In order to justify the manner in which the Society administers its functions in these islands, I will give a brief account of the allotment [distribuçión; i.e., of the minister’s duties] which is followed in the villages, in order that the impartial reader, reflecting thereon prudently and carefully, may recognize the incessant and laborious toil with which this field, entrusted to the Society by the confidence of that prince, is cultivated. Every day the boys and girls (with little difference [in number]) up to the age of fourteen years hear mass; these call themselves “schools” and “companies of the rosary.” Then they sing all the prayers that belong to the mass, and go to their school. At ten o’clock the signal is given by the bell, and they go to the church to pray before the blessed sacrament, and to the Virgin they recite the Salve and the Alabado hymn; and they go out in procession, singing the prayers, as far as some cross in the village. At two o’clock in the afternoon they return to the school; and at four or five o’clock they go again to the church, where they recite the rosary, and go out in procession singing the prayers. On Saturdays, not only the children recite the prayers, but the baguntaos and dalagas[25]—who are the older youths and girls, who do not yet pay tribute—and also the acolytes, the treble singers, and the barbatecas. In the afternoon the people recite the rosary, and the singers and musicians sing the mysteries and the litany. On Sundays, the boys go out with a banner around the village, singing the prayers, to call together the people. The minister says mass, which the musicians accompany with voices and instruments; and afterward all the people together recite the prayers, and [answer] a brief questioning on the principal mysteries of the Christian doctrine, and [listen to] an instruction on the mode of baptism, which is called tocsohan. With this there are many of them who are well instructed, so that they can aid one to die well, and in case of necessity confer baptism, like the Canacapoles of St. Xavier. The minister preaches a moral sermon, and usually calls the roll [suele leer el padron], in order to see whether the Indians fail to attend mass. In the afternoon all come together—schools, companies of the rosary, acolytes, singing children, barbatecas, and dalagas and baguntaos—and they offer prayers. Afterward the father goes down to the church, and catechises, explains the Christian doctrine, and confers baptism. On Thursdays there is no school, that being a vacation day. Every Saturday there is a mass sung in honor of the Virgin; and in the afternoon the minister chants the Salve for the occasion, with the image uncovered, which is then locked up. During the nine days preceding Christmas, mass is sung very early in the morning, with great solemnity, before a large assembly of people, and accompanied by an indulgence [granted] for the preservation of the Christian religion in these islands; and these are called “masses for Christmas” [misas de Aguinaldo].[26] Always, when the host is elevated at mass the signal is given with a bell, so that all the people may adore it; and the Indiana, even the little children who cannot speak, clasp their hands and raise them toward heaven as a token of adoration, while in the church a motet is sung for the same purpose, after the custom of the primitive Church—which this body of Christians resembles in many ways; and St. John in his Apocalypse even represents it to us in those mysterious creatures who day and night were praising God, dicentia: Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Dominus Deus Omnipotens, qui erat, qui est, & qui venturus est.[27] The Indians in general have the highest respect and esteem for the priests. As soon as they see the fathers, they rise to their feet, take off their hats,[28] kiss the father’s hand, and often fall on their knees to speak to him, especially if they are going to ask forgiveness for some offense that they have committed; they patiently endure the penances that the ministers appoint for them, and promptly obey whatever the fathers command them. Even the little children who cannot speak run when they see the father in the street, fall on their knees, and kiss his hand; and then go back greatly pleased at this. At every function which pertains to the church, all the people, from the greatest to the least, work with gladness in building altars and adorning the temples. The house-servants offer their prayers in the morning; and they write, read, and perform their duties after they have heard mass. At night they read a spiritual lesson, recite the rosary, and before retiring pray before the blessed sacrament and sing the Salve to the Virgin; and during the year they frequent the sacraments.
In each of our villages there is a “Congregation of the Blessed Virgin,” which enjoys many indulgences and favors; its members display great fervor, attend regularly, and perform many exercises of devotion and charity, especially on Saturdays. The women of the congregation sweep the church very early, adorn the images, place roses and other flowers on the altars, and carry about pans of coals with perfumes. The minister recites the litany before the image, and the members of the congregation say the responses; and afterwards he makes an address to them; or a book of devotion, or the rules, or the indulgences, are read aloud; or the list of saints for the month is announced, according to their proper place on the calendar. There are some persons who frequent the sacraments during the year, confessing and receiving communion on the most solemn days of the year, especially on the feast-days of the Virgin, and before a marriage is solemnized; and it is a custom often practiced among the Indians to confess and receive communion on one’s saint’s day. In the afternoon those who have received communion go to the church for a short season of prayer. When the women approach the time of childbirth, they confess and receive communion, and remain in the village. Thus an Indian hardly ever dies without the sacraments, except by some sudden fatal accident; for at the instance of the ministers the people are instructed to summon the father as soon as any one becomes dangerously ill. Many Indians hear mass every day; recite the rosary in concert in their houses, on the streets, and while they are sailing; say the litanies, and sing with most delightful harmony the Salve, the praises of God and of His mother resounding in every direction. They offer to the Church the first-fruits of their products; and carry the images, the shrouds, and other things to bless the seed-sowing. After childbirth, they offer the infants to the Virgin on Saturday, and receive the benediction. They order masses to be said for the souls in purgatory, and present candles and other offerings to the Virgin and the saints. They furnish light at mass with lighted tapers, give food to the poor on Holy Thursday, and make other contributions according to their means. They make pilgrimages to the most notable sanctuaries, and offer their vows there; they read spiritual books, and practice other devotions. When they bring the little angels [i.e., their infants] for burial, they dress and adorn the bodies neatly with birds’ wings, palm-leaves, wreaths, flowers, and lights, even when the parents are very poor; for the rest of the people aid them, so that they may bring the dead with the decency and solemnity which the ritual requires. The burials of adults are attended by all the people, all clothed in mourning from the headman to the constable; and even though the dead person be from some other village, or some wretched unknown creature who died there, the body is escorted by the people of the village and the singers, in very charitable and edifying fashion. Those who are most eminent in all this are the members of the congregation, by whose zeal and pious customs the Christian religion is preserved and promoted in these islands. They are the select of the select, like the soldiers of Gideon; and may be called the religious among the Indians. The functions of Holy Week, the principal feast-days, and the processions are carried out with great solemnity and pomp. In their houses the people erect little altars, which they adorn with various prints and images; on their arms they depict crosses, and almost all wear rosaries about their necks; when the blessed sacrament is exposed, they escort it, and take their turn in assisting in the church with many lights. In the processions of Holy Week there are many bloody flagellations [disciplinas de sangre], and other most severe penances. In Lent there are, on three days, the Miserere and scourging; but this has fallen into disuse, and in various places is little more than a ceremony. In every village there is a musical choir, of both instruments and voices, by means of which the festival and solemn days, and divine worship, are at least decently celebrated; and in some places there are excellent instruments and voices. Moreover, all these singers understand harmony [solfa], a thing which has not its like in all Christendom. Every Saturday and Sunday, prime is sung in the choir. The Lenten stations and services, those for the dead, and others during the year, cause devotion and tender feelings through the skill and good order with which they are conducted. The Indians use holy water in their houses, and show great devotion to the holy cross, which they set up in their houses, on the roads, and in their grain-fields. The adornment of the churches—reredos, images, furnishings of silver, lamps, ornaments—the multitude of lights, and the magnificence of the edifices, are so extraordinary that no one would believe that in this remote corner of the world religion could exist with such splendor, or Christianity be so well established,[29] or divine worship conducted with such magnificence. The zeal of the ministers has secured these results, by their activity, piety, and kind treatment of the natives; but no little is accomplished by the sharp spur,[30] managed with discretion, qui parcit virgæ, odit filium. The harvest in this field is like that which the parable represents; there is the greatest and the least, just as it is throughout the universe. There is fertile ground and sterile; there are untilled and stony tracts; some land is productive, and some is full of bramble-patches. But what soil is free from darnel and tares?[31] Where are lilies found without having nettles near them? In what garden do the roses, magnificent and fragrant, surpass [the other flowers], without the thorns that surround them? He who is always declaiming, in either a gloomy or a careless spirit, against the faith and Christian spirit of the Indians, shows great ignorance of the world, if not levity or malice. If he would but reflect that not many years ago this was a land overgrown with the thorns and brambles of ignorance, unbelief, and barbarism, he would give a thousand thanks to the Lord at the sight of so much fruit obtained for heaven; and still more [thankful would he be] if he cast his glance on Japon, India, and Africa, and on Grecia, Inglaterra, Dinamarca, and other kingdoms where the Christian religion was [once] so flourishing, but which today are an abyss of follies and errors—the cause, alas! being their ignorance or their perverseness.... Whoever will read the Instructions of St. Francis Xavier for the missionaries of India and also this account of their allotted tasks [esta distribución], will plainly see that their labors are the punctual execution of those instructions. What greater praise [than this] can be given them? To this should be added the standing of the ministers. Those who are ministering in the native villages are the men who have been masters of theology, and famous preachers, and officials of the order, and even provincials; and other members who, on account of their abilities, have merited repeated applause. The same is true in the other religious orders; as a result, there is not in all the Indias a field of Christian labor that is better cultivated; and I may add that there is no Christian church in the world that has ministers with higher qualifications, or more who have received academic degrees. And some of them there are who, rejecting the comforts of Europe, remain contented in the poverty here.
[Fol. 350 b:] In the year 1696 the very religious province of St. Augustine surrendered the village of San Matheo to the Society, in virtue of a certain exchange; we gladly accepted it, in order to bring in the Aetas who are in the mountains of that region, to live as a Christian community in the village; for, Christians and heathens being mingled in those woods and little hamlets, there was little difference between them in their customs. Here I will bring together the facts pertaining to this ministry, since it is matter belonging to this history for the connection of events. In the year 1699, the convent of San Agustin in Manila made claim to a ranch in this district, on the ground that Governor Santiago de Vera had granted to the said convent two limekilns for the erection of its building. The Indians, on account of the crude notions which they form of things, began to call the limekilns “the ranch;” and this blunder was so prevalent that in some grants which the governors made afterward in that territory they say that the lands “border upon the ranch of San Agustin.” In the said year an investigation was made, and all that could be drawn from the declarations of the Indians was this confused notion of a “ranch,” which they had heard from their elders, without being able to specify boundaries, or locations, or landmarks. And as there was no other title or grant than this very uncertain information, the judge of land [claims], Don Juan de Ozaeta, auditor of the royal Audiencia, rejecting their claim for lack of authentic documents, was unable to grant to that convent the ranch which it demanded.
In the year 1713 the minister of that village was Father Juan Echazabal, whose scrupulous conscience, added to his natural disposition, made him so inexorable a guardian of the injunction to hear mass that in this point he very seldom excused [an offender] from penance. So active was his zeal that he spared neither labor nor diligence to secure the attendance of the Indians at the holy sacrifice of the mass, at the sermons, and at the other church functions; and he cheerfully endured the inconvenience of waiting for them a long time, in order that their natural slothfulness might not have this excuse. His persistence secured considerable results, notwithstanding that wild grapevines were not lacking even in the midst of so much cultivation. But what assiduity does not the obstinate perversity of men frustrate? An insolent Indian, Captain Pambila, at various times provoked the forbearance of the minister by his shameless conduct; for, purposely staying away from mass, and glorying in this wrong-doing, he boasted among his friends that the father would not dare to rebuke him. The minister endeavored by various means to bring him to reason, but all his efforts proved unsuccessful; and the audacity of this Indian kept continually increasing, continually launching him into new transgressions on top of the old ones—and scandal arising, because some persons were following in his footsteps and others were inclined to do so. In order to check the evil consequences of this, Father Echazabal gave information of the whole matter to the governor, Conde de Lizarraga, who sent thither Captain Don Lorenzo de Yturriaga with twelve soldiers. But Pambila was by this time so bold that when they went to arrest him he went out to meet them with his cutlass, and dealt a blow at the captain; the latter parried the blow, and firing a pistol, killed the bold man. At this occurrence the malcontents were greatly disquieted, and had recourse to the vice-patron, asking that he remove Father Echazabal from that ministry; and they even made the further demand that it be restored to the Augustinian fathers. In order to push their claim, they revived the old [one of the] “ranch”—this time in clearer language, for they indicated locations and boundaries. But, as all these were arbitrary, the measures [of distance] did not correspond [to the facts]; for while it was one site for a ranch that they claimed, there were three or four such sites that were included in the places that they had arbitrarily marked out. Nevertheless, this claim was promoted, so that the convent of San Agustin obtained a favorable decision from the royal Audiencia. But Father Echazabal opposed this, together with the greater part of the people of the village, as did also Father Agustin Soler, procurator of the college of San Ignacio at Manila, on account of the damage that would ensue to them respectively. The Audiencia, having examined their arguments, reversed its decision—although, through shame at so speedy a reversal, the auditors set down in the decree that possession should be given to the convent of San Pablo [of that] in which there was no dispute. This sentence on review ended the controversy, and matters remained as they were before. To pacify the Indians, the superiors removed Father Echazabal from that place, and everything was quiet for the time—although after many years the old [question of the] “ranch” was revived, with greater energy, as we shall see in due time. Let us proceed to more pleasing matters.
In the year 1705, Father Juan Echazabal began to promote, in the village of San Matheo, the devotion to our Lady of Aranzazu; and the devotion to and adoration of that Lady steadily increased, with the encouragement of the Vizcayans, and especially of Don Juan Antonio Cortes. This incited the minister to undertake the building of a stone church, in order to provide a more suitable abode for the blessed sacrament and for the sovereign Queen. Through the persistence and energy of the father and the contributions of the faithful, a beautiful, substantial, and spacious church was completed, with its transept and handsome gilded reredos. The new church was dedicated in the year 1716, the minister being Father Juan Pedro Confalonier. There was a very large concourse of people, and the devotees of the blessed Virgin of Aranzazu made extraordinary demonstrations of joy and devotion in celebrating her feast; and great was the satisfaction of those who with their contributions had aided [to provide] the costly building and adorn it with ornaments and rich furnishings of silver—especially the illustrious benefactor of that church and village, General Don Juan Antonio Cortes. And the Society, with the pleasure of dedicating to God and to His blessed mother this new temple, forgot the great sorrows that they suffered at that time from various defamatory libels, in which malignity repeated what had so many times been condemned, and was anew condemned, as calumny—their author being, most deservedly but impiously, his own executioner, at seeing that the arrows discharged by audacity against the Society were changed into crowns of triumph.
[Fol. 358 b:] [Our author relates the history of the beaterio connected with the Jesuit college at Manila. It began in 1684, with the decision of a mestiza woman of Binondoc to live the religious life; her name was Ignacia del Espiritu Santo, and she began under the direction of Father Paul Clain. Her fame for piety and devout penances grew apace, and attracted to her many Indian girls and mestiza women, until they numbered thirty-three. For some time they lived in the utmost poverty, which, with their severe penances and lack of sleep, “made almost all of the beatas fall ill.” Soon, however, charitable offerings were made to them, enough to support them when added to what they earned with their needles. Their spiritual directors are Jesuits, whose church they attend, and who form them into a religious community (“commonly known as ‘the beatas of the Society’”), with rules and employment prescribed for their living. At the time of Murillo Velarde’s writing (1749), “there are, besides the beatas, some Spanish girls who are being trained there as their wards, and are learning sewing and other accomplishments, besides a Christian manner of life and the habit of attending the sacraments. There are now fifty regular beatas, thirteen novices, thirty women (who are Indians) who are kept under restraint, twenty Spanish girls under training, and four negro women. Every year some Spanish women, and many Indian and mestiza women, go into retreat there, in order to perform the ‘spiritual exercises’ of St. Ignatius, from which result much profit to themselves and much benefit to their respective villages. What has always aroused my admiration is, that although these women are so many in number, and all Indians or mestizas, and ruled by themselves, yet in more than sixty years they have not given any occasion for gossip in the city; rather, they have given it the utmost edification by their devotion, humility, application to labor, and assiduity in the spiritual exercises.” Mother Ignacia dies on September 10, 1748; our author pays an admiring tribute to her ability, virtues, and piety—among other things, praising her because “she conquered, with most unusual perseverance, three kinds of sloth which are very arduous and difficult [to overcome]: that natural to the country, that inborn in her sex, and that which is congenital to this nation in its inmost being.”][32]
[1] From Murillo Velarde’s account of his order in the Philippines we extract such matter as describes their missions, their general labors in Manila for both Spaniards and natives, their methods of work, and some occurrences of special importance to them as an order. The “edifying instances,” and biographies of the Jesuit fathers, and other devotional reading it is necessary to omit here, as our limited space forbids its presentation. [↑]
[2] The papal concession for this jubilee of fifteen days had come that summer, and had been announced on November 18, just before the appearance of the comets. [↑]
[3] The word Moreno is used by the earlier writers rather confusedly, and applied to more than one race, whether pure or mixed; but in later times it apparently refers chiefly to the swarthy-complexioned people from the Malabar coast and to their descendants. [↑]