I have good news of Brother Celerio, his companion, which pleases me much. I had written to Brother Diego de Mendizabal before I received the clause in the letter from the brother. To all the fellow-novices who are there, a thousand million greetings, to each one separately and to all in common; and let them commend me to our Lord. I was much pleased at the good news of all which was given me by Brother Juan de Alcala. I am writing to several persons, and it will make me glad [to know] that all continue in the growth that I desire, both in virtue and in learning, etc.
Not to take more space, I leave unsaid many things—especially concerning Japan, where the persecution is progressing cruelly and fiercely. May our Lord check this, and protect my brother Felipe as I desire, etc. Filipinas; Manila, July 3, 1636.
From the humble servant of my brother,
Cristoval de Lara
I beg my brother to let Brother Christoval de Escamilla and Brother Manuel de Frias consider this as their own; and to them I send most cordial greetings.
[1] Juan del Carpio was born at Rio Frio, Spain, in 1583. While a youth, he met in Spain Alonso Humanes, who was going with missionaries to the Philippines, and offered himself for that work. Humanes took him to Mexico, where Carpio entered (1604) the Jesuit order; completing there his education, he went to the Philippines in 1615. His missionary labors were carried on among the Visayans, during eighteen years. He was murdered by the Moro pirates, December 3, 1634. See account of his life in Murillo Velarde’s Historia, fol. 70 verso, 71.
[2] Juan Domingo Bilancio—thus Murillo Velarde (Hist. de Philipinas, fol. 64); but Retana and Pastells (in Combés’s Hist. de Mindanao, cols. 740, 741) give the name as Juan Bautista Vilancio—was born in the kingdom of Naples, about 1573. Before attaining his majority, he entered the Jesuit order, and came to Manila in 1602, spending the rest of his life in the Philippine missions. He was captured by the Moro pirates in 1632, who demanded a heavy ransom for him. This was raised in the following year, but he died in captivity before the money reached him. His name (apparently Vilanci) is given a Spanish form by all these writers; and he is not mentioned by Sommervogel.
[3] The Paraguay missions, among the most famous of the Society of Jesus, and an offshoot of those of Brazil, were founded in 1588. The reductions formed from the converts early in the seventeenth century, formed what has been called “the republic of Paraguay.” There the religious instructed them not only in religion, but in various trades and industries, the products of their work being communal. The great prosperity of the reductions was arrested (1631–32) by the heathen tribes of Brazil, whereupon the Christian Indians abandoned them and founded new missions at the Grand Rapids of the Parana River. In 1656 there were said to have been more than twenty towns all civilized, each containing 5,000 or 6,000 Indians, and many other towns partly civilized. Each reduction was governed by two priests. After the expulsion the missions declined rapidly. See Jesuit Relations (Cleveland reissue), xii, p. 276.