Chapter 1

Religious Ideas and Practices Before the Arrival of the Gospel;

Discovery, Conquest and Colonization of the Philippines;
Apostolic Work of the Religious Orders
1. Religious Ideas and Practices Before the Arrival of the Gospel.
Before the coming of the Gospel, the religious ideas and practices of the Filipinos were only vaguely
conceived, variform and many. This was due to a minimal inter-island exchange among them, the
diversity of dialects, and the ceaseless fighting among the different ethnic groups, as well as within the
individual groups themselves. Here we shall mention only the more noteworthy of their religious tenets.
Belief in a Supreme Being.
Before the arrival of the missionaries, the Filipinos already believed in a supreme being, which the
Tagalogs called Bathala Maykapal (God, the Creator), the Visayans Laon (Old Man, or The Ancient), and the
Ilocanos Cabunian. Bathala dwelt in a place named Languit (sky) which the natives could describe only very
vaguely and confusedly. They considered the supreme being as one without limits, creator of heaven and
of earth lawgiver, judge of the living and of the dead. In their way of thinking, he was so high above men,
so far beyond their reach, so little concerned about their affairs. Thus, their god, in contrast to the true
God, had no care for his creatures. Even if they had come to guess some of his attributes, they could not
define his essence, even vaguely.
They dared not even pronounce his name. If they did, it was with some sign of reverence mixed with
fear. They did not address prayers to him. They did not offer the tribute of their worship, did not sacrifice
to him.
Polytheism: Secondary Deities.
And so, in their needs, they turned their eyes to a cohort of secondary deities, equivalent to the
mythological beings of Greece and Rome. These deities were quite numerous, since, in the manner of
those nations, here was a god for each village. There were also gods for the mountains, rivers, reefs, the
rainbow, the rocks and many other natural objects. The following were the more important ones:
‒ Kaptan dwelt in the sky with Bathala. He was the god who planted the first bamboo from which
human life sprang. He was lord of the thunder, the cause of men’s diseases and of the plagues of
nature. He had also the power to resurrect the dead.
‒ Manguayen had some of the attributes of Kaptan. In addition, he was charged with ferrying in a boat
the dead to hell. But the task of presenting these to the god of hell belonged to Sumpoy who lived
there.
‒ Sisiburanin, the lord of hell, punished the souls presented to him, unless the living offered a sacrifice
on their behalf.
‒ Lalahon was the goddess of agriculture, who presided over the good and the bad harvests.
‒ Varangao lived in the rainbow
 Death and Future Life.
Dead bodies received the utmost care. They were washed with water and rubbed with the gum of the
storax tree and other aromatic spices. Ancient Filipinos poured preservative juice into the mouths, ears
and nostrils of corpses so effectively that they remained incorrupt for many years. Besides careful
treatment, dead bodies were dressed elegantly, keened, and then buried. In the early days, there were
no common cemeteries nor burial grounds. A corpse would be buried amidst great sorrow in any place,
which could be near his house, in a cave, or in the headlands overlooking the sea and, at times, thrown
with a gesture of finality into the sea, especially if the dead had been a fisherman.
Ancient Filipinos believed in the spirituality and immortality of the soul, although their ideas on this
matter were not too clear or precise. They believed in a future life, whereby the good would receive the
reward for their goodness in the other life in heaven, and the bad their punishment in hell. They also
believed in some kind of risen life. The Cagayanos affirmed that their fathers would someday return to
this world to rejoin their sons. In their beliefs, at times the souls of the good would be changed into good
spirits (anitos), and those of the bad into bad spirits (mangalos). In the future life as here below, each
one would have the same social rank, and would exercise the same office.
Conclusion.
We could say that the beliefs of the Filipinos before the arrival of the Gospel were a reflection of a
primitive revelation. But they were quite strongly modified by errors, which naturally obscured human
intelligence when the light of faith is absent, and there is no divinely constituted authority to watch over
it lest it lose its direction towards eternity. The same thing happened to other pagan peoples. (A, pp. 1-9)

2. Discovery, Conquest and Colonization of the Philippines.

The Expedition of Magellan.
On 10 August 1519, a fleet of five boats (Trinidad, Victoria, Concepcion, Santiago, San Antonio) sailed
westward from Seville in search of a passageway to the Moluccas. It was manned by a crew of 270 men
under the command of the Portuguese Fernao Magalhaes (Ferdinand Magellan). After various incidents
suffered, from men and from the elements as it sailed across the Atlantic Ocean and down the South
American coast, the fleet reached in the last days of October 1520 the strait which now bears their
leader’s name. In November, they turned north towards the vast expanse of the Pacific. But by this time
only three boats were left (Trinidad, Victoria, Concepcion).

On 6 March 1521, after an exhausting voyage across the Pacific Ocean, the explorers reached the
Ladrones Islands. Here they veered southwards in the direction of the Moluccas. But on 16 March, the
coast of Samar unexpectedly arose before the eyes of the weary sailors. Without stopping to disembark,
they sailedon until, on the 17th, they reached Homonhon Island, where they rested from the fatigue of
such a long-drawn out navigation thanks to the friendly welcome of the natives. Moving further south to
Limasawa Island, Magellan struck a pact with Rajah Colambu, and the islanders attended the first Mass
celebrated on Philippine soil on 31 March 1521.
On 7 April the fleet entered the port of Cebu. What happened here is too well known for us to detail.
Suffice it to say that on the urging of Magellan, Humabon, the kinglet of Cebu, accepted Baptism together
with his wife and some 800 subjects—a forced conversion it seems, if we are to judge from what
followed. Indeed, consequent upon Magellan’s ill-fated excursion to Mactan where he lost his life on 27
April, the Cebuanos repudiated the alliance with the explorers, and even killed twenty of them. The rest
withdrew from those shores, after burning the Concepcion, a boat they could not man for lack of hands.
Of the fleet that had set sail three years before, only the Victoria under the command of Juan Sebastian
Elcano succeeded in accomplishing the epic feat of circumnavigating the globe. On 8 September 1522, it
anchored at Seville with 18 survivors on board.
The Expedition of Villalobos.
Encouraged by the partial success of Magellan’s expedition, Charles V ordered the sailing of another fleet
for the Moluccas; but this expedition met an unfortunate ending. This did not weaken the resolve of
Charles V to instruct the viceroy of Mexico to prepare another armada for the East. This departed from
the coast of Mexico on 1 November 1542, commanded by Ruy Lopez de Villalobos who received orders to
colonize the Western Islands, which he renamed Filipinas in honor of Don Felipe, Prince of Asturias. Due
to the unfriendly welcome they received from the natives of Mindanao, the fleet sailed northwards to
Cebu. But contrary winds blew it to the coast of Leyte where the islanders met them in a hostile attitude.
Determined to reach the Moluccas because of the critical condition of the boats and the men, they
reached Tidore on 14 April 1544. After suffering from the hostility of the Portuguese, they proceeded to
Amboina, where their leader Villalobos died in the spring of 1546. The armada fell apart soon after this,
with some of the crew staying on in the East, and others returning to Europe on Portuguese boats.
Among the latter were four Augustinian Fathers, Jeronimo Jimenez, Nicolas de Perea, Sebastian de
Trasierra, and Alonso de Alvarado. The enmity of the Filipinos, the severity of the elements, the lack of
supplies, and finally the opposition of the Portuguese forced the Spaniards to abandon for the moment
the Philippine Islands.
The Expedition of Legaspi.
In 1559 Philip II, successor to Charles in the Spanish dominions, ordered the Viceroy of Mexico to equip an
armada for the spiritual and material conquest of the Philippines. The fleet left Mexican waters on 21
November 1564, commanded by the royal scrivener Don Miguel Lopez de Legaspi, a nobleman from
Vizcaya, who combined in his person great military and administrative talents as subsequent events
proved. The expedition reached Leyte waters in February, and the famous pact between the Spanish leader
and Sikatuna was forged in the neighboring island of Bohol.

After hearing the opinions of the captains of the fleet, Legaspi went on to Cebu. By the power of his tact
and patience, he was able to stave off the open enmity of the islanders which could have caused
unfortunate results for the expedition. He preferred to win the affection of the Cebuanos through
broadminded and equanimous dealings with them. In the end, he convinced Tupas, kinglet of Cebu Island,
to acknowledge the sovereignty of Spain, and later to accept Christianity. Soon, Legaspi began the
reconstruction, the beautification and the reorganization of the city of Cebu, where he had decided to
seat the government of this Oriental possession of Spain.
 In August 1568, Juan Salcedo, youthful grandson of Legaspi, arrived in Cebu. The natives of Panay had by
this time accepted Spanish sovereignty and were paying tribute regularly. To reduce the island of
Mindoro, some companies had to be detached under the command of Salcedo, who carried out the task
to its happy end. In this way, this gallant soldier began a brief but fruitful career which put Spain in
possession of some of the better provinces of the Philippine archipelago.
Occupation of Manila; Conquest of Luzon.
All the time he was engaged in the conquest of the Visayas, Legaspi heard frequent reports of the
advantageous location of the city of Manila. Convinced of fixing the royal government there, in 1570 he
sent ahead the Master of the Camp Martin de Goiti, and his grandson Salcedo. Goiti lost no time in
establishing friendly relations with Raja Matanda and Raja Soliman, lords of Manila. This good will lasted
only a short time because Soliman, who loved his independence, plotted a surprise attack on the Spanish
squadron. But Goiti sense it and successfully assaulted the entrenchment, capturing his entire artillery.
Immediately after, the conqueror set sail for Panay where Legaspi, who by this time had already received
the title of “Adelantado”, awaited him.
In the spring of 1571, the Spaniards under the personal command of Legaspi appeared a second time in
Manila Bay. Raja Matanda presented his respects to the Spanish commander, begging him to be good
enough to pardon Soliman for proving disloyal to his plighted word. Later, Soliman also came to offer his
vassalage to the king of Spain. In view of all this, the Adelantado debarked all his forces to take possession
of the city in the name of the crown of Castille.
The people around Manila acknowledged without resistance the supremacy of the Spaniards, except some
groups headed by Soliman which suffered a decisive defeat at Bankusay, north of Pasig and near Tondo.
Likewise, places like Cainta and Taytay bordering the Laguna de Bay refused to accept vassalage under the
conquerors; but Salcedo subdued them after breaking their stubborn resistance. Elsewhere, Goiti, after a
rapid march, reduced the bellicose inhabitants of Betis who still fought to keep their independence.
After a daring raid into the mines of Paracale in the Bicol region, Salcedo undertook the exploration of
the northern coast of Luzon in 1572. He discovered and explored the mouth of the Ibanag River in
Cagayan, the deepest river in the island. On his return, he received the sad news of the death of his
illustrious grandfather Miguel Lopez de Legaspi, which took place on 20 August. A malignant fever would
also carry off the young Salcedo from the living in 1576, in the city of Vigan, the capital of Ilocos.
Salcedo is called the last of the conquistadores for having carried the colors of Spain to remote and vast
regions of the Philippines. However, he was unable to subjugate the entire archipelago of the Philippines,
for at his death there still remained to be reduced the Cagayan Valley, parts of Ilocos, the present
Mountain Province, the Babuyan Islands, the Batanes Islands, and Zambales; above all, all of Moroland,
i.e. almost all of Mindanao and the adjacent islands. The task of conquering these lands was reserved for
other captains, but above all to the missionaries.
Colonization.
The colonization of the Philippines consisted in founding cities, like Cebu (1565), Manila (1571), Vigan
(1572), Nueva Segovia (1581), Villa de Arevalo (1581) and others; in establishing a central government
advised by the Royal Audiencia2 (founded in 1584 and suppressed in 1863) and the provincial
governments for each province administered by alcaldes mayores. The gobernadorcillos, nominated from the
native sector, were the counterpart of the present municipal alcaldes or town mayors. They were advised
and aided in their government by some officials known by the names juez teniente (deputy judge) and alguacil
(constable). The Spaniards preserved the barangay (head of the barangay).
The encomienda system gradually disappeared and ceased to exist in the 18th century. It consisted in this:
that the governor, in the king’s name, “apportioned” certain lands and a certain number of natives to
those who had distinguished themselves in the conquest of the islands. Those who were thus favored
received the title encomendero with the privilege of collecting tributes to their own and the king’s benefit; but
they had the obligation of providing a minister of Christian doctrine for those in the encomienda. Only two
generations were benefited by the encomienda: the grantee and his children. Then it reverted to the
crown, i.e. to the king. Once they were subjects of the king of Spain, the Filipinos were obliged to pay a
tribute until, from 1884, the system of personal cedulas was introduced. (A, pp. 10-18)

3. Apostolic Work of the Religious Orders.

The Augustinians.
The Augustinians came to the Philippines with Legaspi’s expedition. There were five of them,
eminently apostolic men: Andres de Urdaneta, Martin de Rada, Andres de Aguirre, Diego de Herrera and
Pedro de Gamboa. After Legaspi took possession of Cebu City, he allotted a piece of land to them where
they later erected a church and convent dedicated to the Holy Infant. This foundation was the center of
their apostolic journeys throughout the Visayas and Mindanao in the years that followed.

Soon they began to administer Baptism to the natives infrequently at first and with caution. The first to
accept Baptism was a niece of Tupas who received the name Isabel. Tupas himself obtained the same grace
on 21 March 1568. From Cebu, the Augustinians went on to Panay (Iloilo), Masbate, and Camarines.

When Legaspi founded Manila in 1571, he gave them an extensive lot there beside the sea. Here they
raised the beginning in bamboo, wood and nipa, of what would be the church and convent of St Paul,
popularly known by the name “San Agustin”.

From this mother house and center of their apostolate, they went forth to several provinces in Luzon and
the Visayas. But in the beginning, they had no seat or permanent base of work, since they were too few for
so many towns. And so, in the first years of their missionary activity we find them preaching in Tondo and
around Manila, in Batangas, Laguna, Pampanga, Pangasinan, Ilocos, and Cagayan.
After the official division of the provinces among the religious orders working in the Philippines at the time
(royal cedula, 27 April 1594), the Augustinians were engaged more or less permanently in the following missions:
the surrounding area of Manila, Tondo, Tambobong, Tinajeros, Navotas, Novaliches, Malate, Parañaque,
Pasig, Cainta, Caloocan, and others. The following provinces in Luzon were allotted to them:
2The Real Audiencia, or simply Audiencia, was an appellate court in Spain and its empire. Each Audiencia had oidores (judges, literally,
“hearers”).
 Batangas, north Bulacan, all of Pampanga, some towns in east Tarlac, a good part of Nueva Ecija, La
Union, Ilocos Sur, Ilocos Norte, Abra; and in the 19th century, the districts of Lepanto, Bontoc, Benguet,
the military post at Amburayan. In the Visayas they evangelized Cebu Island, some towns in Negros which
they later handed over to the secular clergy, Iloilo, Capiz, and Antique. In 1768 when the Jesuits were
expelled, they administered some of the towns in Leyte, which in 1804 passed on to the secular clergy,
and later to the Franciscans. At the outbreak of the revolution in 1898 the Augustinians had under their
care 2,320,667 souls, distributed among 231 parishes and missions in 22 provinces.
In 333 years of Spanish rule in the islands, a total of 2,830 Augustinian friars came to the Philippines.
Besides being emissaries of the Gospel—the common task of the five religious families—they
distinguished themselves in erecting magnificent churches, as the church of San Agustin (Intramuros,
Manila), that of Taal (Batangas), of Oton (Iloilo), as well as in literary endeavors and programs of material
improvement.
The Franciscans.
The Franciscans arrived in Manila on 24 June 1578. They were housed with the Augustinians for a while,
until they finished a convent of light materials dedicated to our Lady of the Angels. From here they spread
around Manila and the provinces. Among others, they either established or received the missions around
the capital: Santa Ana, Paco, Sampaloc, San Juan del Monte, San Francisco del Monte, and Pandacan. They
also evangelized the province of Laguna, and the towns east and south of the lake which formerly
belonged to the district of Morong. Further south, they were entrusted with the provinces of Quezon,
Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, Albay, and Sorsogon. East of Quezon province, they evangelized certain
regions along the coast: the ancient districts of Infanta and Principe, extending as far as Palanan, Isabela.
Likewise, they founded some towns in Mindoro and Marinduque. In 1768 the government assigned to
them the Jesuit missions in Samar and, in 1843, they took care of certain towns in Leyte.
By the end of the 19th century, the Franciscans were ministering to 1,096,659 souls in 103 towns in 15
provinces.
The Franciscans were noted above all for many outstanding institutions of charity which they founded or
administered. They were strict observants of the religious vow of poverty and, in contrast to other
religious orders, they did not acquire property.
The Jesuits.
The first Jesuits who arrived in Manila on 17 September 1581 were Fathers Antonio Sedeño and Alonso
Sanchez, and Brother Nicolas Gallardo. At first, they lived in a temporary residence at Lagyo, the section
between the present districts of Ermita and Malate. Later, they moved to Intramuros, to a house near
the southeast gate, the Royal Gate (Puerta real). Their first missions, Taytay and Antipolo of the modern
province of Rizal, date from 1593. At about this time, too, they included Panay Island (Tibauan) to their
apostolate.
During the next years, they set up fixed residences in Leyte and Samar, while Father Chirino3 opened a
central mission house in Cebu (1595). Before the end of the 16th century, they had established permanent
missions in Bohol. They also took charge of some towns in Negros, besides starting or accepting other
ministries near Manila, like San Miguel, Santa Cruz, and Quiapo; and in the province of Cavite, like Silang,
Maragondong, and Kawit. Raised to a province in 1605, the Jesuits looked with confidence to the future.
And so, we find them in the 17th century opening the missions in Mindanao, which caused them so much
difficulty.

They first founded Dapitan mission in the north coast; next Zamboanga in 1635, and finally Jolo in 1639
under the shadow of the Hispano-Filipino military garrison which job it was to keep the Moslems in check.
In general, these missions shared the good or the bad fate of the garrisons that shielded them. The
garrison in Zamboanga, recalled by Governor Manrique de Lara in 1662, was not reestablished until 1718.
It was in the 18th century that the sons of St Ignatius, unabating in their missionary effort, reached the
present site of Cotabato City. Unfortunately, everything came to a stop when the Jesuits were expelled
from the Philippines in 1768, when their missions were transferred to other hands: those in central Luzon
to the diocesan clergy; Samar, and in 1843 Leyte, to the Franciscans; Bohol and some centers in Cebu,
Negros, Panay, and all of Mindanao to the Recollects; four missions in Negros and four others in Panay to
the Dominicans.
The Society of Jesus, restored in 1814, did not return to the Philippines until 1859. The Bishop of Cebu
petitioned the Spanish government for them to work in the Mindanao missions. And so, from 1860 on,
the Jesuits established their missions, first in Cotabato, then in Zamboanga, and finally in Basilan island.
Meanwhile, the Recollect Fathers, through government intervention, handed over to them all their
missions except seven. In 1896, the number of Christians mini stered to by the Jesuits totaled 213,065 in
36 mission parishes in Mindanao.
However, despite the efforts exerted by the Jesuits in Mindanao, despite their excellent missionary
methods, progress was slow because of the stubborn resistance of the Moslems to Christianity.
Nonetheless, their zeal won over to the Faith sizeable communities of natives in the northwestern coast
of the island. Furthermore, the Jesuits spared no efforts in the educational apostolate, where they won
here and elsewhere much renown. In this respect, they distinguished themselves from the other religious
orders, except the Dominican.
The Dominicans.
On 21 July 1587 the first Dominicans, the founding Fathers of the Religious Province of the Most Holy
Rosary of the Philippines, arrived in Cavite. Of these, five stayed in the Manila residence that would be
called the Convento of Santo Domingo. Four left for Bataan, and the remaining six took the trail to
Pangasinan. The missions that the Dominicans established or administered were: Baybay, Binondo, and
the Parian located near Manila for the Chinese; almost the whole province of Bataan; the province of
Pangasinan; some towns in north Tarlac; the entire Cagayan Valley, i.e. the present provinces of Cagayan,

3 PedroChirino (1557-1635) was a Spanish priest and historian who served as a Jesuit missionary in the Philippines. He is most
remembered for his work, Relación de las Islas Filipinas (1604), one of the earliest works about the Philippines and its people
that was written.
Isabela, and Nueva Vizcaya, including the eastern slopes of Central Cordillera and the western side of
the Sierra Madre mountain range, the Babuyan Islands, with interruptions from 1619 on; and the
Batanes Islands, a permanent mission since 1783.
After initial difficulties, the Dominican missions near Manila and those in Bataan and Pangasinan
flourished peacefully with only a slight interruption: Binondo, Parian, and Bataan were under the care of
the secular clergy for about 70 years, i.e. from 1768 until the middle of the 19th century more or less. In
Pangasinan, we can mention, among other events, the uprising of 1763 which cost so much blood,
destruction and hatred. The Cagayan Valley missions were dearly paid in human life, money and
sacrifice, mainly because of unfavorable climatic conditions and long distances, but likewise due to the
heathenish mountain tribes who generally were indifferent to Christianity and committed frequent
killings and robberies in the open, forcing the missionaries to seek protection from military escorts.
The Dominicans conquered for Christ practically all of Cagayan and north Isabela towards the last years
of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17 th century. The conversion of south Isabela took several
long years, from 1673 to about the middle of the 18th century. It was much harder bringing into the fold
of the Church Nueva Vizcaya province; but it was done finally by about the middle of the 18th century,
thanks in great part to the aid of the Augustinians who, starting from the south, had preached and
spread the good news until Bayombong from 1716 to 1740. The missions in the eastern slopes of
Central Cordillera were established, with scant success, in the second half of the 19th century. By the
end of that century, the evangelization of the Ilongots began.
The Babuyan and Batanes missions proved to be the grave of several Dominicans, due to the deadly
climate of the islands.
These were the provinces that the Dominicans evangelized and administered as their specific section in
the Philippines. For various reasons they had to assume charge of Zambales province for a while (1678-
1712), eight towns in the Visayas briefly as we have already noted, and some towns in Cavite and
Laguna during the second half of the 19th century. When the revolution forced the Dominicans to
abandon their parishes and mission centers, they were caring for 735,396 souls in 73 parishes and 36
missions in 10 provinces. The Dominicans also excelled principally in their educational endeavors and
famous missions abroad.
The Recollects.
In May 1606, the first Recollect mission of ten priests and four lay Brothers disembarked at Cebu. The
following June, they proceeded to Manila. They lived for a few days in Santo Domingo, then in San
Agustin, until they had their own house in Bagumbayan (the present Luneta or Rizal Park) near
Intramuros. Finally, they transferred to the walled city. The next year, three Recollect Fathers left to
open the Zambales mission, which they administered until the end of the 19th century with the
interruption noted, and another from 1754 to 1837. During this interregnum, they took charge of the
towns of Mabalacat, Capas and Bamban, and laid the foundations for the missions of O’Donnell and
Moriones in Central Luzon.
In 1622 the Recollect Fathers were charged with Palawan and Calamianes, and Caraga district in
eastern Mindanao where they often had to erect forts and arm the Christians for defense against the
Moro depredations.
But repeated Moro assaults forced them to give up these missions. However, on petition by the Royal
Audiencia, they had to stay put. Palawan entered a period of peace and prosperity in the second half of
the 19th century. The mission and subsequent town of Puerto Princesa dates from 1881. After the
revolution, the Recollects returned to Palawan. They still administer it as an apostolic vicariate. The
evangelization of Romblon by the Recollects began in 1635. Besides Moro hostility, they met with other
difficulties, as the isolation of one island from another, and the poverty of the soil. But all this was
overcome by those brave and long-suffering missionaries.
In 1679, they took charge of Mindoro in exchange for the loss of Zambales which had passed to the hands
of the Dominicans, as was said. In Mindoro they met the same difficulties they found elsewhere which
had tested their patience and heroism, especially the attacks of the devotees of Mohammed. However, it
must be admitted that other religious groups, including the diocesan clergy, helped evangelize this island;
but none persevered with the firmness and permanence of the Recollects.
From 1688, they also evangelized, with the labor that it demanded, the islands of Ticao, Masbate, and
Burias. But in 1791, they abandoned these to strengthen the ministries in Bohol, Mindanao, and the
Mariana Islands which the government had entrusted to them after the expulsion of the Jesuit Fathers.
Their residence in Cebu, the central house of their Visayan missions, was founded in 1621. But the
Recollect missions in this island date from a much later period, i.e. from 1744. They gradually spread
along the coast, from the city of Cebu up to Catmon.
In 1768, because of the expulsion of the Society of Jesus, the Recollects had to assume charge of Bohol.
But it had practically separated itself from Spain after an internal uprising. In the end, after long years of
laborious negotiation, they were able to pacify the island and initiate its progress in all aspects.
But the Order of Augustinian Recollects showed its truly remarkable and fruitful zeal especially in the
island of Negros, which the government had entrusted to it in 1848. Suffice it to say that from this date
until 1896, the population increased from 30,000 inhabitants to 363,255, and the centers of ministerial
work from 11 to 77. The parish and missionary work of the Recollects reached out in 1896 to 1,249,399
souls in 203 towns of 20 provinces.
To honor these truly self-denying religious, let it be said that it fell to their lot, in general, to minister to
the poorer and more hazardous islands; and at cost of so much sacrifice, they were able to keep them for
Christ and for Spain. Their special glory lies in this, that they were able to overcome the sectaries of Islam,
with the enthusiastic cooperation of their Filipino faithful and the dedication of their religious who lost
their lives in the effort.
Epilogue.
These five religious orders which for the duration of three centuries carried the brunt of the task of
evangelizing the Philippines, drew their mission personnel and their teachers from Spain and elsewhere.
But, beginning with the 18th and the 19th centuries, they had to seriously consider ways and means to avail
themselves of their own resources, inasmuch as it had become harder and harder to recruit personnel
from other religious provinces of Europe and America. And so we find the Augustinians founding the
Colegio de la Vid (1743); the Recollects the Colleges of Alfaro (1824), Monteagudo (1829), and San Millan
de la Cogulla (1878);
the Dominicans the Colleges of Ocaña (1830) and Santo Tomas de Avila (1876); and the Franciscans the
Colleges of Pastrana (1855) and Consuegra (1867).
Let us mention here, otherwise this chapter will be incomplete, the arrival of the Fathers of San Juan de
Dios in 1641, the Vincentians (Paules) in 1862, and at the eleventh hour the Capuchins and Benedictines
in 1886 and 1895 respectively. (A, pp. 19-27)
 Chapter 3

The Church and Education; Works of Charity

7. The Church and Education
Primary Instruction.
The religious missionaries who came to evangelize the Philippine Islands did not plan to create a system of
primary instruction; but were content, with a few exceptions perhaps, to open schools inasmuch as they
considered them a means to win souls for Christ. In the beginning, they had to be satisfied with oral
teaching, for there were no books. Even if there had been some, few Filipinos would have been able to read
them. Later, they trained some bright, perceptive Filipinos who in turn would teach their compatriots, with
the few books that began to be published, how to read, write, count, and above all Christian Doctrine.
Because there were no special buildings for teaching, this was held in the Church, in the convento in particular
instances, or in the open air.
The first school started by the missionaries was the one in Cebu in 1565. Shortly after their arrival, the
Augustinian Fathers obtained permission from the city residents to bring together their sons in order to
teach them deportment and Christian doctrine. Attracted by the purity of life of the missionaries, the
Cebuanos presented no difficulties against entrusting their sons to the Fathers for the purpose for which
they had been invited. The provincial chapter of the Augustinians in 1598 decreed that schools be opened in
towns, ranches and barrios, and that they oblige the boys to attend them.
The Franciscans, for their part, contributed as much to primary instruction in the Philippines as their means
allowed. In this task, the efforts of Father Juan de Plasencia since his arrival in the Philippines in 1578 were
outstanding. This innovator and scholar, in the manner of so many of his contemporaries, seems to have
taken upon himself the civilizing mission of founding towns and schools wherever he went. His plan was to
form good and responsible Christian citizens by teaching them the rudiments of learning, namely, reading,
writing, and some basic arts and tasks.
In a minor scale, the Dominican Father Pedro Bolaños did the same work in Bataan beginning in 1587.
Neither did the Jesuits neglect this means of evangelization. Hardly had they arrived in the Philippines, we
see them opening primary schools in Tigbauan (Panay Island), Antipolo, and around Manila. About a school
they opened in Carigara (Leyte), Father Colin says:
The second task we undertook was to start a school for boys, supporting them in our residence with the alms
received from the encomenderos. With the help of some bright Indios brought along for the purpose, we teach
them how to read, sing, draw, as well as the divine office which is now sung solemnly. It is cause for praising
God, watching the fervor with which these boys have dedicated themselves to learn matters of our Faith such
that, grouping themselves in fours, or more, and using some pebbles or short sticks they are wont to mark the
words, they have learned in a few days all the prayers in the language, some in Latin, and how to serve Mass.
Such were the humble but praiseworthy beginnings of primary instruction in the islands under the aegis of
the Church. Progress through the 17th, 18th, and the first half of the 19th century was slow and painful.
Reading the mountain of documents for this period leads to the conclusion that neither the State nor the
Church could give the schools the attention that in our days we give them. It is because the times did not
care as much, for even in cultured Europe practically the same thing happened.
A certain author has said that in the 17th century there were already a thousand parochial schools in the
Philippines. If we reduce the figure to 100, we would be nearing the truth. All the parishes and missions
put together would not total more than 250, and it must be admitted that in many of them there were no
schools at all, at least in any formal sense.
Nonetheless, the missionaries, supported by the Government, worked in such wise that by the beginning
of the 19th century there were, as a general rule, two schools in each town: one for boys, and another for
girls.
This was the situation when the government took control of primary instruction in 1863, which till then
had been borne almost exclusively on the shoulders of the missionaries and parish priests. On that year,
the superior government decreed the establishment of a Normal School for primary school teachers,
entrusting the Fathers of the Society of Jesus with its administration. The decree also provided that
education would be obligatory in the future, charging with this responsibility the parents, the teachers
and the guardians of children.
Among other dispositions on behalf of education which were issued by the Supreme Authority in the
archipelago, the one of 30 October 1867 is worth noting. In order to ensure the better progress of
education, instructions were sent to the parish priests that henceforth they would be the local inspectors
of primary instruction.
But all of these instructions as well as others that followed did not effect the desired results. There was a
dearth of public funds; there were no provincial inspectors who could have coordinated the activities of
the parish priests; there was no interest among many gobernadorcillos and parents to oblige their children to
go to school; there were not enough good teachers, or there were too many children in the individual
classes; and frequently there was an absence of educational facilities such as desks, blackboards, books,
paper, etc. The parish priests tried to ease the situation within their limited means, often paying teachers
from the parochial funds, purchasing equipment, constructing schools, and allowing at times the use of
the lower floor of the convento as a classroom. Because of these difficulties, parents in many families
truly concerned about the education of their children were forced to send them to study in Manila or
entrust them to private tutors.
School buildings were made of bamboo and nipa, wood or brick. Christian Doctrine and Sacred History
were principal subjects of the school curriculum. The number of schools which in 1877 reached 1,016 had
risen to 2,500 by 1898, with an enrollment of 200,000 school children.
Secondary Teaching.
There was no secondary education (according to the modern system of education) in the Philippines until
1865. On 9 January of that year, the superior government memorialized the Metropolitan5 government
on the need to improve the program of secondary education. In accordance with the wishes of the insular
government, after listening to the opinions of the Council on Public Instruction, Queen Isabel II enacted
by way of experiment that the University of Santo Tomas and the colleges affiliated to it by the
corresponding royal order should restructure their program of education in conformity with the reform
projected by the superior government.
By another royal order dated 28 January 1867 and endorsed in Manila by Governor Gandara on 4 April,
the Spanish government definitively laid the ground for implementing the new norms of education. In
this decree, centers of secondary education would henceforth be classified as public or private schools.
Only the University of Santo Tomas would enjoy the rank of public school. The private colleges would be
divided into private schools of the first class and private schools of the second class.
5 The Metropolitan is the primate of an ecclesiastical province.
The first-class private schools were those that offered in their program of studies all the subjects
required for the degree of Bachelor of Arts; those that offered only some subjects were classified as
second-class. Among the first were the Colegio de San Juan de Letran and Ateneo de Manila. Only the
University of Santo Tomas, as a public institution of learning, had the power to grant academic degrees.
It had the right besides to inspect the instruction given in the other colleges.
San Juan de Letran. This college had a double origin. Towards the year 1620, there lived in Manila one
Juan Geronimo Guerrero, a Spaniard. Touched by the lot of many Spanish orphans, ordinarily sons of
dead soldiers, he gathered them into his house and provided them with food and education from the
alms he collected from charitable persons. His Majesty gave his approval to this project in 1623. Years
later, a lay Brother Fray Diego de Santa Maria started a similar work in the rooms adjacent to the lobby of
Santo Domingo. The latter absorbed the first when in his old age Guerrero entrusted his foundation,
together with an encomienda the governor had granted to him, to the Dominicans in 1638. Officially
accepted by the Order of Preachers in 1652, for more than half a century it bore the name Seminario de niños
huerfanos de San Pedro y San Pablo (Seminary of Saints Peter and Paul for Orphan Boys). Its program of
studies did not go beyond the level of elementary schooling, until about 1707 when two chairs on the
Humanities were added. The students had until then attended the secondary school of the University of
Santo Tomas.
From 1867 on, the first four courses of the secondary curriculum were given jointly for the Letranites and
the Tomasites in the building of Letran college; but the former had to go to the halls of Santo Tomas for
the fifth course. Letran reached a high level of development because of the implementation of the
decrees on secondary education. During the 17th century and part of the 18th century, many of its
graduates reached sacerdotal ordination after completing higher studies in Santo Tomas. Although only
the sons of Spaniards were accepted in the beginning, in time many mestizos and natives were given the
same privilege.
Ateneo de Manila. The college of the Immaculate Conception, named Ateneo Municipal de Manila,
started in 1859. While the first Jesuit arrivals in Manila in 1859 were awaiting the opportunity to proceed
to Mindanao at this moment beset with difficulties, the Captain-General Don Fernando Norzaragay,
insinuated to the city council of Manila that they approach the Superior of the mission Father Jose
Cuevas and ask that the Jesuits take charge of a primary school for about thirty boys which at that time
was run by a lay man. Father Cuevas welcomed the idea, foreseeing the undeniable benefits which the
proposed change would bring to Filipino youth. It was in this way, briefly, that the Society of Jesus took
charge on 10 December 1859 of what was called the Escuela Pia of Manila. In 1865, Her Majesty Queen
Isabel II elevated the school to the rank of a college of secondary teaching, now entitled Ateneo
Municipal de Manila. In later years, the Jesuit Fathers added important improvements to the building,
even setting up a Laboratory of Physics and a Museum of Natural History.
Other Colleges. The Dominican Fathers inaugurated a first-class college for secondary teaching in Dagupan in
1891 under the patronage of Saint Albert. At this time, another college of secondary education was
opened in Bacolod (Negros) under the direction of the Recollect Fathers.
Higher or University Learning.
Only the Dominicans and the Jesuits engaged in the task of higher learning, the latter from the 16th
century to the 18th century, the former through the three centuries that embraced the period which we
are investigating.
College of San Jose. Hardly had they arrived in the Philippines, the Jesuit Fathers immediately gave
serious thought to the establishment of a center of higher studies. We have already seen how their first
essay, begun in 1583, ended. Much later, they finally succeeded in 1595 amid great difficulties to lay
the foundations of a college which would afterwards be called Maximo or University of San Ignacio. This
college or University, set up in the residence of the Fathers near the church of San Ignacio, was a
different entity from the College of San Jose which occupied a separate building.
The foundation of the College of San Jose, which by its renown came to eclipse almost completely the
Colegio Maximo, was due to the Visitator Father Diego Garcia. In 1599, he told Father Pedro Chirino to
settle its foundation under the patronage of Saint Joseph. With the corresponding permits, the college
was inaugurated on 25 August 1601 under the administration of Father Luis Gomez, its first Rector. In
1610, after the Fathers of the Society took possession of the property bequeathed them by Adelantado
Esteban Rodriguez in a testament legalized in Arevalo (now Iloilo) on 16 March 1596, the college began
a second foundation as it were, so that it could admit scholars who had to be, according to the will of
the founder, “sons of Spaniards of good birth.” By 1636, Humanities, Philosophy and Theology were
being taught there.
On 3 May 1722, San Jose was granted the title Real Colegio, and in 1734 it received the license to open the
Faculties of Civil and Canon Law. When the Jesuits lost this school in May 1768, the Archbishop of
Manila immediately converted it into a conciliar seminary, with the consent of Governor Raon. But the
king’s royal cedula of 21 May 1771 disapproved this move, decreeing that San Jose be reverted to its
original character. However, with the change in administration, the College led a languid life under the
direction of a secular priest, until by a royal order in 1875 the government ceded the
administration, the property and the buildings to the Rector of the University of Santo Tomas, in order
that he make use of them to support the Faculties of Medicine and of Pharmacy.
University of Santo Tomas. The center of higher learning which left the deepest imprint on the history
of the Church in the Philippines is, without doubt, the University of Santo Tomas.
At times we hear mention of the College, at other times of the University, of Santo Tomas. The College
was only a boarding school. Founded in 1611 by the Dominican Province of the Most Holy Rosary with
the aid of the bequest of Archbishop Benavides and others, it offered free shelter, free food and
clothing, and free education to about 40 poor students, sons of Spaniards. Mestizos and native sons
also formed part of the boarding school in diverse periods, but they were classed as servants or
captistas. Others gained admission if they paid some amount of money as a kind of tuition. From this
college proceeded graduates who later brought distinction to their Alma Mater in the episcopate, in
cathedral dignities in magistracies, and in civil administration.
The University, which included different faculties, was inaugurated on 15 August 1619. In the beginning,
only the Faculties of Arts, Philosophy and Theology were open. In the course of many years, other
faculties
 were opened: Civil and Canon Law (1734), Spanish Law (1835), Medicine and Pharmacy (1871), Notary
Public (1878), Philosophy and Letters (1896), Sciences (1896).
This institution received the power to grant academic degrees from a Brief of Pope Paul V on 11 March
1619; the title of University from Pope Innocent X on 20 November 1645; the title of Royal from King
Charles III on 7 March 1785; the title of Pontifical from the Pontiff Leo XIII on 17 September 1902; and
finally the qualification Catholic from His Holiness Pope Pius XII on 30 April 1947.
The building was located for more than three centuries in Intramuros, next to the Church of Santo
Domingo, the site which the founders had purposely acquired. In 1945, when the whole building was
completely destroyed, the Dominican Fathers moved to the present campus in Sulucan the Faculty of
Laws and Medicine, the only ones that had remained in the former site when the new building was
inaugurated in Sulucan in 1927. (A, pp. 53-62)

8. Works of Charity
Hospitals.
In this work of charity, none surpassed the Franciscan Fathers who, carried by the wings of love for God
and for neighbor, founded or administered as many if not perhaps more hospitals as all the other
groups together.
The Royal Hospital. When they arrived in Manila in 1577, they already found in operation the Royal Hospital
which was opened to care for the sick among the Spanish soldiers and sailors. Such was the love for
the sick of these religious that the Spaniards themselves petitioned the Government to entrust to them
the administration of the hospital. And so, its first Administrator-Chaplain Father Agustin de Tordesillas
assumed its direction in 1578. The building, which was of light materials at first, disappeared in the fire
of 1583. Built anew thanks to the support of charitable persons and of Governor Santiago Vera, it had
to be raised again after the earthquake of 1603. Unfortunately, continued interference of the civil
authorities in the spiritual and temporal progress of the hospital especially during Governor Corcuera’s
time who, against the express will of the monarch, ended Franciscan control in 1640, forced the
Franciscans to give it up definitively in 1704, never again to assume charge despite the repeated
invitations of the insular government. On 21 August 1862, the Daughters of Charity accepted it.
San Juan de Dios Hospital. The hospital owes its foundation to a Franciscan lay Brother Fray Juan Clemente.
In 1578, Fray Juan began to aid the poor and the sick who gathered at the doors of the poor convent of
Saint Francis, asking for food and medicine. Because the place was not suitable for so great a demand,
the good Brother thought of building a hospital. In a short time, aided by the poor themselves, he
raised two spacious halls on the site now occupied in Intramuros by the Jose Laurel Lyceum. Destroyed
during the fire of 1583, he had to construct it again. Years later, the holy priest Juan Fernandez de Leon
offered his services to the hospital. He constructed a third hall in 1593 with his own means and the
alms solicited from charitable people, but everything went down during the earthquake of 1603. The
greatest aid this virtuous priest gave to the hospital was the establishment on his own initiative of the Mesa
de la Misericordia
in 1594. In the future, it would take care of providing the means of support for the wing which he had
built.
After 1603, the Franciscan Fathers decided to build a leprosarium in the outskirts of Manila for the lepers
they had already sheltered. They also donated the site of the ruined hospital to the Mesa de la
Misericordia. Although this entity built a new edifice and was charged with its administration, the spiritual
care of the sick continued in the hands of the Franciscans. On 13 May 1656, the Confraternity entrusted
the direction of the hospital, since then called San Juan de Dios Hospital, to the Religious Hospitallers from
whose hands it passed to the care of the Daughters of Charity by express will of Queen Isabel II in 1865.
From this date, the Spanish government which enjoyed higher supervisory powers over it because of the
Patronato Real decided, in agreement with the ecclesiastical authority, to name a Board of Inspectors to
oversee the proper functioning of this charitable institution. The presidency of the Board was given to the
Franciscan Order through a royal order in 1891. Immediate direction and supervision had been in the
charge of the Daughters of Charity since 1896, in virtue of a decree of the Governor-General dated 17
August 1865.
Holy Spirit Hospital in Cavite. In Cavite port, on the site donated by a Spaniard Don Felipe Correo, the
Franciscans built a second hospital in 1591 under the patronage of the Holy Spirit. It was intended to
provide rest for the sailors and the laborers of the arsenal there. In 1610, through a deed signed that
year, two pious men donated to it a piece of land in Santa Ana which henceforth would be the basis of its
income. In 1640, Governor Corcuera removed the Franciscans from the hospital, and in 1662 the building
was demolished on orders of Don Sabiniano Manrique de Lara as a defense measure against the
threatening Chinese pirate Kuesing.
Saint James Hospital in Naga. Before the city of Naga was raised to the rank of city and head of the
diocese, the Franciscan missionaries already opened a hospital there which they named Saint James
Hospital, although the people used to call it Saint Lazarus. In time, this charitable institution fell away. Its
administration, by royal disposition, passed from the hands of the religious to those of lay supervisors,
and in 1691 it folded up completely. Various bishops strove in later years to have it reopened, but in vain.
This resurrection was reserved to Bishop Francisco Gainza who, with the aid of the Franciscans, had the
satisfaction of inaugurating it on 12 May 1873 amid great difficulties. And in a magnanimous act of
detachment, he handed it over to the Franciscans. This new hospital was located in a spot near Naga
called Palestina.
Holy Waters Hospital in Los Baños. The foundation of this hospital, due to the initiative of Saint Pedro
Bautista, goes back to 1590. The discovery of thermal springs on the site was what led this sainted martyr
to open the hospital, since the hot springs were known to cure certain illnesses. But the soul of this
foundation in its early years was the lay Brother Fray Diego de Santa Maria who, besides his evangelical
charity, possessed no mean knowledge of medicine and surgery. By a decree of 21 July 1602, confirmed
sometime later by the government, the Cabildo authorized Fray Diego to open a hospital there. And
putting hands to the task, a building of light materials was constructed out of nothing, which he named
Holy Waters Hospital of Mainit. In 1608, some rich natives donated land to the hospital. With this and
other donations, with the work of the religious, and with the aid of the government, the Holy Waters
Hospital quickly reached a high level of prosperity. A big building of stone was constructed in 1671. But
with the years, after the Franciscans had surrendered its supervision to the Patronato, it began to decline
visibly until in 1727 it disappeared completely in a fire.
Initiated by Governor Domingo Moriones, the Franciscans rebuilt it in 1877; but they did not bind
themselves to take charge of its administration even though the government had offered it to them.
Other Hospitals. There were other hospitals, not founded by the Franciscans although they had helped
much to make them prosper. For example, such were Saint Joseph Hospital in Cebu founded in 1864 by
Señor Romualdo Jimeno; the Casa de Socorro established in 1884 by Bishop Martin Garcia Alcocer, and the
Lucena Hospital founded in 1892 which was administered by the Franciscan tertiaries.
Leprosaria.
One leprosarium worth mentioning because of its brilliant history through the centuries is that of San
Lazaro. Here as in so many other works of charity, the Franciscans took the lead. As we have already said,
it began in 1578 near the door of the convent of San Francisco. In 1632, the Emperor of Japan expelled 130
poor lepers criminally guilty just because they were Christians. Their arrival in the Philippines won the
compassion of the Franciscans and the attention of the government. The former sheltered them in a
house they had built in Dilao right after the destruction of their building in Intramuros during the
earthquake of 1603. The secular government aided them with generous alms. Years later, Corcuera
removed the Franciscans from administering this institution of charity. But the king restored them in
1641, in answer to their justified complaints.
A decree signed by Governor Basco in 1784 and approved by the king in 1785 transferred the leprosarium
to Mayhaligue, the site it now occupies on Rizal Avenue. In succeeding years, this institution had to pass
through difficult periods due to lack of funds. The building was not sufficient and the hacienda, which
was mismanaged, did not provide enough to support the sick. From these straits, the energetic Father
Felix Huertas came in 1859 to rescue the hospital. He improved the buildings and rectified the
administration, so much so that by the end of the 19th century San Lazaro was well established and had
adequate means of support. This was the situation when the Archbishop of Manila, who had succeeded
to the Spanish Government as Patron of the hospital, removed it from the administration of the
Franciscans in 1907 and ceded it to the American government, which in exchange had given up its
pretentions to the other pious foundations.
Asylums.
Just as the Franciscans were outstanding in hospitals, so the Augustinians distinguished themselves in
asylums. The first asylum that they opened was the Beaterio of Saint Rita in Pasig. The building which was
constructed by Father Felix Trillo goes back to 1740. It was planned to offer shelter and education to
native orphan girls.
In 1882-1883, an epidemic broke out in Manila and the suburbs. With the lives of many parents snuffed
out, many native boys and girls were left orphans. To help them, the Augustinians and some charitable
ladies thought of opening two asylums, one for boys and another one in Mandaluyong for girls. The first
one, built in San Marcelino (Paco) in 1883, was transferred the following year to the magnificent convent
of Guadalupe. From there, it was transferred to Malabon de Tambobong where the Augustinians built
two solid and commodious halls on an extensive piece of land, to serve at the same time as home and
school of arts and trades for the inmates.
When the revolutionaries pillaged it in 1898, there were well- established printing shops, binderies,
lithographies, etc.; and it served as home for about 150 boys. When the boys left the asylum, they
received a sum of money equivalent to the work they performed in the shops.
The girls’ asylum under the Spanish Augustinian tertiaries was transferred from Paco to the casa-hacienda of
Mandaluyong. For some years, it admitted only orphans. But in 1895, Father Benito Ubierna enlarge the
building in order to accommodate boarders, too. When the Revolution occurred, this asylum supported
some damage from the bombardment of the American warships in February 1899. The wards who
reached the age of 20 years in the asylum received, when they married, a gift of from P50 to P200 as
dowry. Those who left the asylum freely but were not married received a similar gift, as long as they had
reached the age of 20 years and had lived there for at least for 10 years.
Another asylum that deserves our notice is the Asilo-Colegio de San Vicente de Paul at Looban Street
(Paco). It was founded in 1885 by a Daughter of Charity Sor Asuncion Ventura who was a native of
Pampanga. With her Superiors’ permission, she donated her property on behalf of neglected children. Its
inauguration was held on 26 July 1885, and since then the Daughters of Charity have been directing it.
Hospices.
In 1782, a pious couple, Don Francisco Gomez Enriquez and Doña Barbara Verzosa, ceded to the
Archbishop a great part of their property to help found a hospice for the old, the demented, and orphans.
Three years later, Manila had the first foundation of its kind. At first, it was located in Pandacan, then in
Binondo, and later on the left side of the descent of Ayala bridge in San Miguel. In 1895, the island which
rises in the middle of the Pasig just below Ayala bridge was ceded by the administrators of San Juan de Dios
Hospital. This island was formerly known as the Isla de Convalescencia (Island of Recuperation), because the
patients of San Juan de Dios used to go there to convalesce. That year, the Hospice transferred to the
island. The Daughters of Charity have been in charge of this institution since 1865.
Epilogue.
The following phrases which flowered from the pen of Rev. Mackinnon, chaplain of the American troops in
Manila in 1898, are especially fitting: (A, pp. 63-70)
Because in no other part of the world is Christian charity more in bloom and more widespread than in the
Philippines; and the hospitals, the maternity houses, the industrial schools and other like institutions would
bring honor to any nation. Enormous are the sums which each year are expended for charity.
 Chapter 6

Faith and Customs; Sacramental Life;

Other Religious and Liturgical Practices
14. Faith and Customs.
The methods used by the Spanish missionaries to teach the doctrines of the faith to the Filipinos can be
reduced to five: catechism, preaching, printing of catechetical books, schools, and examinations.
Catechism. Obviously, the missionaries themselves had to teach catechism in the beginning. But they
were too few for the numerous pagans and neophytes, and they soon had to make use of catechists.
Chosen for the purpose by the missionaries, the catechists were of every age, sex and condition, as can be
gathered from the histories that mention examples of mature men, women, or child catechists. This
rather simple method obtained quite surprising results. Father Chirino writes:
It is a general custom in all the mission villages in the Philippines, for all the people to go on Sundays
and days of obligation to the Church for the Mass and sermon, before which the doctrine and catechism
are recited. As a result of this, they not only have a thorough knowledge of the prayers, but even excel
many people of Europe in their comprehension of the mysteries of our Faith.9
More or less similar results were attained by the other religious orders. One of the obstacles that
hindered the progress of religious instruction was the dispersion of the people in numerous ranches,
which were reached only with difficulty by the missionary. The provinces of Central Luzon were better off
than the rest of the Islands because of better education and training in religion, even though the poorer
and more remote provinces did not lag far behind, like Samar and Cagayan which were administered by
the Jesuits and Dominicans respectively.
Preaching. According to the decrees of the Council of Trent, it was the duty of the minister to preach the
divine word to the faithful on Sundays and feast days. In the Dominican missions, preaching was in the
native dialects during all the feasts of the year, the Sundays of Advent and of Lent, and the first Sundays
of the month. Some missionaries preached on other days also. It seems that this was true in the
ministries of the other religious orders. According to Murillo 10, the Society of Jesus exercised a faithful
apostolate of the pulpit in Manila around the middle of the 18 th century. Besides sermons on the feasts of
the religious founders, they also preached on other endowed feasts, and were regular preachers at the
cathedral and the Royal Chapel. They conducted missions to new migrants in Manila, quite numerous at
the time, and frequently left for mission tours throughout the provinces.
Catechetical Books. The first missionaries soon saw the need to prepare catechisms if they hoped to
spread the Gospel faster. The first catechisms appeared in 1593: one in Spanish and Tagalog (in European
and Tagalog scripts), the second in Chinese characters. Both are entitled Doctrina cristiana.

9 Blair and Robertson, The Philippine Islands, XII.

10 Spanish Jesuit Father Pedro Murillo Velarde (1696–1753). He is best known for his Carta Hydrographica y Chorographica de las Islas
Filipinas (or the Murillo Velarde map) which he made and published in Manila in 1734, and now frequently referred to as the
Mother of all Philippine Maps.
Other catechisms followed, more detailed and better written: In 1610, the Doctrina cristiana de Belarmino en
lengua visaya appeared in print. In 1621, an Ilocano translation of Cardinal Bellarmine’s catechism was
published. And, one after another, the following were published: Catecismo y doctrina cristiana en lengua
pampanga by Father Francisco Coronel for the use of Pampangos (1621); Explicacion de la doctrina cristiana in
Tagalog by Father Alfonso de Santa Ana (1628); Explicacion del catecismo by Father Francisco Blancas, written
earlier but published only in 1645; Explicacion de la doctrina cristiana in Bicol (1708); Catecismo del Cardenal Belarmino
en idioma pampango by Father Juan de Medrano (1717); and finally, a Tagalog-Spanish catechism prepared by
Father Tomas Ortiz and published in 1740. On commission by the Council of Manila held in 1771, some
Fathers prepared a lengthy catechism which is still preserved in manuscript. Besides these early
catechisms, many others were written and published, especially throughout the 19th century, which
would be too long to list here.
Schools. The role of schools in religious instruction could not be hidden from the first missionaries. This is
why they sought to establish two schools in every town if possible, one for boys and another for girls. The
method generally followed in these schools was, according to a document of 1698:
With regard to teaching, the townspeople recite the prayers and the questions and answers of the
catechism on all Sundays of the year. Besides, the boys and girls have their special day in the week for
gathering for prayers in the Church. After the prayers, the religious missionary poses some questions
regarding the prayers. He then proceeds to explain them, so that the people grow in understanding of
the mysteries of our holy Faith. For some three months of the year when they are least occupied, the
boys and girls come together for Mass and prayers, so that by their contact with the missionary and with
one another, they gradually lose their old fierceness and learn urbanity. On this matter, there is notable
progress among them. No little help has come from the schools in the towns, where they are taught to
read, write, add sums, sing and play any musical instrument. Many times, the teachers are the religious
missionaries themselves.11
Examinations. These were a powerful and rather effective means by which the Filipinos were kept from
neglecting the study of the catechism. They were wont to be held in Lent as a necessary condition to
fulfill the Paschal precept and, for the engaged, before contracting Matrimony. The preparatory schema
of the 1771 Council of Manila included a proposal to hold a general examination
of the faithful three times during the year.
Errors and Superstitions.
During the period we are studying, there were no heresies in the Philippines, thanks, in so far as the
Spaniards were responsible, to their deep faith and orthodoxy and to the vigilance of the Tribunal of the
Inquisition. The Filipinos, practically cut off from the external world, obedient to the voice of their pastors,
did not even think of following in matters of faith paths other than those traced by the first missionaries.
Nonetheless, within the three centuries of this long past, certain errors sprouted all over the Islands, born
out of credulity and ignorance, and an infinitude of superstitions. How the religious toiled to eradicate
from the Filipino people many of their superstitions cannot be told; suffice it to say that their success was
limited because these superstitions were rooted in traditions long and deeply pagan. Furthermore, those
zealous apostles were faced with the reserve of the Filipino to reveal his beliefs and superstitious
practices.
As late as 1771, as recorded in the preparatory schema of the Council and in other contemporary sources,
the Filipinos still believe in the nono, to

11 Relacionque el vicario provincial de Manila, Orden de Predicadores hace a ntro. revmo. P. Maestro General, Fr. Antonio Cleche del estado
de toda esta provincial, etc.
whom they offered foods, from whom they begged leave to fell logs or cut bamboo, or asked for its
excuse if they had been ordered to the task by the Father (parish priest). This practice was still in vogue
even when Mr. John Bowring visited the Philippines in the 19th century.
They also believed in the existence of an evil genius, Tigbalang, who they thought was wont to appear in
various shapes appropriate to bring them favors. Likewise, they erroneously believed in the spirit
Patianac, who approached at the moment of birth, and, ensconced in a tree or object, intoned something
like the rowers’ chant. On the other hand, the witch Gauay caused a charm and sickness known as
Bonsol, which she alone could cure.
Together with these beliefs, their Baptismal faith was mixed with errors about the Trinity, the Incarnation,
the Redemption, and the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Saints. Many gave divine honors to Mary which
they refused to her Son whom they did not consider as a true God. Others affirmed that the three divine
Persons were not equal; that Christ had been born of Joseph and Mary; that He really died each year on
Good Friday. There were some who considered the Saints as gods; and some who thought that the
punishment of hell was not eternal, and that an implicit faith in all the mysteries of the Christian religion
sufficed for salvation.
There were others who carried around talismans as a protection against injury in war, believing that the
bullets or the enemy blades would not hurt them. Nor would they learn their lesson, when hard reality
proved the contrary. But this was not exclusive to the Filipino people, as history shows.
Abuses.
Upon their arrival in the Philippines, the Spaniards found three evils which demanded prompt and
efficacious remedy, officially at least: usury, drunkenness, and impurity.
Usury. According to Father Chirino’s account, the interest charged by money lenders became so high as
the payment was delayed, such that in the end all the material goods of the debtor did not suffice to
liquidate the amount owed; and in this case he ended up becoming a slave of his creditor. And the
children followed the lot of the father. But with the preaching of the Gospel, usury zealously combatted
by the missionaries seemed to disappear for a time, only to reappear later. In the 18 th century, it was
again widespread according to Archbishop Martinez de Arizala:
Likewise among the Indios, it is said that usury is practiced (and would that it stay confined to them
only). An Indio scarcely lends to his neighbor and brother a real or any other coin unless with usury. If he
lends a cavan of rice, which is half a fanega, to one in need during the rainy season, it is with the agreement
that it has to be paid with two or three cavans, no matter what the price of rice is at harvest time. If the
cavan costs 3 reales and it is loaned, it is on condition that it be paid at 5 or 6 reales a cavan. But the greater
offense is committed against God in their loans. A poor Indio in straits because of illness or a debt for
which they would imprison him, or a burial or wedding which he could not afford, exchanges two
cabalitas of land for P10. This land stays in the hands of the man who gave the money.
Alcoholism. Exercising tyranny over the Filipinos, according to ancient chronicles, alcoholism lost much of its
force with the coming of the Gospel. But it left deep imprints in places. Bishop Miguel Garcia expresses
himself in rather strong terms in a pastoral letter dated 26 April 1768 against the abuse, apparently
widespread in his diocese. People normally fell into this vice during banquets, especially wedding feasts.
Impurity. As a general rule, the first chroniclers spoke in unflattering terms about the observance of
chastity among the pagan Filipinos, including the women of those times. However, some have not failed
to find praiseworthy examples of women in this delicate matter. There is no doubt that Christianity
contributed
 much to elevate the standards of chastity, especially of the feminine sex. But we must also attribute
certain opposite practices to chastity, at the arrival of Christianity, to paganism which does darken the
mind and enervate the will in this matter. Father Casimiro Diaz writes these lines on Filipino chastity in
the 18th century:
Those who do not know describe the Indios as quite lewd, but I describe them as very chaste. If we
Europeans were raised in the lack of restraint and manners of these poor people, we would see
abominable things. It is useless to paint their nakedness, their way of living, their cramped houses, for I
write of people before whom everything is open. And yet, we must praise their self- control, praise what
they do not perform, be not scandalized at what they do. The remedy is not easy, because this whole
disorder is due to their poverty. But something might be done, if within the narrow walls of their houses,
some partition is put up by which, even if they could not be totally set apart, they could be stopped from
seeing [things], the window through which misfortune is led in.12
Historians also vary with regard to modesty, the wall of chastity. In general, almost all have words of
praise for the modesty of the Filipino woman, including the Visayans who have been branded as less
restrained in matters of chastity. In olden times was a custom which still exists, namely, parents allowing
their children to go around totally naked. But again, let us listen to Father Diaz:
They allow their children to move about undressed until they are about 8 or 10 years old, and even
12 in the remote provinces. This unwholesome training is not too much of a problem since in this
young age there is still little danger to chastity, although they get used to doing without clothes.
This is the reason why, as adults, they remove not indeed all of their clothes and stay completely
naked, but most of them.
Blasphemy. Another defect of Filipinos which the historians criticized is that of blasphemy, or the sin of
profanity, the irreverent use of the name of God, of Mary, or of the Saints. This is not as indecent as in
Europe, but rather consisted in complaints against God.
Games. One kind of entertainment has attracted the Filipinos and seemingly, instead of dying out, has
grown in its appeal: betting. Before, they used to play cards or dice, even the women. So taken up
were they by this diversion that frequently they lost all their fortunes in a short while. From this
recreation other evils ensued, like cursing, pauperism, cheating, and the neglect of wives, sons and
daughters. Both civil and ecclesiastical powers tried by various means to eradicate this social and
spiritual evil, but without success, as Father Jose Burillo, O.P., provincial, affirmed in a memorial to the
king in 1803. The gobernadorcillos and other administrators of justice were themselves the first to give
the bad example.
Cockfighting. Another custom, as abusive if not more so, was cockfighting. In one or another place, in
order that these cocks might fight more energetically, they used to feed them with the consecrated
host, and hone up the blade in consecrated oils, as the Council of Manila complained.
The Tribunal of the Inquisition.
The preceding account of errors against the Faith leads us, as if by hand, to a discussion of the tribunal
of the Inquisition set up in Spain and in the Spanish dominions to protect the unity and purity of the
Catholic faith. Almost from the beginning, there was a Commissariat of the Holy Office in Manila
appointed by the Tribunal of Mexico and in the charge of a Dominican Father. Under the latter were
other commissariats in Cagayan, Pangasinan, Camarines, Cebu, Ilocos, and Negros Island.
From the time of Father Juan de Maldonado, first Commissar of the Holy Office, the Order of Preachers
12 Diaz, Casimiro, O.S.A., Parroco de Indios instruido, Manila, 1745.
exercised a monopoly of this office, except for a short interval of seven years (1664-1671) when the
Augustinian Fray Jose de Paternina requested and obtained the appointment. But it was with such bad
grace that he finally lost the title through a decision of the Holy Office of Mexico City. He had figured
prominently in the imprisonment of Governor Diego Salcedo.
The Tribunal of the Inquisition did not exercise jurisdiction over the natives and the Chinese, but only over
Europeans and Spaniards. When a native committed some crime against faith and morals, his case fell
under the competence of the local ordinary. not of the Inquisition. (A, pp. 138-146)

15. Sacramental Life.

Baptism.
Profiting from Magellan’s experience, the Augustinians who came with Legaspi proceeded with extreme
care before admitting the natives to Christian Baptism. But when missionaries started to arrive in greater
numbers, they began to admit neophytes for Baptism with greater ease, even at times with little
preparation. Father Aduarte mentions some itinerant missionaries who had traversed Bataan before the
coming of the Dominicans and had baptized many people; but with so little instruction and so precipitately
that some of the baptized had returned right away to the practices of paganism, while others presented
themselves as Christians when it suited their interests. By the 18th century, certain abuses with regard to
Baptism had already crept in, such as delaying the ceremony for a long time in order to assure one of a
good sponsor or compadre, or to accumulate funds for the Baptismal banquet.
In that century, certain errors were also widespread; e.g. the idea that Baptism was a practice only of
Spaniards; that of receiving the sacrament twice or thrice, thinking that the baptized would receive a
greater increase of grace; that the grace of the sacrament was in proportion to the greater or lesser degree
of virtue of the minister; the change or corruption of names, in the superstitious belief that the evil spirit
would no longer recognize them if they assumed another name.
There were not lacking those who affirmed that the fetus was not yet endowed with a rational soul.
These beliefs were born of ignorance and of deep-rooted habits of paganism.
A practice incidentally connected with Baptism preoccupied the clergy at the time: the custom quite
universal in the Philippines of circumcision. Some natives, either for sexual reasons or to avoid sterility,
submitted themselves to this Jewish custom probably brought to the islands by the Moslems in the south.
Another problem that demanded the attention of the Council of Manila in 1771 was the rather
widespread use of Baptismal formulae in the native dialects without the proper episcopal approval, so
that the ceremony in certain cases was invalidated by a faulty translation. On this account, the council
provided that the bishop in their diocesan synod should oversee the translation of the adopted formulae
with the advice of experts in order to insert them in the catechisms and give them permanence.
Confirmation.
Because of long vacancies and poor means of transport especially during the rainy season, and above all
the vast extent of the diocese, it was not normal for a bishop to visit the people of his bishopric to confer
the sacrament of Confirmation. And so, there were places like the provinces of Laguna, Samar and Leyte
where, according to historians, there had been no Confirmation for 20 years. However, the bishops of the
19th century habitually made their pastoral visitations, with more frequency in the past.
Confession.
The administration of this sacrament did not cease being a problem to the first missionaries, who were
faced, first with the difficulty of the language and, second with the repugnance of the natives.
The first obstacle they quickly overcame by the composition of bilingual Confesionarios. These were a rather
detailed list of the more common sins, followed by a brief exhortation. They also neutralized the native
repugnance to confess by having the more experienced Christians in town to approach the confessional
first, and of course through patience and prayer.
If we have to take the word of the chroniclers as authoritative as Aduarte and Rivadeneira 13, the first
Filipino Christians confessed their sins more correctly and exactly. Later, through the 18 th and 19th
centuries, one can note a definite decadence of the practice, as evidenced by the acts of the Council of
Manila (1771) and the Synod of Calasiao (1773) and other documents. Doubtless this decadence was
helped by the cooling off of the initial enthusiasm of the missionaries and the increase of population.
In the acts of the Dominican Provincial Chapters, the reader frequently finds a special enactment
governing the Confessions of women and encomenderos. In the mind of those religious, a certain
maturity was needed for the Confessions of the first penitents, and special gifts of learning and virtue to
hear those of the second. According to the esquema preparatorio of the Council of Manila, the bishops
had to assign prudent and experienced priests to hear the Confession of lawyers and merchants,
government officials and priests.
In general, one notes in these conciliar acts a tendency towards rigorism, contrary to the probabilism
quite in vogue during that age. In a pastoral letter on Confession written in 1776, Archbishop Sancho
showed an inclination to rigorism also, especially since the Jesuits, considered by many as the defenders
of the opposite moral views, had left the field open to him.
Quite common in the past was the practice of distributing cedulas of Confession to the penitents so that,
duly certified and signed, they could be presented for reception of the Paschal Communion. And yet
some were able to arrange to obtain false certificates despite the vigilance of the parish priests, and with
these they received Communion in another parish. Another abuse helped to deter the natives from
Lenten Confessions. When they confessed, they had to pay three reales of the Sanctorum, known as
Ambagan. However, this abuse seems to have been limited to Manila only and the suburbs, while in the
provinces this collection was the charge of the gobernadorcillos and cabezas de barangay.
In the Philippines, the time to fulfill the paschal precepts was ordinarily from Septuagesima Sunday to the
feast of Corpus Christi. In the 19th century, the parish priests, especially in the archdiocese of Manila,
were permitted to extend the period if necessary.
The Holy Eucharist.
If the first missionaries proceeded with extreme caution in admitting neophytes to Baptism and
Confession, we may be excused if we say that they would exercise even greater care before allowing
them to receive Holy Communion, since this is a mystery so sublime and so far above human
understanding. They were guided by the following words of the provincial council of Lima:

13 Dominican friar Diego Aduarte (1570–1636) and Franciscan friar Marcelo Rivadeneira (1560?–1610)

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 The Holy Synod commands the parish priests and the other preachers of the Indios that they
instruct them seriously and frequently in the faith of this mystery…. But to those whom the parish
priest shall judge to be properly taught and are ready by a reform of their lives, he shall not omit to
minister the Eucharist at least during the paschal season.
According to Aduarte, the method which the missionaries in Cagayan province followed was this:
They gathered the better Christians of the town, and eight days before Communion they gave them
a kind of a retreat. There were daily conferences, and they rose at midnight for the discipline and
mental prayer. During this time some lived in their houses, others in the convento. When
Communion day came, they went to Confession quite early; then they returned home to take a
bath and put on their best clothes. It is not surprising, then, that these small groups, carefully
chosen and trained, matured into souls of deep interior life, especially the women, to the great joy
and wonder of the missionaries.
This fervor cooled off much later. Furthermore, according to evidence from the Council of Manila, certain
errors in the 18th century sprang up which tainted the faith of the Filipino people in this principal
sacrament. For example, some believed that no one may spit or bathe himself or eat meat for three days
before Holy Communion. Some believed that one should fast starting the day before taking the
Eucharistic bread, and others that no one should fast on the day of Communion itself lest Jesus Christ
suffer hunger. The same council also called attention to the excessive display in dress and jewelry of
certain women when they received Communion.
Viaticum and Extreme Unction for the Sick.
By the end of the 18th century, there was no lack of the faithful who departed this world without the last
sacraments, as was noted by the Synod of Calansiao.
Another serious problem preoccupied the governors, bishops, provincials and missionaries in the doctrinas for
a long time: this was the custom of carrying the sick to the churches to have the Viaticum ministered to
them there. Anda listed this as the 16th of the friars’ abuses. The Council of Manila and the Synod of
Calasiao raised their authoritative voice against a similar practice. For their part, the religious were not
totally wrong when they alleged in their defense the fact that given the great distances and the minimal
and inefficient means of transportation in those days, it would soon exhaust the few missionaries then
available if it was the latter who went out to administer the sacrament to the sick. Such a practice, which
we could call a necessary evil, began in the 17th century, lasted through the 18th, and died out in the 19th
when there was an increase of missionary personnel and roads and other means of travel somewhat
improved.
Matrimony.
Engagement. There were two kinds of engagement among the Filipinos in the 18th century: private and
public. The first consisted in a mutual pledge between the future spouses made secretly and without
witnesses. To enter an engagement publicly, the father of the groom, accompanied by his son and invited
guests, went to the girl’s house and, in the presence of the young couple who sat in silence, the fathers of
both parties closed the agreement. If the future couple presented no difficulty, they were considered in
agreement, and the formalized engagement was considered obligatory in conscience.
Dowry. It was a pre-Christian custom in the Philippines for the groom to buy his future wife. But

page 53
despite the efforts of both civil and ecclesiastical authorities, once they realized its malice, they were able
to do practically nothing against it.
Bride Service. Bride service meant for the suitor working for the parents of the bride for a certain time,
sometimes for years, in order to obtain their consent to espouse her. On occasion, the prospective groom
lived and slept in the house of his fiancée. With this freedom quite frequently not disapproved by the
parents, it happened that the boy could have, and actually had in some cases, illicit relations with the girl,
and sometimes with her sisters, cousins, nieces. From these relations with the girl’s proximate relatives,
the impediment of affinity resulted which occasioned invalid marriages if not discovered on time.
Another bad effect was this: tired of the services of the young man, the girl’s parents just dismissed him
without any recompense for the work he had done. And so it frequently happened that the woman lost
her virginity, and her suitor the fruit of his efforts.
About a hundred years after the conquest, Archbishop Camacho stood up against this abuse with all the
characteristic energy in him. But even with the backing of Governor Fausto Cruzat who forbade it in
Ordinance 46 of the Ordenanzas de buen gobierno, and of Governor Domingo Zabalburu who decreed a
penalty of 50 lashes for timauas (commoners) and social ostracism for the upper classes, nothing was
accomplished in their time. In the middle of the 18th century, Archbishop Pardo de Arizala resumed the
fight against the practice, with the same negative result. This abuse, deeply rooted and as zealously
combated, could not but call the attention of the Fathers at the Council of Manila. Some authors still
wrote about it in the middle of the 19th century, as Father Jose Fuixa and the English traveler John
Bowring.
Consent. In case the parents irrationally refused to consent to their children’s marriage, the Governor-
General of the Philippines could supply for this defect and give his approval, provided the provincial or
municipal magistrate of the interested party drew up the legal instrument at the instance of the approval
of the parish priest. However, the Chinese mestizos did not have to obtain parental consent to marry once
they reached puberty.
Dispensation from Consanguinity and Kinship to the 3rd or 4th Degree. Among the various privileges which Rome
granted to the natives of the Philippines, the most significant was the dispensation from the impediment
of consanguinity and kinship in the 3rd or 4th degree, by which they could marry second cousins without any
dispensation. Pope Paul III granted this favor in his famous bull Altitudo divini consilii signed on 1 June
1537. Because doubts followed on the validity of this privilege due to the use by the Pontiff of the word
“neophyte,” other popes (Clement IX in 1669, Alexander VIII in 1690) extended it to Christians baptize in
infancy. And yet, the sacred congregation had declared in 1618 that the privilege of Paul III did not include
cuarterones or puchueles, i.e. mestizos who were one- fourth or one-eighth Indio. And so, the Spaniards or
children of Spanish- born in the Philippines were held by the common law, just as the cuarterones or
puchueles.
Solemnizing the Marriage. On this matter, there have been various abuses in the past. One was the
afternoon celebration of marriage in church, behind closed doors, putting off till next morning the nuptial
blessing. From this, it happened that some lived as married persons before receiving the nuptial blessing.
Embarrassment in affirming publicly the marriage contract led to this abuse. This also explains why
ministers objected to the reception of Communion by the couple at the time of the blessing next morning.
The Council of Manila complained of other excesses against the sanctity of marriage, like wedding
banquets, dancing and drinking to excess, which proved to be a seed ground for sin, especially when these
were in barrios or rural areas.
Marriage of the Chinese. The marriage between Chinese and Filipinos was an occasion for unending problems
for Church authorities in the Philippines. Since the Chinese had to be baptized as a prerequisite for
marriage, they received the sacrament with mixed intentions. To obviate this, a royal decree in 1849
ordered the Chinese who wished to contract marriage in the Philippines to present before the
government:
a) his Baptismal certificate; b) the written consent of the parents or guardians of his future wife; c)
an affidavit that his name had been included in the padron or census list of Christians for more than
two years. He also had to certify six years’ residence in the country, his good conduct all this while,
and a testimony from the parish priest that he had been instructed in Christian doctrine. Once
married according to this form, the Chinese needed the express consent of his spouse in order to
return to his country. It had frequently happened that once there, the husband did not return to the
wife left in the Philippines. In view of so much difficulty, many unbaptized Chinese preferred to live
in open concubinage with Filipino women, with no Church intervention. For this reason, in the
middle of the 19th century Father Manuel de Rivas urged the Patronato Real to obtain from the Holy
See a habitual dispensation for disparity of cult for the Chinese, who turned out to be good
husbands though remaining pagans, once they married in the eyes of the Church.

Marriage Because of Piracy. Especially in the second half of the 18th century, it often happened that Moslems
would carry off one or the other of a married couple and the remaining partner wanted to marry a second
time. In this case, the Church authorities through the acts of the Council of Manila warned parish priests
never to allow this before the death of the departed spouse had been proven beyond doubt.

Marriage to Converted Pagans. With regard to the pagans who had been baptized, the same council urged
both regular and secular ministers never to attempt in any way, without previous investigation, to declare
as invalid their marriage when still unbaptized. And if a pagan who was married to several wives was
converted, he was to retain only the first wife if he still remembered which of them he had married first.
But if he could not recall who was first, he could contract marriage with any of the wives provided there
was no impediment. The question had already been settled by Paul III in the bull Altitudo divini consilii
with respect to the natives of the West and East Indies; but the missionaries, aware of the difficulties
implied if the bull were obeyed to the letter, allowed some time to pass before they enforced on the
neophytes the prescriptions of the Papal document on the matter. However, it is noteworthy that
polygamy was not widespread in the Philippines, although there were some instances among the rich and
in the Visayas. (A, pp. 147-156)

11. Other Religious and Liturgical Practices.

Fast and Abstinence.
Since there was such a variety of races in the Philippines, there was likewise a difference in the
observance of the law of fasting and abstinence. For now, we are interested only in the native-born
Filipinos, the mestizos, and the Europeans or their descendants in the Philippines.
With regard to the Filipinos, suffice it to say that during the Spanish regime they enjoyed a special indult
granted to all the natives of the West and the East Indies through the bull of Pope Paul III Altitudo divini
consilii of 1 June 1537. According to this bull, the law of fasting was binding on the vigils of Christmas and
Easter and the seven Fridays of Lent; the law of abstinence obliged on Ash Wednesday, the following six
Fridays of Lent, Holy Wednesday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, the vigils of Pentecost Sunday, Ascension
Thursday, Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Christmas, and the feasts of Saints Peter and Paul.
Paul III did not include the mestizos in the indult. Doubts naturally came up in time regarding their
obligation to fast and abstain. Until 1852 then, they did not enjoy the privilege granted to the Indios; but
on 3 March of that year, on the petition of Father Francisco Gainza, the above indult was granted to them,
too. According to weighty authors, only mestizos who were half-Indio or more enjoyed this extension. It
was thus not applicable in the case of the children of a European father and a mestizo mother, or vice-
versa.
Philippine residents not included in these categories had to follow the common law of the Church until
1865, when Archbishop Gregorio Meliton of Manila obtained from the Holy See the faculty to extend to all
the inhabitants of the country, regardless of race or nationality, the privilege granted by Paul III to the
Indios, but only with regard to the law of fasting. This extension had to be renewed after a certain number
of years. Furthermore, the clergy had to observe eight additional days of fasting to be designated by the
Metropolitan of the Islands.
Long before this extension of Paul III’s privileges, those who had obtained the bull of the Crusade enjoyed
the privileges with regard to fasting and abstinence granted by the Holy See in this bull to Spanish
subjects.
By papal dispensation, military personnel and their families likewise enjoyed certain added privileges in this
matter.
The “Sanctorum”.
From the first years of the preaching of the Gospel in this country, a religious contribution known as the
“Sanctorum” was approved on the advice and consent of both civil and ecclesiastical authorities. Each
tribute-paying individual was obliged to give one-and-a-half reales when he made his annual Confession.
The fund thus collected was set aside for the solemn celebration of the major feasts of Holy Thursday,
Corpus Christi, and that of the patron saint of each town. This money paid for the wax and the singers,
with the remainder being set aside to cover the deficit of the priest’s stipends and the building expenses
of the church.
In the course of time, some abuses must have crept in, for in 1755 Archbishop Pedro Martinez de Arizala
provided in the arancel he issued with the approval of the Audiencia that the money remaining after
liquidating the expenses of the fiesta should be set aside for the construction of the church. The Royal
Ordinance of 1768 arranged that the collection be in the charge of the alcalde mayor, while the money
was to be deposited in a safe under a triple key: one in the hands of the alcalde, the other in the
minister’s, and the third in the custody of the gobernadorcillo. Previously, the cabeza de barangay made the
collection.
For the sake of truth, we must say that abuses were committed only in the areas around Manila. In the
dioceses of Cebu and Nueva Segovia, the cabezas de barangay, shortly before or after the fiesta, went around
for the collection which they left with the gobernadorcillo, who in turn brought it to the parish priest. The
collectors were exempt from paying, while the gobernadorcillo received some compensation.
This arrangement lasted until the decree of the superior government dated 13 January 1836, which
ordered that cabezas de barangay in the archdiocese of Manila would be charged with the collection of
the “Sanctorum”, and shall directly bring it to the alcalde mayor without the priest’s intervention. On 23
August 1843, Governor Francisco de Paula sought to extend this arrangement, already in force in Manila
and Nueva Caceres, to the diocese of Cebu and Nueva Segovia.
But the bishops begged to leave things in their traditional set-up. Finally, however, on 13 January 1847,
these two dioceses had to follow the system of collecting the “Sanctorum” practiced all over the rest of
the Islands.
Feast Days of Obligation.
In his bull Altitudo divini consilii, Pope Paul III arranged that the natives be obliged to observe the
following feast days besides Sunday: Christmas, the Circumcision, Epiphany, Ascension, Corpus Christi, the
Nativity of our Lady, Annunciation, Purification, Assumption, and the feast of Saints Peter and Paul. The
Holy Father Pius IX in his brief Quum pluris (2 May 1867), which was promulgated in the Philippines by
royal order on 13 August 1877, reduced the number of obligatory feasts for the Spaniards and other
Europeans while the Filipinos continued to enjoy the indult of Paul III. Because of this varied
arrangement—which prescribed as obligatory for Spaniards and not for natives the feasts of Saint James
the Apostle, All Saints, the Immaculate Conception; and obligatory for the natives but not for the
Spaniards the feast of the Nativity of our Lady—the Archbishop of Manila presented through Governor-
General Domingo Moriones a petition before the peninsular government on 17 October 1877 to equalize
the number of feasts, which was granted on 1 January 1878. On 23 November of that year, the
Archbishop published a decree announcing that, despite the reduction by papal brief of the number of
feasts, the feast of Saint Andrew Apostle, 30 November, was still obligatory in the city of Manila, but not
in the suburbs.
Pope Leo XIII proclaimed in his brief Annus iam quintus dated 5 December 1879 the Immaculate
Conception as the patron of the Manila archdiocese. The same pontiff, in his brief Quod paucis dated 28
January 1896 made the feast of Saint Joseph obligatory in Spain and in her overseas dominions.
Decrees of Festal Solemnity.
The feasts of obligation during the Spanish regime were classed according to their “number of crosses.”
Feasts of greater solemnity were feasts of “three crosses.” These were, aside from Sunday, the feast days
already cited as obligatory on Spaniards and natives alike, according to a privilege of Paul III. But there
were other obligatory feasts for the Spaniards, as those of Saint John the Baptist, the Apostles and
Evangelists, Monday and Tuesday of Easter week, Pentecost, the Transfiguration of our Lord, Saint
Lawrence, Saint Michael, All Saints, Saint Martin, Saint Stephen and the Holy Innocents. On these days,
the Spaniards could not force the natives under obligation to serve them to go to work, nor could they be
hindered from hearing Mass, even though by disposition of the Church the natives were not dispensed
from work nor obliged to hear Mass. However, on feasts of “one cross” like that of the Immaculate
Conception and that of Saint Joseph, the Spaniards could oblige the natives to work.
In 18th century Manila, people venerated with special devotion: the Apostle Andrew, patron saint of the
city; Saint Potenciana, patroness of the Islands; Saint Anthony Abbot, Manila’s protector from fires; and
Saint Polycarp, helper against earthquakes. But the feasts which without question stood out above the
rest in solemnity and in the enthusiasm with which the Filipinos celebrated them were the “three feasts”
of Holy Thursday, Corpus Christi, and the titular feast of each town church. The religious celebration of
the feast day used to include solemn vespers, Mass and sermon, and a procession.
The Bull of the Crusade.
The Filipino shared in the privileges granted in the bull of the Crusade, consisting of the opportunity to
win plenary and partial indulgences on fulfillment of certain conditions, besides enjoying the dispensation
from abstinence and from fasting on certain days. In return for these privileges, the faithful gave some
small alms which the Church used for works of charity.
The Use of the Discipline.
Father Chirino relates that around the years 1596-1597, a canon named Diego de Leon who was studying
in the Jesuit college introduced the practice of inviting to the Jesuit church men of different social
standing, in order to take the discipline three times a week, especially during Lent. The natives, attracted
by the penitential practice, lost no time imitating the Spaniards. In time, this spirit of penance lost its
appeal, becoming in many places, according to the Jesuit historian Pedro Murillo Velarde, a mere external
ritual. On the other hand, during the Holy Week processions, many impelled more by fanaticism than by
true devotion, went to extremes of bloody penance.
Deportment Inside the Church.
In the churches in the Philippines, there was this laudable custom, taken doubtless from the primitive
church, of separating the clergy from the laity, and the men from the women. The school children were
assigned a special place under the immediate supervision of their teacher. Sinibaldo de Mas related that
there were three separate sections in the churches: one side for the men, the other for the women, and in
the middle the section for the principales and gobernadorcillos. The preparatory schema for the Council of
Manila contains complaints against the lack of respect for the sacred places, like entering with arms, or
followed by dogs, or with the head covered. For his part, Bishop Miguel Garcia severely inveigled against
the fact that the young girls in Pangasinan entered the church with their heads covered only with a small
handkerchief.
Mass Attendance.
Because of the dispersion of the parishioners through their rice fields, attendance at Mass on Sundays and
holydays of obligation was not as satisfactory as desired. This neglect of the obligation to hear Mass was
helped by the fact that Sunday was also market day in many places. That is why Father Manuel del Rio
could say that native apathy towards Sunday Mass was notorious.
In view of this, this same priest instructed the Dominican missionaries to arrange with the
gobernadorcillos so that, at the end of the Mass, they might send officers of the law around to the houses
to punish the guilty and negligent. In other places, the fiscalillos were charged with seeing that the people
in the town go to Mass.
After the Mass and sermon, the people remained in the church to recite the rosary, repeat the Christian
doctrine, and pray the Acts of Faith, Hope and Charity.
Public Recitation of the Canonical Hours with the People.
The canonical hours were nothing strange to the Filipinos, since the missionaries had taught them to join
the first and second vespers of Sundays and the more solemn feasts. In general, it was the chanters who
sang them while the people, especially the children, just listened. In certain areas, the school children
recited or chanted the vespers of the Little Office. Matins were sung on Christmas Eve, in the last three
days of Holy Week, and on Easter Sunday. For the greater solemnity of the liturgy, parishes with more
than 500 tributes (about 2,000 souls) had eight cantores (chanters) paid by the government or from local
Church funds. In parishes with less tributes, there were only four chanters.
Misa de Aguinaldo.
The name “Misa de Aguinaldo” which is traditionally given to the Mass said in many churches of the
Philippines at dawn during the nine days previous to Christmas, was added, just like the Saturday votive
Mass in honor of the Virgin Mary, for the preservation of the Catholic Church in these Islands. Monsignor
Felipe Pardo forbade them in obedience to a decree of the Sacred Congregation dated 16 February 1677;
but later the same congregation approved it in a decree of 24 January 1682, and since then this Mass has
continued to be said until now.

Holy Week Observance

The Holy Week liturgy was held in the town, or at least in a visita which was as big as a población, in
which case it was alternately held first in one and then in the other. The liturgy that stands out especially
is the solemn chanting of the Tenebrae (Matins and Lauds). On Holy Thursday, the parish priest prepared
a dinner for 12 poor men, at the end of which he washed their feet, assisted by the principales and the
officials of the town.
In some places, there was a tradition of staging the “descent from the cross,” followed by solemn
Tenebrae in the afternoon of Good Friday. Against this, however pious as it may seem, both the Council of
Manila and the Synod of Calasiao raised a voice of disapproval, because it occasioned for many of the
faithful the erroneous belief that Christ really died each Good Friday. Instead, the Synod suggested that
the parish priest preach a “fervent and touching” sermon, which was to be followed by the procession of
sacred burial. In time, certain abuses led to the diminishing of the solemnity and pomp of the Holy
Week liturgy, as for example the use of penitential garb, self-flagellation inside the church or in the
streets, the presentation of profane dramas inside the church or in the cemeteries.
During the Easter Sunday procession, it was customary at least in the diocese of Nueva Segovia for the
women to carry the image of the Blessed Virgin. Due to the difficulty in uprooting this custom, the Synod
of Calansiao counselled that at least the bearers of the image should be satisfied with ordinary decent
clothes. (A, pp. 157-164)
 Chapter 7

Exemplars of Virtue and Sanctity

17. Exemplars of Virtue and Sanctity.
From the earliest times of evangelical preaching, there have been many flowers of virtue and sanctity
borne or nurtured in this Pearl of the Orient, among religious and laymen, foreigners and natives, from all
states of life and social conditions, souls from Europe or America, experienced in the ways of perfection or
natives who matured under their direction.
Models of Virtue Among the Religious.
Love of the Eucharist and the Devout Celebration of the Mass. Among the devotees of the Blessed Sacrament,
Archbishop Miguel Garcia Serrano,O.S.A. of Manila deserves a special place. He worked as much as he could
to honor the Sacrament. Towards the end of 1628, an unknown thief stole the pyx from the cathedral
with the Sacred Species. The Archbishop undertook so rigorous a penance in reparation for the attempted
sacrilege that he died on the feast of Corpus Christi, 14 June 1629.
Charity Towards the Natives. We cannot deny that some religious in the past treated the natives haughtily,
as though the latter were an inferior race—a common enough defect of the white race. Not so the Jesuit
Father Melchor de Vera (+1646), “a man noted for his love towards the Indios, whom he loved with such
tender affection that exceeded a mother’s love for her children. He helped them in their necessities and
sufferings, and when he could not help, cried with compassion for them. And so, when he moved from
one town to another, he left weeping and crying.
Of the same temperament was the Franciscan Juan de Vandela (+1599). Father Martinez says of him: “If
the work was plentiful, he sent them (referring to the lay Brothers of his religious order) to their rest, and
he undertook to finish the work himself. The same thing he did with the natives in their work in the farm;
and when they were building some houses, he used to go and help or relieve them of their labor.”
According to Father Murillo Velarde, it was the opinion of some that only by means of the cane and the
whip could one govern the natives of these islands. Of this mind for a time was Juan de Ballesteros
(+1646), later a Jesuit lay Brother until, warned in an extraordinary manner, he changed his attitude so
much that for the rest of his life—adds the same historian—he was the “physician of the natives’ ills, rest
in their labors, and comfort in their sorrows. He settled their grievances, reconciled their disagreements,
attracted them to the Church, scolded them if they failed in their duties, and urged them to attend
catechism lessons. He advised them on their planting and their housing, and in every way helped them….”
In general, it can be seen in the history of the Philippines that the holier the ministers of religion, the more
charitable, the more loving and more devoted they proved themselves to be towards the natives of the
Islands.
Charity to the Shipwrecked. There were others who gave up their lives for the salvation of souls, as the
Franciscans Francisco de la Concepcion (+1595) and Jeronimo del Espiritu Santo (+1643), and the
Dominican Diego Collado (+1641). They preferred to stay aboard the ships which were about to sink in
order to hear the Confessions of the passengers, although they could have saved themselves easily by
swimming or taking a small boat.
Detachment. The Franciscan chronicles for the first years of the evangelization of the Philippines tell us of
men of noble birth, of merchants and soldiers who gave up their titles of nobility, their primogeniture,
their wealth or their military rank to enter the order of the Poverello of Assisi. There was another kind of
detachment, perhaps of a higher quality than the first, which so many religious practiced. Gifted with keen
minds or abilities of leadership, they opted to come to the Philippines denying themselves fame or the
applause of the world, hiding in a tiny village or, as happened in cases, to die in a shipwreck or of an early
sickness due to the rigorous tropical climate.
Pastoral Zeal. Noteworthy in their zeal for the salvation of souls were, among others: the Dominicans
Pedro Jimenez (+1690), apostle of the Mandayas and Irraya towards the end of the 17th century; and Jose
Gonzalez (+1762), apostle of the Ituys in south Nueva Vizcaya during the fourth decade of the 18th century.
Amid a life of extreme penance, the first was able to overcome the opposition of the pagans,
misunderstanding by his Brothers in the habit, and the inclemency and rigors of the elements, in order to
win souls for Christ. Of the second, Father Elviro Perez says, “It was in 1727 when, assigned by obedience
to bring the light of the Gospel to the mountains of Ituy, he undertook the journey through impassable
forests that served as habitation to so many unfortunate people, whom he converted by force of
persistent effort, wisdom and missionary activity, no less than by his rough penances, burning love and
total selflessness, and especially by a heroic patience and holy resignation to suffer the inclemencies of
weather, and by his daring to face all dangers without stepping back or losing heart before any kind of
work or difficulty.”
Mysticism.
For the many souls in the Philippines, there was no lack of that food “of those heavenly delights with
which even on earth sanctity abounds” (Ancient Breviary of the Order of Preachers, Reading for the second
Nocturn for 15 October). We shall mention only a few of the several examples of those who received
extraordinary graces and favors.
Among the women founders of religious institutes or schools, the following were shining examples of
holiness: Mother Jeronima de la Asuncion (+1630), foundress of the monastery of Santa Clara, a woman
favored with the gift of miracles and prophecy; Sor Ignacia del Espiritu Santo (+1748), foundress of the
Beatas de la Compania de Jesus; and Paula de la Santisima Trinidad (+1782), foundress of the Colegio de
Santa Rosa.
The laity also had worthy representatives in this gallery of virtuous people, like Governor Luis Perez
Dasmariñas (+1603), a profound mystic; and above all, during the 18th century, many individuals of noble
birth or high military rank, or even merchants, were able to reconcile their earthly business with heroic
virtue.
We frequently hear today of charisms. These are none other than extraordinary gifts which God grants to
certain souls for the spiritual good of one’s neighbor and the edification of the Church. One of these
charisms is the “gift of tongues” which God granted the apostles and, more rarely in recent times, to
preachers and missionaries. Among others in the Philippines, the Augustinian Father Alonso Jimenez
(+1577), first apostle to Masbate, Leyte and Burias, received it. Of course, we do not mean by this that a
missionary in speaking Spanish was perfectly understood by his native hearers as though he had spoken in
their own tongue; but rather an aid, a special help which the Holy Spirit communicated to some of the first
apostles of these islands to learn with surprising ease the dialects of the country. It was a wonder to see
how, with such insufficient means, men often of mature age came to master one or more dialects in a
short time, so much so that they immediately wrote grammars and dictionaries. (A, pp. 165-176)
 Holy Filipinos and Non-Filipinos Who Lived and/or Died in the Philippines During the Spanish Era.
Over the centuries, a growing list of holy Filipinos, as well as non-Filipinos who lived and/or died in the
Philippines, have already been or are being considered by the Catholic Church for canonization,
beatification, or its preliminary stages. Most of them are from the 20th century onward, but a few are
from the Spanish Era.
Saint Lorenzo Ruiz, the first Filipino saint, a married layman and a martyr of faith, was canonized by Pope
John Paul II in 1987. Twenty-five years later, Saint Pedro Calungsod, another Filipino martyr-saint, was
canonized by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012. Blessed José María de Manila, a Spaniard born in Manila, was
beatified in 2013. Blessed Iustus Takayama Ukon, a Japanese daimyō who was expelled from Japan for his
Christian faith and who died in Manila, was beatified in 2017.
a) Canonized.
Saint Lorenzo Ruiz (ca. 1600–1637), Married Layman of the
Archdiocese of Manila; Member of the Confraternity of the Rosary;
Martyr (Manila, Philippines–Nagasaki, Japan)
● Declared Venerable: 11 October 1980
● Beatified: 18 February 1981, by Saint John Paul II
● Canonized: 18 October 1987, by Saint John Paul II
Saint Lorenzo Ruiz was born in Binondo, Manila, to a Chinese father and a Filipino mother who were both Catholic. He was
married to Rosario, a native, and they had two sons and a daughter. In 1636, whilst working as a clerk for the Binondo Church,
Ruiz was falsely accused of killing a Spaniard. Ruiz sought asylum on board a ship with three Dominican priests, a Japanese
priest, and a lay leper. Ruiz and his companions sailed for Okinawa on 10 June 1636 with the aid of the Dominican Fathers. The
Tokugawa Shogunate was persecuting Christians at the time Ruiz and his companions arrived in Japan. They were arrested and
thrown into prison, and after two years were transferred to Nagasaki to face trial by torture. On 27 September 1637, Ruiz and
his companions were taken to Nishizaka Hill where they were tortured by being hung upside-down over a pit, bound with one
hand always left free so that the individual can signal his desire to recant, which would lead to their release. Despite his
suffering, Ruiz refused to renounce Christianity, and died from eventual blood loss and suffocation. According to Latin
missionary accounts sent back to Manila, Ruiz declared these words upon his death: Ego Catholicus sum et animo prompto paratoque
pro Deo mortem obibo. Si mille vitas haberem, cunctas ei offerrem. (I am a Catholic, and wholeheartedly do accept death for God. Had I
a thousand lives, all these to Him shall I offer.)

Saint Pedro Calungsod (1654–1672), Young Layman of the Archdiocese of Cebu; Martyr (Cebu,
Philippines–Tumon, Guam)
 Declared Venerable: 27 January 2000
 Beatified: 5 March 2000, by Saint John Paul II
 Canonized: 21 October 2012, by Pope Benedict XVI
Saint Pedro Calungsod was a Filipino migrant, sacristan and missionary catechist who, along with the Spanish Jesuit missionary
Diego Luis de San Vitores, suffered religious persecution and martyrdom in Guam for their missionary work. In 1668,
Calungsod, then only around 14 years old, was among the exemplary young catechists chosen to accompany Spanish Jesuit
missionaries to the Mariana Islands. While in Guam, calumnies were spread that the Baptismal water used by the missionaries
was poisonous. As some sickly Chamorro infants who were baptized eventually died, many believed the calumny and held the
missionaries responsible. On 2 April 1672, Calungsod and San Vitores came to the village of Tumon where they learnt that the
Christian wife of the village chief Mata'pang had given birth to a daughter.
They immediately went to baptize the child, but Chief Mata'pang, influenced by the calumnies, strongly opposed it. With the
intention of killing the missionaries, Mata'pang went away to enlist others to his plan. But while he was away, San Vitores and
Calungsod baptized the baby girl with the consent of her Christian mother. When Mata'pang learned of his daughter's Baptism,
he became even more furious. He violently hurled spears first at Calungsod, who was able to dodge them. Witnesses claim
that Calungsod could have escaped the attack but did not desert San Vitores. Calungsod was eventually struck in the chest by a
spear, fell to the ground, and was finished off with a machete blow to the head. San Vitores quickly absolved Calungsod before
he, too, was killed.
b) Beatified.
Blessed Iustus Takayama Ukon (Hikogorō Shigetomo) (ca. 1552– 1615),
Layman of the Archdiocese of Tokyo (Nara, Japan–Manila, Philippines)
● Declared Venerable: 21 January 2016
● Beatified: 7 February 2017, by Cardinal Angelo Amato, S.D.B.

Hikogorō Shigetomo was born as the eldest (thus the heir) of six children to Takayama Tomoteru, lord of the Sawa Castle in the
Yamato Province. In 1564 his father converted to Roman Catholicism. Hikogorō was baptized as Justo (or Iustus); however, he is
better known as Takayama Ukon. He married in 1574 and went on to have three sons (two died as infants) and one daughter.
Justo and his father fought through the turbulent age to secure their position as a daimyo, and managed to acquire the Takatsuki
Castle (in Takatsuki, Osaka) under the daimyō Toyotomi Hideyoshi during his rule's earlier times. During Ukon’s domination of
Takatsuki region, several of his subjects converted to the faith under his guiding influence. Eventually, Hideyoshi became hostile
to the Christian faith, and in 1587 ordered the expulsion of all missionaries, and for all Christian daimyōs to renounce their faith.
Ukon proclaimed that he would not give up his faith and would rather give up his land and all that he owned. Then in 1614,
Tokugawa Ieyasu (ruler at the time) prohibited the Christian Faith and expelled Ukon from Japan. On 11 December 1614–with
300 Japanese Christians–he arrived in Manila where he received a warm welcome from the Spanish Jesuits and the local
Filipinos. He died of illness on 3 or 5 February 1615, a mere 40 days after having arrived in Manila.
Upon his death the Spanish government gave him a Christian burial replete with full military honors befitting a daimyō. His
remains were buried in the Jesuit church there, and this made him the only daimyō to be buried on Philippine soil.

Blessed José María de Manila (Eugenio Sanz-Orozco Mortera) (1880- 1936), Professed Priest of the
Franciscan Capuchins; Martyr (Manila, Philippines–Madrid, Spain)
 Declared Venerable: 27 March 2013
 Beatified: 13 October 2013, by Cardinal Angelo Amato, S.D.B.
Blessed José María was born in Manila on 5 September 1880 to Spanish parents. He spent his initial years of education at
Ateneo de Manila University, Colegio de San Juan de Letran, and University of Santo Tomas. He stayed in the Philippines until
he was 16 years old, then pursued further studies in Spain. Despite objections from his parents, José María fulfilled his desire
to become a Capuchin priest. Fr. José María remained a Filipino at heart, desiring to return to the Philippines to serve the local
Church despite the fall of the Spanish East Indies government in 1898 due to the Philippine Revolution and the Spanish-
American War. Since circumstances prevented him from returning to the Philippines, he instead resolved to zealously proclaim
the Gospel in Spain which was still suffering from poverty brought about by the First World War. There was a growing tide of
anti-Catholicism and anticlericalism in Spain then, as critics accused the Church of conspiring with the government to keep the
people poor. Military generals staged an uprising in July 1936 that began the Spanish Civil War. Church properties were seized
and destroyed, and priests and religious were imprisoned and executed. On 17 August 1936, Fr. José María was executed at
the gardens of the Cuartel de la Montaña, a military building in Madrid.
 c) Declared Venerable.
Venerable Mother Jerónima de la Asunción, O.S.C. (1555–1630), Founder of the Royal Monastery of
Saint Clare (Toledo, Spain–Manila, Philippines)
● Declared Venerable: 1734
Jerónima was born in Toledo, Spain to Pedro García e Yánez and Catalina de la Fuente, both of noble lineage. At the age of
fourteen, she met the great Carmelite reformer Teresa of Ávila, O.C.D. after which she felt the calling to monastic life. On 15
August 1570, Jerónima entered the Colettine monastery of Santa Isabel la Real de Toledo where she later occasionally
functioned as mistress of novices. Sister Jerónima learned about the intention of her religious order to establish a monastery
in Manila in the Spanish East Indies, and volunteered to be among this pioneering community. Jerónima was appointed as
foundress and first abbess of the Philippine monastery, the first of its kind to be established in Manila and the entire Far East.
Mother Jerónima's journey began in April 1620; she was already 66 years old at that time. From Toledo, they travelled
through Spain, crossed the Atlantic Ocean, traveled through Mexico, and crossed the Pacific Ocean for the Philippines,
reaching Intramuros on 5 August 1621 (one year, three months and nine days after leaving Toledo). There she founded the
Real Monasterio de Santa Clara, specifically created for “pious Spanish women and daughters of the conquistadors who cannot
marry properly.” During the last thirty years of her life, Mother Jerónima lived in constant illness, and on 22 October 1630 she
died at dawn at the age of 75. For her efforts in establishing the first Catholic monastery in Manila and the Far East, the
Vatican issued an apostolic decree for her beatification in 1734.

Venerable Mother Francisca del Espíritu Santo de Fuentes (1647–1711), Prioress of the
Congregation of the Dominican Sisters of Saint Catherine of Siena (Manila, Philippines)
 Declared Venerable: 5 July 2019
Francísca de Fuentes was born to a Spanish father and a Spanish mestiza mother in Manila around 1647. Francisca grew up to
be a fine lady, and she was given in marriage to a gentleman who died shortly thereafter, leaving her a childless, young widow.
Francísca then dedicated her time to prayer and social service helping many poor and sick in the city. In a vision, she saw Saints
Francis and Dominic, and was moved to be a Dominican. She was admitted as a Tertiary in 1682 with the name Francísca del
Espíritu Santo. In 1686, Francísca and four others requested that they be allowed to live together in a life of prayer and the
practice of the virtues while continuing their social apostolate. This was approved by the Master-General of the Order of
Preachers in Rome in January 1688. On 26 July 1696, the Beaterio de Santa Catalina de Sena de las Hermanas de Penitencia de la
Tercera Orden was formally inaugurated, and Mother Francisca del Espiritu Santo became the prioress for life. After seven years of
fervent existence, scandals began to mar the image of a few of the Spanish beatas who were admitted at the start of the 18th
century. They resented the authority and constant admonitions of Mother Francisca. Defying the rules of the beaterio, they
began to live separately in private homes. The situation stirred up legalistic issues regarding beaterios. Concluding that the
Dominicans had been unable to maintain discipline among the beatas, Archbishop Camacho of Manila claimed jurisdiction over
the institution and insisted on the practice of closure. The Dominican provincial protested that the authority of the Master-
General of their Order was sufficient to justify the existence of the beaterio which enjoyed prior exemption from the closure.
The beatas, upon the advice of their Dominican counselors, refused obedience to the Archbishop, who was left with no other
recourse but to excommunicate them. In January 1704, the beatas chose to dissolve their community and live as a group of
laywomen in exile at the College of Santa Potenciana. Their “Babylonian exile” lasted until April 1706 when the Archbishop
showed pity on them and allowed Mother Francisca and her sisters to return to their original home and don their Dominican
habits again. Francisca del Espíritu Santo Fuentes died on 24 August 1711 and was buried at the chapel of Colegio de San Juan
de Letran. She left behind the Beaterio de Santa Catalina de Siena (Santa Catalina College) which still stands today as the
Congregation of the Dominican Sisters of Saint Catherine of Siena.
Venerable Mother Ignacia del Espiritu Santo de Juco (1663–1748), Founder of the Religious of the Virgin
Mary (Manila, Philippines)
 Declared Venerable: July 6, 2007
The birthdate of Mother Ignacia del Espíritu Santo is not known but is piously celebrated on 1 February 1663 based on the
cultural customs of the Spanish Era; only the record of her Baptism on 4 March 1663 in Manila is preserved. Ignacia was the
eldest and sole surviving child of a Filipina and a Christian Chinese migrant from Amoy, China. Expected by her parents to
marry at 21 years old, Ignacia sought religious counsel from a Jesuit priest. After a period of solitude and prayer, Ignacia
decided to pursue her religious calling to “remain in the service of the Divine Majesty” and “live by the sweat of her brow.”
Ignacia felt strongly against the Spanish law that prohibited native Filipinos from entering the priestly or religious life. The
Spanish Mother Jerónima de la Asunción opened the first convent in the Philippines in 1621, but native girls could not be
admitted. In hopes of changing this racially structured ecclesiastical limitation, Ignacia began to live alone in a vacant house at
the back of the Colegio Jesuita de Manila, the Jesuit headquarters. Her life of public prayer and labor attracted other Filipino
laywomen to live with her, and she accepted them into her company. Though they were not officially recognized as a religious
institute at the time, together they became known as the Beatas de la Virgen María, with Jesuit priests as their spiritual
directors. Eventually, their growing number called for a more stable lifestyle and set of rules or religious constitutions. In 1726,
Ignacia wrote a set of rules for her religious group, finalized constitutions for a congregation, and submitted this to the
Archdiocesan Chancery Office of Manila for ecclesiastical approbation, which was formally granted in 1732. Ignacia, by then 69
years old, resigned as Mother Superior of the order, to live as an ordinary member until her death at 85 on 10 September
1748. She died on her knees after receiving Holy Communion at the altar rail of the old Jesuit Church of San Ignacio in
Intramuros.

Venerable Mother Isabel Larrañaga Ramírez (Isabel of the Heart of Jesus)

(1836–1899), Founder of the Sisters of Charity of the Sacred Heart of
Jesus (Manila, Philippines–Havana, Cuba)
● Declared Venerable: 26 March 1999
Venerable Isabel Ramirez was born in Manila on 19 November 1836, to the Military Governor of Manila at that time and his
wife of Spanish descent from Lima, Peru. After her father died in 1838, her mother returned to Spain with her family. In 1855,
Isabel accompanied her mother and brother to Lima where the eighteen-year-old Isabel became a teacher and engaged in
charity work. Seven years later, she and her mother went back to Spain and resided in Madrid. From a young age, she felt the
vocation to religious life born in her soul, but she always found strong opposition from her mother who, although very
Christian, could not stand the idea of separating from her beloved daughter. Eventually, on 2 February 1877, at the mature age
of 40, along with three other companions she made her consecration to the Lord and opened a Spirituality House in Madrid. At
the beginning, they constitute an Association or Pious Union of Slave Ladies of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, dedicated to this work
of the Spiritual Exercises. Later, she guided her work in a special and priority way towards the educational field. With generous
devotion and endearing love for children and the youth, she opened colleges and boarding schools in Spain and in Cuba. In
1883, her Pious Union was consolidated as a religious congregation. In 1894, Mother Isabel sent a religious expedition to Cuba
in spite of the delicate political situation then. During her second trip to Cuba, she suffered from heart problems which were
aggravated by sufferings from the ongoing war, which eventually led to her death on 17 January 1899. She left a flourishing
institute that, after her death, has extended to Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Peru, and Chile.
Venerable Mother Consuelo Barceló y Pages, O.S.A. (1857–1940), Cofounder of the Augustinian Sisters of
Our Lady of Consolation (Barcelona, Spain–Manila, Philippines)
● Declared Venerable: 20 December 2012
Mother Consuelo Barceló was born on 24 July 1857 in Barcelona, Spain. As a young woman, she felt a calling to the
contemplative life and entered the Monasterio de las Comendadoras de San Juan de Jerusalén in Barcelona; but the recurrence of
an abscess in her knee forced her to leave the monastery. When the Beatas Agustinas were invited to go to the Philippines to
take care of young girls orphaned by a cholera epidemic, her desire for convent life was rekindled. She entered the Beaterio de
Mantelatas de San Agustin of Barcelona as a postulant and joined—together with one of her sisters—a group of beatas who
arrived in Manila on 5 October 1883. On 21 November 1883, she received the Augustinian habit of the Tertiary Order at the
orphanage chapel in Mandaluyong, and professed her temporary vows there again on 26 December 1884, making her the first
woman born in Spain to be clothed and to profess as a beata in the Philippines. At the Asilo, she provided children with food,
shelter, clothing, and education. Life in Manila was difficult, and of the original seven beatas from Barcelona, only she and her sister
Sor Rita remained. To replenish the number of beatas for the Asilo, Sor Rita, with Sor Consuelo, proposed two simultaneous
sources of workers for the Lord’s vineyard: a novitiate in Spain (Agustinas Misioneras de Ultramar, which they later founded upon
their return to Barcelona) and another one in the Philippines for the formation of native vocations. When the 1898 revolution
broke out, Mother Consuelo was the Superior of the Colegio-Asilo while Mother Rita was the mistress of novices. After the
Philippine-American war, the Augustinian provincial officially dissolved the sisters’ community and their Colegio-Asilo. Mother
Rita and Mother Consuelo, bound by strict obedience, left the Philippines for Spain on 13 March 1899 but resolved to stay
together to preserve their community. On 11 January 1904, Mother Consuelo was informed that the Apostolic Delegate had
approved petitions from the Filipino sisters in Manila for her and Mother Rita to return. But Mother Rita died on 14 May 1904
before she could return to the Philippines, and Mother Consuelo returned to the Philippines alone on 18 June 1904 to become
the Superior of the new novitiate house of Saint Joseph in Santa Ana, Manila. Later she became the Prioress of the sisters of
Colegio de la Consolacion, Manila, until 1915 when she was elected the first Superior-General. She served in this capacity for 25
years until her death on 4 August 1940 at the age of 83.