[Our author here relates the beginning of the rebuilding of the cathedral (which had been destroyed in the earthquakes of 1645), and the solemn religious functions which accompany the laying of its cornerstone in 1654; and the formal adoption of St. Francis Xavier as the patron saint of the islands (1653), by action of the secular cabildo of Manila, who bind themselves “to attend the vespers and the feasts of that saint’s day in a body, as the municipal council, and to furnish the wax necessary for the feast.” He is also chosen as patron saint of all the voyages made to, from, or among the islands. This action is followed by that of the ecclesiastical cabildo (1654) and the archbishop. That saint is chosen because he had preached in Ternate and Mindanao, which belonged to the jurisdiction of the Philippines; in imitation of India, where also he was the patron saint, and where his favor had been experienced by navigators; and “because the glorious saint had shown himself, especially in recent years in this region, very propitious to the voyages of our ships,” of which various examples are cited.]
[Fol. 231 b:] The archbishop had seen in the publication of the jubilee the persistence with which the Jesuits labored in the confessional; and desiring to finish gathering in the harvest which the broad field of these environs promised him, if the proper cultivation were applied, in the year 1655 he asked Father Miguel Solana, the provincial of this province, that the “jubilee of the missions” might be published. This was done in the following Lenten season, with so felicitous results that more than twenty thousand certificates of confession were counted which had been issued in our college at Manila. The zeal of the archbishop aided greatly [in this result], for he took part in the procession in which the mission was published, and preached one day in our church.... Extraordinary was the fruit which he gathered that Lent; and confessions were made [for a period] of sixty or eighty years. [Here are related various cases of conversion and edification, in some of which demons appear to the faithful. Governor Diego Faxardo sends workmen to Camboja to build a galleon there, and asks for Jesuits to go with them as chaplains, and to labor for the introduction of the Christian faith into that kingdom; two are sent, one of whom is Father Francisco Mesina, who was then ministering to the Chinese at Santa Cruz. These men build a fine galleon, but it is lost in a storm on the way to Manila; moreover, the galleon “Nuestra Señora del Rosario,” in which they had sailed to Camboja, “one of the strongest which had been built in these islands,” was wrecked on the shoals of the Me-Khong (or Cambodia) River, before the Spaniards could establish themselves on its shores. These accidents cause the idea of building ships in Camboja to be abandoned.] Although the temporal government of Ternate belonged to the crown of Castilla, and to this government of Philipinas, its spiritual affairs were cared for by the bishop of Malaca; and when that city was conquered by the Dutch, Ternate remained in the care of only one Jesuit and one secular priest for many years. Don Sabiniano Manrique brought to Manila the father and the Portuguese priest, and in their place two fathers from this province were sent, whom the archbishop of Manila constituted his provisors and vicars-general. These fathers preached with great fervor and corresponding results; for many Christians improved their mode of life, and some Moors and heretics of that country, giving up their errors, embraced the true religion. Among all these the ones who excelled in fervor were two young girls, about fourteen years old, who, abandoning their parents (who professed the Moorish faith), came to Ours to be made Christians—with so dauntless resolution that, although their parents followed them in order to take them back to their own village, they could not persuade them to return; and God bestowed such efficacy upon the utterances of these girls that even their parents, illumined by the light of the Highest, determined to follow the same religious faith. Various results of the mercy of God were seen in some persons who, a short time after receiving grace in baptism, ascended to enjoy their reward in glory.
In Siao the king was Don Bentura Pinto de Morales, who, grieving that his island should lack gospel ministers, despatched an embassy to Don Sabiniano Manrique, laying before him the extreme necessity of that island and kingdom, and entreating that he would send thither religious to preach the holy gospel; the zealous governor [accordingly] asked the father provincial, Miguel de Solana, to send two fathers to relieve that need. They were immediately sent, and began their work on so good a footing that in a short time they commenced to gather the fruit that they desired; and, not content to labor with the old Christians, they added to the flock of Christ a great multitude of souls, so that in a few months nearly all the islanders were asking for baptism. The city of Macan had sent to Manila a nobleman named Don Diego Furtado de Mendoza, to regulate the commerce [between the two cities]; and Don Diego Faxardo, perhaps for [well-grounded] suspicions, ordered that he be arrested. But afterward Don Sabiniano sent this envoy back to Macan; and in November of the year 1653 he sent a vessel, and in it Father Magino Sola with the title of ambassador, to establish friendly relations between this and that city, and with other commissions; and they arrived at Macan about March, 1654.
In these times [of which we are writing] many Subanos had come down to Dapitan from some neighboring mountains, and were brought into the fold of Christ. Afterward a chief from Dicayo came down with his people, and was followed by others, from other hamlets; the ministers were greatly consoled at seeing the fruit that was gathered in that district of heathens. At the same time some Moros from the lake of Malanao settled at Yligan, in order to be instructed and to live as Christians in that village; and God deigned to work some marvels, so that they might properly appreciate the Catholic religion. [Some of these are related; then follows a long account of the schemes and perfidious acts of Corralat, and of the murder (December 13, 1655) by his nephew Balatamay of the Jesuits Alexandro Lopez and Juan de Montiel, and the Spanish officer Claudio de Ribera, who were going to Corralat as envoys from Governor Manrique de Lara. All these occurrences have received due attention in previous volumes.]
[Fol. 277:] The archbishop of Manila, Don Miguel Poblete, a pastor zealous for the good of souls, asked the father provincial of the Society to employ some of his men, now that this succor had arrived,[23] in a ministry so proper for our Institute as is that of the missions; and some of them accordingly went out to look after the ranches [estancias], where usually live many vagabonds, who, as a result of their idleness and lack of any restraint, commit innumerable sinful and evil acts, and are a people greatly in need of religious instruction. In those places are found some Spaniards, various [sorts of] mestizos, negroes, Cafres, and Indians from all the islands. At the cost of many inconveniences, the ministers gathered a large harvest in the numerous confessions that were made to them, and in many licentious unions which were broken up; and, above all, light was given to those people on what they ought to believe and do in order to secure the eternal salvation of their souls. An old man eighty years of age, whose confessions were almost sacrilegious, was reached by the mission, and, wounded by his conscience, said: “Oh, if Father San Vitores” (whom perhaps he knew by reputation) “were one of the missionaries, how I could get out of this wretched condition in which I am!” And afterward, learning that Father San Vitores was going to that place, this old man cast himself at his feet, and with more tears than words made a general confession, and [thus] was set free from that abominable condition in which he found himself. Afterward the archbishop entreated that the mission should go to the mountain of Maralaya, near the lake of Bay, where a colony of highwaymen and vagrants had been gathered by the desire for freedom and the fear of punishment, secure in their lawless mode of life in the ruggedness of the mountain. The missionaries reached that place, and on the slope of the mountain established their camp, where they remained in the inclemencies of weather until a pavilion was built in which they could say mass, and a wretched hut for their shelter. There, with affection, prayer, and exercises of penance, they were able to persuade those people to come down to hear the word of God; and so efficacious was this that many were induced to return to their own villages, in order to live as Christians. Several women whom those men kept there, who had been separated from their husbands, were restored [to their families]; and among the rest the missionaries employed instruction and teaching. One man had lived in that barbarous community worse than if he were a heathen; and the only indication of his Christian faith that remained to him in so demoralized a condition was his constant devotion to the blessed Virgin—to whom he fasted every Saturday, and whom he urgently entreated that he might not die without the sacraments. That most merciful Lady heard him, for, although he had been ten times in danger of death, she had always set him free with special favor. Now he made his confession with many tears, with the firm resolve to do whatever might be necessary for his eternal salvation.
A mission was conducted in the mountains of Santa Inez of Lanating, a visita of Antipolo. One of the missionaries was the same Father Diego Luis de San Vitores, and in seven days he gathered a very abundant harvest; for in that short time twenty-four thousand heathens, Aetas or Cimarrons, were baptized, and many others were prepared for the rite, who received baptism afterward. [The author describes several of these conversions; he also cites various entries of especial interest from “the books of the old mission of Santa Ines, which I have before me;” many of these are of baptisms made by Father San Vitores. “This mission was cared for by a devout Indian named Don Juan Estevan, who afterward was a donado, and in the absence of the minister instructed and baptized them—as did the Canacopoles, whom St. Xavier chose in India.”]
In the year 1669 there was a church and visita in Bosoboso; in 1672 there was a church in Paynaan; and in 1678 was established the church of San Isidro. These two [latter] villages lasted until recent years, when they were included in Bosoboso. Excursions were made into the mountains, and many Aetas, Christian and heathen, were brought out from their hamlets; and with charity and kindness efforts were made to settle them in the said visitas, wherein, in due time, a permanent minister was stationed. It appears from the books of the said visitas and villages that many adults were baptized—of twenty, thirty, forty, and fifty years, and even more; this was a task of the utmost difficulty for the ministers, in drawing those people out of their lairs, and even more in maintaining them in a social and Christian mode of life, on account of their natural inclination to go wandering through the woods and mountains. In the year 1699 the zealous archbishop Don Diego Camacho came to this mission, and baptized several of them—among others, four heathen adults—as appears from the books of Paynaan.
In the year 1665, on the nineteenth of July, there was a violent earthquake in Manila, in which nine persons died; and it inflicted considerable damage in the wing of our college. At this the zealous archbishop arranged that a mission should be held in Manila and Cavite; and through the preaching and example of those engaged therein great results were obtained. In October of the same year, Father Diego Luis de San Vitores and some companions went to the island of Mindoro, then in charge of secular priests. On sea and on land they suffered great fatigues and hunger, heat and storms, toils and dangers; but all this they regarded as [time and strength] well spent, when they saw how the liberal hand of God was rewarding them with the consolation of beholding with their own eyes the fruit of their labors—not only in the old Christians, who had reformed their morals; but in the infidel Manguianes, many of whom were converted to [our] religion. They experienced a thousand tokens of the providence and kindness of God. Although there were several languages in the island, they easily gained a knowledge of what was necessary for instructing the natives, preaching to them, hearing their confessions, and settling their affairs. Sometimes a contrary wind obliged them to put back, directed by the hand of God, in order to relieve the necessity which demanded their coöperation in those hamlets. Sometimes the rivers overflowed their banks, and they found it necessary to travel to places in which they found sufficient occasion for the exercise of their charity. Many conversions of special interest were obtained, of both Christians and heathens; and remarkable among all of them was that of a Manguian woman, a heathen, married to a Christian man. She was baptized, and named Maria; and afterward they called her “the Samaritan,” on account of the many persons whom she brought to the knowledge of Christ, the ministers availing themselves of her aid for the conversion of many persons, not only heathens but Christians, with most happy results. Her husband was a Christian by baptism, but worse than a heathen in his life; he would not even accept the rosary of the blessed Virgin, and it was necessary for his wife to put it about his neck by force; and it had so much efficacy that from that time he undertook to be a Christian in his acts, as he was one by name. The fathers erected three churches for the converted Manguianes: the church of our Lady, near Bongabon; that of San Ignacio, near Pola; and that of San Xavier, on the coast of Naojan. Another was built, named for the holy Christ of Burgos, for the old Christians who were roaming about through the mountains.
[The rest of Murillo Velarde’s Historia is mainly occupied with the history of the Spanish conquest of the Marianas Islands, and the missions of the Jesuit order therein; also with the Pardo controversy and various other matters which have been already treated in this series, besides the lives of Jesuits in the Philippines—which here, as throughout our series, we have presented only in very brief and condensed form; but which in these religious histories are often exceedingly detailed and prolix. We present a few more extracts from our writer, showing the distinctive occupations, methods, and achievements of the Jesuit missionaries there, and events affecting those missions.]
[Fol. 346 b:] These and other acts of violence [i.e., connected with the Pardo controversy] which in that time were suffered by this province of Philipinas are evident from the printed memorial which was presented to the king by Father Antonio Xaramillo, procurator of this province in Madrid, and a witness of most of the things which are contained in the said memorial. He concludes this document by offering, at the order of our general, the reverend Father Tyrso Gonzalez, our resignation of all the ministries which the Society possesses in these islands, in order thus to remove the cause of disturbances, jealousies, and controversies. But so far was the king from accepting this resignation that instead he issued his royal decrees that the doctrinas of Cainta and Jesus de la Peña (or Mariquina), of which the Society had been despoiled, should be restored to it. In the year 1696, not only did the very reverend Augustinian fathers surrender these posts, with politeness and courtesy, but in token of mutual affection and friendly relations an exchange was made of the ministry of San Matheo (which is near Mariquina), the fathers of St. Augustine ceding it to us for that of Binangonan (which is called “de los Perros” [i.e., “of the dogs”]), on the lake of Bay, which belonged to the Society; [this was done] by another exchange, made with the religious of St. Francis, to whom we gave the ministry of Baras on the same lake. The sentences of examination and review given by the royal and supreme Council of the Indias; the royal executory decree, which in consequence of these was issued in regard to Jesus de la Peña, on March 31, 1694; and the decrees which on the same day were despatched, as regards Cainta, to the governor and the archbishop of these islands: all these are in the archives of our college at Manila.... I have seen the original of a report made to the king about that time, by a person of great ability, in which he endeavored, with acrimonious expressions, to influence the royal mind against the Society; but the exaggerative and fierce asperity of the report was itself the most efficacious argument in favor of this province, and was entirely rejected by the king and his Council, as prejudiced (a just and deserved punishment). The king not only insisted that this province should continue in its ministries without any change, but restored to it the two of which it had been despoiled by animosity allied with violence. Thus this apostolic province went its way, following the apostle among thorns and roses, among persecutions and favors, per infamiam, & bonam famam.[24]