The religious of the Order of St. Francis possess in the Filipinas their convent and church of Manila, that of San Francisco del Monte, the hospital of San Lázaro, the church of the venerable tertiary order at Sampáloc, the hospitium of San Pascual Bailón, the infirmary of Santa Cruz of Laguna, a leper hospital in Camarines, the college of Guinobatan, and the monastery of Santa Clara; and in España, the colleges of Pastrana, Consuegra, Arenas de San Pedro, Puebla de Montalbán, Almagro, and Belmonte, with the residence of Madrid; also a college in Roma—and a total of 475 religious, and 34 religious women.
The religious of the Order of St. Dominic, besides their missions of China and Formosa, own in Manila the convent and church of St. Dominic, the university of Santo Tomás, the college of Santo Tomás, that of San José, and that of San Juan de Letran; the college of San Alberto Magno in Dagupan, the vicariate of San Juan del Monte, and that of San Telmo in Cavite; the beaterio of Santa Catalina de Sena in Manila, for girls; that of Nuestra Señora del Rosario in Lingayén, that of Santa Imelda in Tuguegarao, and that of Nuestra Señora del Rosario in Vigan, also for the education of girls; and in España the two colleges of Santo Domingo de Ocaña and Santo Tomás de Avila—with a total of 528 religious.
The missionaries of the Society of Jesus own in Manila a central mission house, the Ateneo [i.e., Athenæum] Municipal, the normal school, and a meteorological observatory. They administer 37 missions, with 265 visitas or reductions, in Mindanao, Basilan, and Joló. The total number of Jesuits resident in Filipinas was only 164; but the province of Aragón, of which the mission forms a part, owns several training-houses, colleges, and residences in España, besides those which it maintains in South America.
The fathers of the Mission, or those of St. Vincent de Paul, own the house of San Marcelino in Manila, and the conciliar seminary of that city, with those of Cebú, Jaro, and Nueva Cáceres.
The Capuchin missionaries have the church and mission-house of Manila, the mission of Yap in the western Carolinas, that of Palaos, that of Ponapé in the eastern Carolinas, and the procuratorial house of Madrid[4]—the total number of their religious being 36.
The Benedictine missionaries occupy the central mission house of Manila; the missions of Taganaán, Cantilan, Gigáquit, Cabúntog, Numancia, and Dinágit, in Mindanao; and a college for missionaries in Monserrat (España). There are 14 of them resident in these islands.
Lastly, there are, besides the religious who live in Filipinas, several houses of religious women, some of whom are dedicated to a contemplative life, as those of St. Clare; others to teaching, as those of the Asunción [i.e., “Assumption”], the Dominicans, and the Beatas of the Society; and others, finally, in the exercise of benevolence, as the Sisters of Charity or of St. Vincent de Paul, who have charge of the hospitals—although the latter also dedicate themselves, with great benefit, to the teaching of young women in the seminaries of Concordia, Santa Isabel, Santa Rosa, the municipal school, Loban, the hospitium of San José of Jaro, and Santa Isabel of Nueva Cáceres.
Religious spirit of the country
After this statistical religious summary, we cannot resist our desire to explain, although briefly, what is at present and definitively the character or qualities of the religious spirit reigning in this country—which owes everything that it is, aside from the purely natural elements, to the Catholic civilization of España. This point is, on another side, very pertinent to the whole subject.
It is not to be doubted, then, that the mass of the natives who have received the direct influence of Spanish civilization are entirely Catholic. The heathen natives are yet barbarous or semi-barbarous; and the Moros, besides being without the civilization of the Christian Indians, do not retain either, from the merely external Mahometanism, more than their innate pride and treachery, and some few formalities, known and practiced by a very few of their race. Those in Filipinas who profess, or say that they profess, any other positive religion (and more especially any other Christian religion), distinct from the Catholic, will be found absolutely only among the foreign element. Therefore, Catholicism is the religion, not only of the majority, but of all the civilized Filipinos.