chapter v

is taken up with the life of father Fray Juan de la Madre de Dios, called also Blancas. He was born in the town of Blancas, Aragon, of honorable parentage, his family name being Garcias. From his early years of a religious turn of mind, he at length attained the height of his desires by professing (June 15, 1635) in the convent of Borja. In 1650, after having preached very acceptably at the convent of Zaragoza, he enlisted in the Philippine mission organized by father Fray Jacinto de San Fulgencio. On his arrival at Manila he preached at the convent in that city and engaged in other work (being also the confessor of the governor Sabiniano Manrique de Lara) until December, 1655. At that time his health giving out because of an accident, he went with the then father provincial, father Fray Francisco de San Joseph, to the convent at Bolinao in the Zambal district, leaving behind with the governor a folio MS. book which he had written during the preceding two years entitled Governador Christiano, entre Neophitos (Christian governor among neophytes), for spiritual guidance in all sorts of matters. In Bolinao, the change of climate and work restored the father's health in a short time, but he remained in that place until the new provincial chapter in Manila. At that chapter he was chosen prior of the Manila convent against his wishes. Again in 1658 ill health compelled him to go to Bolinao, where he remained this time four years. His efforts to keep the natives there quiet during the times of the insurrections were of great fruit. He labored zealously in that district even visiting the schools in addition to the regular duties of a missionary. He received a number of devout women into the tertiary branch of the order. He was untiring in his efforts for both the spiritual and corporal good of his charges.]

§ V

Father Fray Juan de la Madre de Dios founds a village of Indians, converted by dint of his zeal. He is elected definitor and retires from the commerce of men to adorn himself with the perfection of his virtues.

... 984. In a site called Cacaguàyanan which means "the place of many bamboos," six leguas or so from Bolinào there were for years back a not small number of Indians, who had fled from the surrounding villages, and who are there called Zimarrònes. They having abandoned in its entirety the faith which they had received at baptism, and accompanied by many heathen, not only rendered vain the attempts of mildness and of force which had several times been practiced to reduce them to a Christian and civilized life, but either by declared war, or by means of skilful cunning, did not cease to cause constant depredations in the Catholic villages which were subject to Spanish dominion. So true is the statement contained in various parts of this history, that our ministers of Philipinas, although they dwell in mission fields already formed, go forth to living war against infidelity, and although the Christianity of Zambàles was the first one converted by our discalced order, even there our religious have no lack of meritorious occupation. From the first time that our venerable father was in Bolinào, he worked with his accustomed zeal in order to place those people in the pathway of their eternal salvation. He had obtained from them that the Christians should be obedient to the law, and that the heathen should leave the opaque shades of paganism, so that it was conceded to him to found a new settlement in the island of Pòro with them, with a general pardon and the accustomed privileges. Moved by so good hopes the father went to chapter, and since he had so much influence with the governor of the islands to whom the giving of such licenses pertains, he procured one for the founding of the village which he was attempting, with all the privileges that those Zimarrònes and idolaters could desire. But since the religious to whom it was charged, did not succeed in finding the means prescribed by prudence to unite spirits dissimilar in other regards, not only was the project not obtained, but their good-wills having been irritated, the desired attainment came to appear impossible.

985. So passed affairs, when renouncing the priorate of Manìla, as we have said above, that gleaming sun returned to illumine the hemisphere of Bolinào, and not being able to prevent the activity of his light, he immediately shed his reflected light even to the darkest caves where those Indians were taking refuge in the manner of wild beasts, fleeing from their own good and blindly enamored of the most unhappy freedom. Again did the father establish the compacts for their conversion. In the first step that he took in the undertaking, he made the greatest sacrifice of himself, by exposing his life to a danger which might make the most courageous man tremble, if he were less holy. For when he heard that the fugitive Christians and a great number of heathens and some Chinese idolaters were celebrating a solemn feast to the demons, in the above-mentioned place of Cacaguayànan, he determined to go thither in person with the intrepidity suitable to his valor, and almost alone to oppose so sacrilegious worship and at the same time reduce those who paid that worship. In these ceremonies called Maganitos in the language of the country, intoxication is the most essential part of the solemnity. And since the Zambal Indians are extremely warlike, esteeming it the principal part of their nobility, unless they are illumined with the Catholic faith, to lessen with inhuman murders the species of which they consider themselves as individuals, adding to this that they consider it as an attention paid to their religion, to take away the life of any Christian who approaches their district, where they pay such adorations to their deities, then one can conjecture the great risk that beset that soldier of Jesus, when he attacked such an army of infernal furies, in order to withdraw them from a darkness so dense into the refulgent light of the Catholic religion.

986. But its good outcome deprived the action of the censure of temerity, which showed that it was governed by a special motion of the Holy Spirit, whose impulse at times trespassing the lines of what the world calls prudence, causes one to undertake projects which our finite reason qualifies as rashness. The fact is that when the venerable father arrived at the dense part of a solitary thicket in whose melancholy shades those Indians had gathered to worship as a god one who is not a god, he met them with the qualities of meek sheep, when he might have feared to find them like ferocious wolves, who would consider it a sport of their cruelty to rend him to pieces. Beyond any doubt the hand of God, who wished to preserve the life of one who despised it for His sake, was in this; for since the infernal fury with which the heathen clothe themselves on such occasions is assured, one cannot attribute their gentleness on this occasion to natural causes. That most zealous minister put his hand, then, to the double-edged sword of the preaching, and fighting with it according to his wont so skilfully, made himself master almost without any resistance of those hearts which were filled with apostasy and infidelity, setting up in them the banner of our holy Catholic faith. The complete attainment of so famous a victory was retarded somewhat, because of the outbreak of the insurrection of Pangasinàn. In him was verified what experience has always demonstrated, namely, that a very quiet disposition is needed so that the divine word may be born in souls by the faith. But at last when all the heads of that monstrous hydra were cut off, the blessed father had the happiness to obtain the fruit of his zeal by constructing a new village in the site called Mangàsin. That was the most suitable place in the island of Pòro, and was called by another name Cabarròyan. From the beginning he counted eighty houses in it and a like number of families, all drawn from the captivity of the devil to the perfect liberty of the kingdom of Christ.

[The father preached many sermons to the Zambals in their own language, which he had begun to learn when he first went to Bolinào, so many in fact that they formed two MS. volumes in quarto; and of them copies were made for the use of those not so well versed as himself in the Zambal tongue. In April 1662 he was chosen definitor at the provincial chapter, and lived for the three years of that office in the Manila convent. At the following chapter in 1665, father Fray Juan was elected provincial against his will. His term was one that needed his strong rule, for there were troubles with the governor, Diego Salcedo, who offered obstacles to the smooth ordering of affairs. He materially advanced his order and brought some new stability into the body which had suffered in the recent earthquakes, and the Chinese and native insurrections. At the completion of his triennium he was chosen president of the Recollect hospitium in Mexico. Setting sail for his destination, July 4, 1668, the port of Acapulco was reached only on the twenty-second of the following January, after a voyage replete with storm and sickness. Proceeding to his destination the father entered the hospitium of Mexico on the twelfth of February of the same year. In 1671, as related above, Father Juan de la Madre de Dios was ordered to cast the vote of his province in the general chapter held in Spain in 1672, and also to attend to various matters for his order. There his stay being somewhat prolonged because of lack of funds and other things he was made visitor general of certain Spanish convents, and was later elected to high officers of the order in Aragon. Returning to Nueva España with a band of missionaries he was again sent to Spain on business of the order, but a broken arm received while on his way from Sevilla to Madrid, caused his retirement to the Zaragoza convent, where he died January 10, 1685, at the age of 68. Throughout his life, he was most humble and led an austere existence.]

[Section ii of the following chapter treats of the life of father Fray Thomàs de San Geronimo. This father was born at the village of Yebenes, in the archbishopric of Toledo, his family name being Ayàla. He took the habit in the Madrid convent, July 28, 1646. Upon going to the Philippines he was sent to the missions of the Visayas. Devoting himself there to the study of the languages he learned several of the Visayan tongues, especially the Cebuan, "the principal Visayan tongue." In that language he translated the catechism, which was printed at Manila in 1730; compiled an explanation of the Christian Doctrine, which was printed in 1730; and composed a vocabulary in the Cebuan tongue, and another in the dialects spoken in Cagayàn and Tagalòan. In addition he left two volumes of sermons in the vernacular of the country. He served as prior for six years in the convent of Billig, Mindanao; six years in Cagayàn, and various times at the island of Romblon, and finally in Siargao. In 1680 he was elected provincial, and served his term so faithfully and well, visiting and working assiduously, that he was reëlected in 1686 against his will. But he was destined not to fill that office again for death took him May 19, 1686. After his first term he served in the island of Romblòn. He was a most zealous missionary. The remainder of the chapter and chapter vii following do not deal with Philippine affairs.]

##