In the port of Cavite, a convent without administration.
583. Inside the city of Manila, the royal beaterio of Santa Cathalina is incorporated with the province of Santissimo Rosario. It was established in the year 1695, in the house and on the ground given for that purpose by Don Antonio Esguerra with some shops of the Parián for its support. Accordingly, some beatas [i.e., devout women] lived there in retreat for some years, in the care of the Dominican religious. Later General Don Juan Escaño took charge of the maintenance of the said beatas. He left a considerable portion of his property for that purpose, specifying that there should be fifteen Spanish beatas for the choir, and sufficient lay-sisters to take care of the beaterio. Today it is a house worthy of deep veneration and respect. The king has incorporated it in his royal patronage, with authority to have a public church with bells and a choir, and permission to celebrate the divine offices. They have a cloister, and profess the tertiary order of the Dominicans. The only thing necessary to perfect their lives, and which they desire, is profession as nuns.
Discalced Augustinians
584. The discalced religious of the great father of the Church, St. Augustine, entered Manila in the year 1606. Although they were the last evangelical workers, their apostolic zeal has extended in rivalry to the first ones, and they have attained abundant results from their labors, in the reduction of the most barbarous islanders, and in the exemplary lives of their reformed religious. The first convent in which they lived was the one now called San Juan de Bagongbáyan, outside the walls of the city of Manila. It was established with the title of San Nicolas de Tolentino, which is still preserved (without administration), with the veneration merited, not only by their primacy but by the miraculous image of Nuestra Señora de la Salud [i.e., “our Lady of health”] who is venerated there. Later, a convent was erected in due form under the ancient advocacy of St. Nicholas of Tolentino, that saint being today the titular of that most strict province. In that convent, which is inside and near the walls of Manila, there are generally maintained thirty or forty religious. They have the reputation of being a community as well regulated as the best in Castilla, and one in which have been known a great number of fathers of holiness and learning. From that convent they go out to perform their laborious ministrations in these islands. Their houses in this archbishopric are as follows.
585. In the province of Tongdo, the convent of San Sebastian near Manila, where the miraculous image of Nuestra Señora del Carmen [i.e., “our Lady of Carmen”] is revered, and she has a Confraternity of the holy Escapular, with very fervent devotion. There are three hundred and thirty-six souls ministered to in that convent.
586. In the jurisdiction of Marivèlez: in the villages of Marivèlez, Cabcàben, Bagàc, Mòrong; and they have administration between Súbic and the point of Bolinào, which is the country of the Zambàles. They also have some missions in the mountains near by. In that district they care for 8,550 souls.
587. All of the island of Mindòro is under the charge of those religious, where in various villages, visitas, missions, and settlements, they minister to 7,552 souls.
588. In the port of Cavite, they have another convent, a dwelling for the religious without any administration of Indians.
[In the margin: “Total number of souls, 16,438.”]