Royal Aid for Jesuits Asked by Manila Cabildo
Sire:
This city of Manila has informed your Majesty on other occasions how the Order of the Society of Jesus, which came to these islands many years ago with an ardent and apostolic zeal for the greater service of our Lord and that of your Majesty, has been employed in the conversion of souls; and that it has made and makes use of various means extraordinarily and especially efficacious to allure souls to the true knowledge of the matters of our holy Catholic faith, as experience has proved and proves daily. Their modest prudence and their admirable example of life and morals have verily aided in that—qualities which, resplendent in them, as is right, our Lord has permitted to shine out with great profit in the missions that they have in charge in these remote islands, besides the great edification that they cause in this city by their holy and excellent instruction.
We say the same in this letter, and, in particular, that the said order, recognizing its extremely great need of religious, has determined to send at the present time Father Diego Patiño[1] as their procurator-general—a religious of excellent abilities and learning, and of long experience in everything relating to these islands, as he has served your Majesty here for thirty years—in order that he might petition your Majesty to be pleased to grant him permission to bring as many religious as he can; for the said need is today greater than what it was when Father Diego de Bobadilla came with the forty men that he brought. For, since that time, sixty-one religious have died here, and some of them of but moderate age, as the land and its means of livelihood in general are so poor. The said order uses them as sparingly as is demanded by the poverty that the land suffers at this time. They are also placed under great restrictions by the continual hardships and dangers of their missions, as they are so separated in various islands—some of Moros and others of infidels—and by the stormy seas and awful currents. In that said number of sixty-one who have died, are nine priests who have gloriously given and sacrificed their lives to our Lord at the hands of the infidels. Attested official reports regarding three of these have been given before the ordinary of the city of Santísimo Nombre de Jesus, while those of the remaining six are being considered. For that reason the posts of the province are suffering the said need of the workers who are necessary; for the college of this city has one-half of the number of priests that it had formerly, in order that they might attend to the so numerous duties that they exercise—the school for children; chairs of grammar, arts, and theology; and as preachers and confessors, because of the great frequency with which people of all nations go to their college for the administration of the holy sacraments of confession and communion throughout the year, and especially during Lent. This is something which does not receive due consideration; and with the few religious that they have, they are necessarily very hard-worked, for they have to go out day and night to confess the sick; to minister in the hospitals, prisons, and girls’ schools; and to the ordinary preaching in the guardhouses—from which abundant fruit has been seen.
The colleges of the city of Santísimo Nombre de Jesus and of the port of Yloylo, which formerly had five or six priests, do not now have two apiece, so that it is impossible to attend to the many duties that there present themselves.
Many of their Indian missions which formerly rendered two religious indispensable, have now but one. In the great island of Mindanao, nearly one-half of the civilized villages are without a minister, and consequently many people die without the sacraments. It is necessary for one minister to attend to one, two, three, or four villages which are very distant from one another, when each village needs its own priests. They do not hesitate, for all that, to go in the fleets when opportunity offers, in the capacity of chaplains, and in the shipyards where galleons are built. In those duties they have performed well-known and special services to our Lord and to your Majesty.
By the industry of the said religious, and by the toil and hardships which can be understood, they have aided the arms of your Majesty; and the kings of Jolo and Mindanao, who were the ones who had rebelled and were destroying the islands with their plunderings, were reduced to peace, and today are increasing their friendship. The greatest foundation for that friendship is the example furnished by the said religious in their lands, and in the region where they have their missions, such as the mild and fitting treatment that they employ, according to their custom, having hopes [thereby] to gain the natives for God; for they listen without any reluctance to the matters of our holy Catholic faith from the mouths of the fathers, and learn from them very willingly.
The poverty of the houses of the said Society is as great as that which the inhabitants suffer, who are the fount whence originates all the support of this order and all the others. For since they are so poor, they cannot aid with the generosity that they might wish this and the other orders, the colleges, hospitals, prisoners, and brotherhoods. For that reason it was necessary to beg alms from door to door for more than five years, in order that they might maintain the college of this city and the few fathers in it; and the reason why they have ceased to beg is not because the need is not the same and greater, but because it is recognized that the citizens cannot continue their aid. For that reason the said father procurator-general of the said order is going [to España], as others have gone, as he can expect no more aid here. Consequently, it will be necessary to make heavy loans there, if your Majesty do not please to order that he be assisted in that royal court, and in Sevilla and Mexico, with your usual liberality. This city humbly petitions your Majesty to be mindful of the said great need of ministers and the great fruit that they obtain for our Lord and your Majesty, whose royal Catholic person may the divine Majesty preserve, as is necessary to Christendom. Manila, June twenty, one thousand six hundred and fifty-two.[2]
Matheo de Arceo
Jeronimo de Fuentes Cortés
Nicolas Fernandez Paredes
Cristobal Velazquez
Gabriel Gomez del Castillo
Pedro de Morales
Pedro de Almonte
Juan de Somonte
A. de Verastegui
Francisco Lopez Montenegro
Albaro de Castillo