simple earnestness, asked them to remain. Some of such persons offered to endow their house, and others to contribute very ample alms. They begged our fathers at least to leave them the number sufficient to give a good beginning to the convent that they desired to establish. The master, Fray Diego de Contreras, whom we mentioned above, was aiding and encouraging those arguments, promising that they would become discalced, and that he would carry forward our Institute,[9] with his great authority and power, in that kingdom. Father Joan de San Geronimo was tempted by those pious offers of generosity, but he did not deceive himself; for many souls would have been lost if he had desisted from that opportune and holy voyage, or if he had lessened the number of the helpers whom he took with him—who were but few for the abundant harvest that they set about gathering, as we shall note with the lapse of years, in the manner in which it occurred. Accordingly, having closed his ears to all the proposed advantages, he undertook to go to the port at the end of that year, where we shall leave him continuing with his observance of rules and pious devotions on the roads, although these were horrible, as if he had been in the most comfortable and most quiet convent of all those which he had lately left well established in España.
[The remainder of chapter V is concerned with matter that does not touch the Philippines, namely, the founding of the college of Zaragoza, that of the convent of Pedroso, and the life of Sister Polonia de los Santos.]
Chapter VI
Our religious reach Luzon, after the death of Father Andres de San Nicolas in sight of the islands. They found the convent, which is located outside the walls of Manila, and undertake the conversion of the barbarous Zambàles, in which three of their men die from the hardships, and father Fray Alonso de la Anunciacion at the house of Portillo.
We left father Fray Joan de San Geronimo and his twelve associates, anxious to finish their journey, continuing their road from Mexico to the port commonly called Acapulco, because it was necessary to embark once more in order to reach Philippinas, where God our Lord had prepared many souls who, oppressed by the demon, had no ministers to lighten their darkness. There was already in the said port a ship ready to sail, called “Espiritu Santo,” and they were accordingly detained but a short time. They finally set sail on the twenty-second of February, that year of one thousand six hundred and six, in all safety, and all being overjoyed at seeing themselves nearer the land that they were seeking. Some incidents happened on that voyage which were afterward regarded as miracles, and all attributed them to the good company of so notable religious whom they carried. The first one was that, the ship being all but sent to the bottom by burning, the fire having approached near some barrels of powder, warning was given in so good time that it could be extinguished, when if there had been but little more delay, this would have been impossible. The second seemed more prodigious; for on a certain very clear and serene night, shouts came from the bow from those who were stationed there, crying, “Land! land!” The pilot and sailors were thunderstruck as soon as they saw themselves upon some shoals or sunken rocks, and already lost beyond all remedy. Thereupon bewailing their misfortune, they tried to seek confession, as quickly as possible. They thought that all efforts were useless; therefore they cared for nothing else. However they tried to cast the line, but uselessly, for their lines were cut, and they the more confounded by their slight hopes of life. The ship went ahead into that chasm [rebentaçon]—as it is called—as if it were passing through a strait; and after having sailed a goodly stretch without accident, among so many reefs, they found themselves on the high sea, free from everything.
Father Fray Andres de San Nicolas had preached the previous afternoon with great energy against the great licentiousness and shameless conduct of the passengers and the other people, who had no fear of God. He severely censured their excesses, and the little anxiety that they showed in that time of greatest danger. With burning words, he exhorted them to do better, representing to them their danger and begging them, finally, to confess, since they did not know what was to happen that night. The fruit that proceeded from that sermon was large, for, his audience becoming terrified and contrite, many of them confessed, and others proposed to do the same by having their entangled consciences examined as soon as possible. After a few hours, what is described above was experienced, whereby all thought that the good preacher had had a revelation of that event; and they could not thank our Lord sufficiently for having granted to them the company of so good religious, but more especially the company of him who preached to them of their danger—whom they regarded as a distinguished servant of God, as he was. Some certified afterward that that place through which the boat had passed had been a rocky islet, and that they had seen it on other voyages; and they were astonished at having escaped on that occasion with life, attributing it, beyond doubt, to a manifest miracle, which the Lord wrought at the intercession of those fathers. They desired, therefore, to listen to their teaching daily, and especially to that of the father who announced to them what we have seen. Consequently, not sparing themselves at all, the fathers gave in alternation their inspired discourses, which were the health and medicine of the many who were there—the ship so conforming itself to these that it seemed a reformed convent, where before it had been a house of confusion and bluster, with soldiers, mariners, and seamen.
The same father, Fray Andres, among the continual sermons, preached a very fervent one on a certain day, and gave them to understand that he would live but a short time, and that he was not to reach the land of promise, for his faults and defects. That happened so, for not long after, he fell sick, before sighting the islands called Ladrones. His sickness increasing, when he was told that the islands were in sight, he arose from his bed, and looking at them, through a porthole of his cabin, immediately lay down again, saying, ”Nunc moriar lætus.”[10] His weakness was already very great, and, as he had already received the holy sacraments, and was in great resignation and joy of soul, and all our fathers were present, he begged father Fray Joan de San Geronimo to have the passion of Jesus Christ our Lord read to him very slowly. That was done, in the manner that he desired. He, holding an image of the same crucified Lord in his hands, broke out into very glowing utterances of love, and shed many tears during those moments. After the passion was finished—which lasted until near dawn, on account of so many pauses—he begged pardon of all for his omissions and neglect. He asked them to remember him in their masses and prayers. They recited the penitential psalms and other prayers, at the end of which, the sick man, very happy, conversed with his brethren with great affability. He charged them to keep their vows and the observance of the rules of the order. He persuaded them to persevere steadfastly in their purpose, and to be mindful of the zeal with which they had been ready to leave their fatherland for the welfare and conservation of many souls. He encouraged them to place their confidence in God, for His Sovereign Majesty had especial providence and care over that small flock. Accordingly, they were not to become disconsolate with the thought that they had no house or convent in Philipinas, for already a lodging suitable for their purposes was being prepared for them. He concluded by urging them to commend their souls to Him, and then became very calm. All obeyed him, surprised, and desirous of such a death; and, at the end of the prayer, that chosen spirit went out in peace and quiet from the waves and shipwrecks of this world, and reached the safe and calm harbor of glory.
Upon beholding his death, one cannot imagine the grief of both religious and laymen; for, venerating him as a father, they bewailed him universally, and, in all truth, there was not one who did not show great affliction. The corpse remained in such manner that it caused gladness to all who looked at it. Various opinions were expressed as to whether they should bury it in the sea or not. The laymen promised that they would deposit it in a fitting place, until they should cast anchor in the islands now near. Father Fray Joan de San Geronimo did not consent to this, in order to avoid innovations—and especially when they were going to countries where they had no home, and where they knew no one. Therefore, placing the body in a closely-sealed wooden box, with an inscription written on a certain sheet of lead, which denoted his name, country, and virtues, amid their lamentations and tears the body was cast into the sea, without having added the weight which is used to draw the body to the bottom of the water. On account of that carelessness the box should have remained on the surface of the water, without being able to sink at all; but on that occasion the Lord permitted that the waves should receive such deceased without any violence. As the ship was in a calm, consequently, all were witnesses that it settled to the bottom very gradually, and easily. Certain violent fevers were raging in that vessel, from which about forty had already died, at the time that the noted Aragonese and observant religious finished the navigation of his life. But from that instant all had health, becoming better and recovering very soon. That was attributed to his prayers in heaven in fulfilment of the word that he gave them, during the last moments of his life, namely, that he would commend them to God in glory, provided that he went there, as he had good hopes of doing. After the conclusion of the services for a death so fortunate and so bewailed, they soon arrived—May tenth—at the islands that they were seeking. Having disembarked first, according to the order that they bore, on the island of Zibù, the discalced were lodged in the convent of our calced fathers, the venerable bishop, and that example of prelates, Don Fray Pedro de Agurto, as we saw in his life, having gone out to receive them in procession. That most illustrious man desired that the new missionaries should not go further, and offered them a foundation and whatever they wished, in order to exercise themselves in the conversion and salvation of the infidels. It was impossible to assent to so many kindnesses, for their immediate passage to Manila was unavoidable, in order that the governor might see the despatches and the decrees from España, which it was necessary to present to him. After having given the bishop the thanks due, they had to set out as soon as possible.