V
Martyred in various kingdoms
In Tagolanda on the island of Maluco, the Moros of the island, after killing father Fray Sebastián de San Joseph[2] with arrows for the preaching of the faith, beheaded him. His associate Fray Antonio de Santa Ana,[3] a lay-brother, was given to the women of the island because he refused to marry one of the chief Moro women, the daughter of the king of that island. They, dancing to the sound of a tambourine, began to stick sharp knives into all parts of his body; and then they beheaded him, and nailed his head to a pole. It is said that he preached our holy faith to those faithless Moros for many days after his death. Juridical reports of the martyrdom of those two religious were made in Manila, in Therrenate, and Macau, by order of his Holiness.
Father Fray Juan de Plasençia[4] died in Burney, an island of the Mahometans, when on his way to España he stopped at that island. Father Fray Francisco de Santa Maria[5] also died a martyr in the same kingdom, because he had preached to the king in public three or four times and chided him for his false worship of Mahomet. While he was finishing mass in the house assigned to him by the king for his lodging, and giving thanks, a troop of men attacked him and cleft his head in twain; and when he was dead they dragged him along by his girdle, and threw him into the river. He died in the year 1583.
The holy father, Fray Blas de Palomino,[6] a priest, was going to Therrenate in a Portuguese ship. On arriving at the island of Tagalonda, he asked the captain of the ship to put him ashore, and the latter did so. On reaching shore he began to preach to those islanders, but they speared him in sight of the ship. The father vicar of Therrenate got a report of that murder and martrydom from the Portuguese aboard that ship. In their report they said that father Fray Blas de Palomino wore only a habit, and under that a hair-cloth shirt which he wore quite commonly.
Brother Fray Juan de Palma,[7] a lay-brother, was going to España by way of India. The Dutch captured the ship in which that religious was sailing. They shot him with their arquebuses, although they did no harm to any of his companions. It is said that they shot him because he preached to the Dutch heretics; and it is a fact that the Dutch never treat a religious badly unless he begins to preach to them.
Father Fray Gerónimo de San Joseph,[8] priest, embarked in the island Hermosa in a Chinese ship, with another religious, Fray Jacinto, of [the order] of our father, St. Dominic. Those religious intended to go to Japón, but the Chinese who were taking them killed them, and cut off their noses, which they salted. Thus did they carry these to Japón and presented them to the emperor, who ordered them to be given the reward that had been assigned to those who surrender and denounce evangelical ministers.