The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume 32, 1640

Chapter XIIII

The capture of father Fray Juan de Santo Domingo, and his happy death in prison in Japon

[After the death of Safioye, other enemies of Christianity held the government of Nagasaki. With great acuteness the persecutors set about capturing the religious who were concealed in the city. On the thirteenth of December, 1618, they found two convents and captured four religious, two of our order, Fray Angel Ferrer and Fray Juan de Sancto Domingo, with some Japanese. At the same time they captured Father Carlos Espinola and Brother Ambrosio Hernandez of the Society of Jesus, with their Portuguese landlord. The fathers, on being interrogated, confessed who they were. The two Japanese youths, the servants of the religious, whom the judges desired to set free, insisted that they were Christians, and declared that they were not ignorant of the profession of the religious, so that the judges were obliged to imprison them. The Japanese Christians crowded in and shouted, and some of them made a bold confession of faith. The persecution of the Christians throughout the kingdom of Japon increased greatly in severity, but the Christians protected the fathers and did not give them up. Even in the midst of the persecution many were converted and baptized, and other religious came into the kingdom to carry on the work. The fathers in prison were treated with great severity. Father Fray Juan de Sancto Domingo fell ill in prison, and finally died there. His imprisoned brethren desired to keep his body as that of a saint; but, being unable to do so, cut off a foot and a hand, keeping them for their comfort. The Japanese took the body, intending to burn it and to scatter the ashes in the sea; but though they built a great funeral pyre they were unable to burn it, and finally threw it into the ocean, weighted with chains. The holy martyr was a native of Castilla la Vieja, of the region of Campos near Sanabria, and assumed the habit in the convent of San Estevan at Salamanca. He came to this holy province in the year 1601. He was assigned to the ministry of Bataan, where he learned the language quickly, as he did also the language of Pampanga. Hence he was sent to Pangasinan, where he learned a third Indian language. When he was afterward sent to preach the holy gospel in the kingdom of Corea, he remained in Japon to assist the afflicted Christians there, being persuaded to do so by the holy Fray Francisco de Morales. He was engaged in the occupation of learning the Japanese language when he was captured by the persecutors.]

Chapter XV

The intermediate chapter, and the death of father Fray Juan de Leyva

In the year of our Lord 1619 the intermediate chapter in the term of father Fray Melchior de Mançano was held, on the twentieth of April, in the convent of our father St. Dominic at Nueva Segovia. In it many important ordinances were passed, which were of assistance in supporting the observance of the rules and in making illustrious our order. This was the first provincial chapter held in that province [i. e., of Nueva Segovia], and it was accordingly conducted with much dignity and was attended by many of the religious of this province. Their number was great, but greater was the divine Providence and the paternal affection with which the Lord sustained them, showing forth His greatness so plainly that it was obvious to all that He it was who provided the religious with their daily food. [During the session of the chapter, there was a wonderful catch of excellent fish called taraquitos.22 On this occasion they were so large that they weighed ninety libras, and so abundant that they sufficed not only for the whole chapter, but for all the Spaniards. All that beheld this were amazed, because the fish of this kind which had hitherto been caught there were but few and small, never weighing more than four libras. No fish so large, and no such numbers of these fish, had been seen before, or were seen afterwards. The very Chinese fishermen who were heathen were the most amazed; for being desirous of continuing the fishery for gain after the close of the chapter, they did not catch a single fish of this kind.]

In this provincial chapter was received and incorporated into the province the college of Sancto Thomas at Manila, which had been in process of erection for some years, and was now ready to be occupied. The first man to plan this great work was the archbishop of Manila, Don Fray Miguel de Benavides. Being a learned and a holy man, he was grieved that there was in his province no fixed and regular school of learning – as there was not at that time, the fathers contenting themselves with carrying on instruction when there was need of it. This was only when among the religious who came from España there were some who had not finished their studies; and in such cases they were given to masters to teach them. The places of masters were filled with as much system as in the schools in España, by the fathers Fray Juan Cobo, Fray Juan de San Pedro Martyr, Fray Francisco de Morales, and others. When the religious had completed their courses, the schools were brought to an end; and the masters with their pupils, who were now sufficiently instructed, went to preach the gospel to these peoples. This was the end for which schools were established, and for which both pupils and teachers had come from España, many of them leaving behind them the chairs from which they lectured – coming here not to lecture, but to convert souls. All this did not satisfy the great mind and the charitable heart of the archbishop. He declared that lecturing and teaching were matters of great importance in the Order of St. Dominic, and were ordained to a lofty end; and that they had as their purpose not only ministering and preaching the gospel, but also the creation of ministers and preachers, which is a superior and creative work, as the degree of the bishops is superior to that of the priests. Therefore, though the priests have the lofty duty of consecrating and offering the most sacred body of Christ, the bishops are those who make these priests. Likewise the lecturers and masters of theology in this land surpass the ministers and preachers of the gospel, since with their teaching they make them fit for this very office. On this account lecturers might well come from España to lecture in this country, to their own great advantage; since in España they make preachers for that kingdom, where there is not so great a need of persons to preach, and where the effect of their sermons is not so great or so certain as here. Further – and this he repeated many times – our constitutions, made after consideration and reflection upon this matter, require that there should be no convent of ours in which there is not a doctor or master who is actually engaged in teaching; they require that in the provinces there shall be organized, settled, and permanent schools of higher learning. Hence, as our province lays so great stress upon the observance of our sacred constitutions, it ought not to regard itself as released from the obligation to carry out this one. This requirement, as is evident from the constitutions themselves, is one of the most important and one for which a very special observance and regard is commanded. With this argument he convinced the minds of the religious, and they began to try to establish the schools. The death of the archbishop soon occurred, after he had held his office for only two years. He did what he could by leaving to this work his library and all that he had, the whole of which, as befitted one vowed to poverty, came to only two thousand pesos. However, it did much toward making a beginning to this holy and necessary work. This institution was so beneficial to his archbishopric that it may be said that since it was established there are competitors for benefices, who have studied so that they may be able to hold them; while previously there were no such persons, and even no persons who desired to study – because, since no one had studied, it was necessary to appoint men to benefices, even if they had not learning. On this account they did not understand the obligation which rested upon them if they received the benefices, and were unwilling to spend time or labor upon study when they could obtain benefices without. Since the establishment of this college there are competitors for benefices who have studied; and hence those who come into competition with them are obliged to study – being certain that a benefice will not be taken away from a good student to give it to one who has no knowledge. After this good beginning made by the archbishop, the province entrusted to the holy Fray Bernardo de Sancta Catalina the care of this work. Since he was beloved and esteemed by all, there were many to aid him with great benefactions. Everything that was given was bestowed without any conditions, though the college keeps these benefactions in memory – feeling obliged to commend the benefactors to God all the more carefully, on account of the confidence in the religious which they showed. This was so great that they asked for no more security than their own knowledge that the religious would do this for them, which was without doubt a better security than any other that they could ask in return for their benefactions. The building was begun and the college was founded during the term of the father provincial Fray Baltasar Fort. The title of founder was given to him who was the cause of the foundation and who gave the first gift for that purpose. This was, as has been said, the archbishop Don Fray Miguel de Venavides, as appears from the document of foundation which is in the same college. Some years later the bishop of Nueva Segovia, Don Fray Diego de Soria, being near to death, left to the college his library, and three thousand eight hundred pesos which he possessed. With this sum the building was continued, and in this year [i. e., 1619] on the day of the Assumption of our Lady, twelve lay collegians entered on residence. Father Fray Balthasar Fort was appointed as rector, with two lecturers in theology, one in arts, and one in grammar; and the college was opened with great formality, and with the same care and attention as in the best institutions in España. The lecturers and the rector had all been trained in distinguished schools belonging to our religious order; and they carried on their lectures, conferences, and other academic exercises in the same manner in which they had followed the courses in España. The same system has been persevered in and carried further. Afterward, to encourage the students, the sanction of his Majesty and a brief from the supreme pontiff were obtained, granting this college authority to give all the degrees which are given in other universities, with all the privileges which the graduates of those universities have throughout the Indias. The students have performed their exercises for graduation as brilliantly as they could be performed in the best conducted universities in España; and the examination is regarded as even more rigorous, in the judgment of many persons of authority who have seen both of them. The income of the college has increased steadily with the course of time, in proportion to the number of collegians, of whom there are now usually about thirty; and in buildings, income, and instruction, the college may compete with the finest in España.

[In the month of October in the same year, father Fray Juan de Leyva died in the province of Nueva Segovia. Father Fray Juan was a native of La Rioja, and was born in a village named Grañon. He lost his mother when he was a very young child, but had been so carefully trained in the devotion of our Lady, that he immediately chose her as his mother. He left his own country while very young, and went to Madrid, the country of all, being commended to an honorable person who took him thence to Valencia del Cid. Here by the death of his benefactor or from some other cause he was left alone, a child of twelve in a strange country. He determined to make his way back to Madrid on foot. He reached the convent of our Lady at Atocha, where he was overcome with fatigue. In response to his prayers, our Lady opened the way to him to enter the convent of our Lady at Atocha, by the patronage of a noble person. He was an excellent student, and as such was sent to our college of Sancto Thomas at Alcala. Here in the year 1605 he heard the voice that called him to the mission of the Philippinas, and he was most humble and obedient. After he had begun to study the language of the Chinese in the mission of Binondoc, he was called upon to go to Nueva Segovia because of the need of religious there; and he uncomplainingly obeyed, without giving a thought to the great amount of labor which he had given to learning the new language which he now laid aside. He succeeded well with the language of Nueva Segovia, although on account of his age it was difficult for him to learn it. He was most devoted to the care of the altars, the adornment of the church, and the holy sacraments. When he gave extreme unction, he was accustomed to wash with his own hands the feet of the Indian who was to receive the sacrament. He never entrusted the lamp of the most holy sacrament to boys, but himself provided it with oil, raised the wick, and cleaned the vessel. He was most constant in prayer, adding an hour to the two hours universally observed in the province; and he usually made this hour so long that it lasted from one to five, at which time he went to complines. He was so sparing in eating that the little which he ate at a meal often lasted him for twenty-four hours, so that in time his stomach came to be so reduced in size that any little thing overloaded it. He was prior of the convent of Manila, and definitor in a provincial chapter. Being elected as procurator, he was unable to fulfil his office, inasmuch as the vessel in which he was to go did not sail. He therefore returned to his Indians in Nueva Segovia. Here by his hand the Lord wrought miraculous works, granting children to childless parents and healing the sick. He died a holy death, and was honorably mentioned in the provincial chapter that followed.]

Toward the end of November in this year, on St. Andrew’s day, a terrible earthquake occurred in these islands. It extended from Manila to the extreme limits of the province of Nueva Segovia, a distance of two hundred leguas. This earthquake, which was such as had never been seen before, did great damage throughout all of this region and made a great impression. In the province of Ylocos palm-trees were buried, leaving only their tops above the ground. Some mountains struck against others, with the great force of the earthquake, overthrowing many buildings and killing people. Its greatest violence was in Nueva Segovia, where the mountains opened and new fountains of water were uncovered. The earth vomited out great masses of sand, and trembled so that people could not stand on their feet, but sat on the ground; and were as seasick on land as if they had been in a ship at sea in a storm. In the high lands of the Indians named Mandayas23 a mountain fell and, catching a village below it, overwhelmed it and killed the inhabitants. One large tract of land near the river which previously had contained little mountains, as it were, most of it being at a considerable elevation, sank downward, and is now almost level with the margin of the water. The movement in the bed of the river was so great that it raised waves like those at sea, or such as are aroused by the blasts of a furious wind. The stone buildings suffered the greatest damage. Our church and convent in the city were totally overthrown, the very foundations giving way in places, because of the sinking of the earth. It was no small comfort to be able to find the most holy sacrament in this most pitiful ruin, with the consecrated loaves unbroken and unharmed. There were nine religious at that time in the convent, three of whom were outside of the house – the rest escaping, not without a special providence of God. Father Fray Ambrosio de la Madre de Dios was protected in the arch of a window, everything on all sides of him having fallen. There were persons who declared that they had seen above the walls of the enclosure a matron in the dress and mantle which our Lady is accustomed to wear. It was no new thing for the sovereign princess to come to the protection of her friars in their great distress; but because of the great disturbance, and the carelessness ordinarily shown about such things in religious orders, the verification of these facts was neglected. Only one religious, named Fray Juan de San Lorenço,24 who was sick in bed, had his arm broken by a beam which fell upon it; and only one Indian boy who was waiting upon him was killed. This religious lived for some years, and offered a noble example of patience in enduring the cruel miseries and the terrible pains occasioned by the blow, of which he finally died.

Chapter XVI

Some very virtuous fathers who died at this time

[In the hospice belonging to the province in the City of Mexico, there died at this time father Fray Athanasio de Moya, a near relative of the holy archbishop of Valencia, Don Fray Thomas de Villanueva. He assumed the habit in the royal convent of Sancta Cruz at Segovia, where he showed great courage and devotion in the great plague of 1599. In 1601 he came to this province, and was assigned to the ministry of Bataan. From here he was sent back to care for the hospice of San Jacintho at Mexico, where he constantly followed the rigorous rules of the province of the Philippinas.

In the next vessels which left for Nueva España the superior of this province sent father Fray Juan Naya to take the place of the father who had just died. The Lord, who had carried father Fray Juan throughout his life through great sufferings, ordained that he should not fight the last fight in the delightful clime of Mexico; and hence was pleased to take him to himself before the voyage to Nueva España was concluded. He was a native of Aragon, and assumed the habit of the order in our convent of San Pedro Martyr at Calatayud. His proficiency and scholarship was such, and such was his virtue, that he was appointed master of novices while still very young. The Lord wrought miracles through him. He cast out a demon from a sick woman in España; was miraculously protected from death on the island of Guadalupe; and was delivered from an illness which afflicted him in the Philippinas, by [making a vow to our Lady, as follows: ] “I, Fray Juan Naya, being afflicted by this severe infirmity, and seeing that I am very much hindered from carrying on the ministry for which I came from España, vow and promise, as humbly and devoutly as I may, to the most blessed Virgin Mary, my Lady, that I will minister to the Indians in this ministry, remaining and assisting in it at the command of my superior, in reverence and honor for this most sacred Virgin, my Lady, for seven continuous years from the day of her Visitation, the second of July, 1605, if she will deign to obtain for me from her most holy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, comfortable and sufficient health for me to be able to accomplish that which is necessary in this ministry; and I vow that, if I shall gain this health, I will exercise the ministry.” This humble supplication was heard at that tribunal of mercy, and our Lady of Compassion granted him his health so completely that at the end of the month he was well and strong enough to learn the language, and in three months was fit to render service and labor in it. As a memorial of this marvelous goodness, he kept this vow written in his breviary, and, as often as he read it there, he used always to give devout thanks to her who had gained that health for him; and with great devotion he fulfilled his vow, to the great gain of the Indians in this province. At the end of the seven years he was afflicted with a flux of the bowels, with abundance of blood; and on the same day of the Visitation he made another vow to serve four years more in the ministry in the honor of this Lady. He received complete health, so that he was able to labor in it for that time and much longer, as one of the best of the ministers of religion, giving a great example of holiness and virtue wherever he was. When he was living in the district of Ytabes, in a village of that province named Tuao, he was once burying a dead man in the cemetery when a venomous snake came out from the grass and, amid the noise and alarm of the people, entered between his leg and his breeches – which was an easy thing for the snake to do, since these garments are worn loose in this province and resemble polainas.25 Although the Indians, who knew how poisonous the snake was, cried out and gave him over for dead, father Fray Juan continued with the act which he was performing, because of his duty as a religious, until he had finished burying the Indian; and then, putting his hand in his breeches, he caught the snake by the neck, and drew it out and threw it away, without receiving any harm from it. [When father Fray Juan was vicar of Yrraya, and was living in a village called Abuatan, a fire broke out. Father Fray Juan threw himself on his knees and prayed that the fire should turn away from the village, as it did – making its way straight toward the tambobos, or granaries where the Indians kept their food, the loss of which would have been a greater damage than the burning of the village. In response to the prayers of father Fray Juan, the wind fell and the fire ceased. On one occasion his guardian angel came to accompany him in his prayers. When he was assigned to the vicariate of San Jacintho at Mexico, he embarked in the flagship sent back that year, in which more than sixty persons died because of the hardships and length of the voyage. Father Fray Juan was attacked by some malignant fevers, and when he asked for extreme unction, on the day of St. John the Evangelist, the sailors were so much alarmed at the fear of losing his prayers that they declared that if he died they would not continue their voyage, but would go back to the island of the Ladrones, that they might not perish in the dreadful storms to which they would be exposed if they had not the aid and comfort of father Fray Juan. At the demand of the sailors, the general asked father Fray Juan if they should continue their voyage. The sick man was grieved at being asked that which was reserved for God alone; but he was persuaded to tell what God had given him to know, and made a sign for them to go on. His poor possessions were shared among those of the ship as precious relics; and on the octave of St. John, on the third of January, 1620, a fair wind began to blow. The sailors cried out joyfully: “Father Fray Juan has seen God, and has sent us fair weather.” On the seventh of the same month, they began to descry signs of land coming from the coast of Nueva España, whereupon they regarded as fulfilled that which the holy religious had promised them.

Father Fray Gaspar Zarfate was a native of the City of Mexico, and assumed the habit and professed in the convent of that city. He was a teacher of the arts in the convent at Puebla de los Angeles, whence he volunteered to come to this province. He reached the islands in 1595, and was one of the first founders of Christianity in the province of Nueva Segovia. Here he labored much, with great results. He devoted himself to the study of the language of the Indians in that region, and his attainments in it were very great. He was the first to make a grammar of this language, and he knew a very large number of words in it. Thus he opened the way for the other religious, that they might as a result of his labors more easily learn this language, and preach the holy gospel in it. He was most penitent and devoted to prayer; and so completely master of his passions that, though by nature he was very choleric, he seemed excessively phlegmatic. At one time when he was vicar of Camalaniugan an Indian saw our father St. Dominic praying in his company, and surrounded by light from heaven. In the village of Nasiping it was said that father Fray Gaspar had raised a child from the dead. The verification of this matter was neglected, but father Fray Gaspar’s reputation for sanctity was such that no one regarded the statement as incredible. He was made preacher-general of the province, in which there was only one such preacher. He was definitor, vicar-provincial, and twice prior of the convent of Manila, in which city he had the name of “the holy prior.” He suffered greatly from a urinary disease, from which he finally died. He received honorable mention on the records of the provincial chapter during this same year.]