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The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 10 of 55: 1597-1599; Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of the Catholic Missions, as Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Close of the Nineteenth Century

History

The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 10 of 55: 1597-1599; Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of the Catholic Missions, as Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Close of the Nineteenth Century

Demarcation line of Alexander VI; Missions -- Philippines; Philippines -- Discovery and exploration; Philippines -- History -- Sources

The Seminary of Santa Potenciana is in very good condition; for
not only has the church been finished for some years, but it has
a capacious building entirely of stone, in which some thirty women
are leading a religious life. Most of these are the maiden daughters
of honorable men; others are poor mestizas, and still others have
been left there who have husbands or fathers absent on your Majesty's
service; there are also a few older women. They have a superior who is
a woman of quality, and who lives a very exemplary and pious life. All
of them intend either to remain there in the service of God, or to
leave married, and in a bettered situation--as several have done and
are now doing (thanks to the good name which the institution has),
which is the holy intention of your Majesty. They have a director
and a confessor who do not live in the building, as no apartment has
been built for them. For two months past the holy sacrament has been
administered there. These women, thus secluded, celebrate the divine
offices with singing, and with as much veneration and as fittingly
as if it were a convent of nuns founded forty years ago. It has four
hundred pesos of perpetual income and as much more temporarily from a
shop in the Parian of the Sangleys; but this is not enough to maintain
it, and so they are in great need. I contrive to help it with alms
and various grants wherewith it may be supported. I have tried to
reduce it to a convent of professed nuns and have done my best with
the viceroy of Nueva España, to have him send me two religious women,
of pious life, from Mexico to found it. He answers me that there is
no one who dares to go to these islands, on account of the difficulty
of the journey and the inconvenience of the ships. I beseech your
Majesty that--as this work is so important to this commonwealth,
and in order to place in a better position here the daughters of
honorable men who have not the money to marry them, on account of
the depreciation of the encomiendas and property--you may be pleased
to order the viceroy to be diligent in coming to our aid by enabling
these religious to come; and that you will give to this seminary an
income adequate for its maintenance, or give me permission to apply
to it some repartimiento of Indians.

8. _That Captain Don Luis Perez and the fathers of the Society are
establishing a seminary for the natives; that this had not been done
earlier because the income assigned to it has not been furnished;
and that the work should be furthered._

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

History

The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 10 of 55: 1597-1599; Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of the Catholic Missions, as Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Close of the Nineteenth Century

Demarcation line of Alexander VI; Missions -- Philippines; Philippines -- Discovery and exploration; Philippines -- History -- Sources

The Seminary of Santa Potenciana is in very good condition; for
not only has the church been finished for some years, but it has
a capacious building entirely of stone, in which some thirty women
are leading a religious life. Most of these are the maiden daughters
of honorable men; others are poor mestizas, and still others have
been left there who have husbands or fathers absent on your Majesty's
service; there are also a few older women. They have a superior who is
a woman of quality, and who lives a very exemplary and pious life. All
of them intend either to remain there in the service of God, or to
leave married, and in a bettered situation--as several have done and
are now doing (thanks to the good name which the institution has),
which is the holy intention of your Majesty. They have a director
and a confessor who do not live in the building, as no apartment has
been built for them. For two months past the holy sacrament has been
administered there. These women, thus secluded, celebrate the divine
offices with singing, and with as much veneration and as fittingly
as if it were a convent of nuns founded forty years ago. It has four
hundred pesos of perpetual income and as much more temporarily from a
shop in the Parian of the Sangleys; but this is not enough to maintain
it, and so they are in great need. I contrive to help it with alms
and various grants wherewith it may be supported. I have tried to
reduce it to a convent of professed nuns and have done my best with
the viceroy of Nueva España, to have him send me two religious women,
of pious life, from Mexico to found it. He answers me that there is
no one who dares to go to these islands, on account of the difficulty
of the journey and the inconvenience of the ships. I beseech your
Majesty that--as this work is so important to this commonwealth,
and in order to place in a better position here the daughters of
honorable men who have not the money to marry them, on account of
the depreciation of the encomiendas and property--you may be pleased
to order the viceroy to be diligent in coming to our aid by enabling
these religious to come; and that you will give to this seminary an
income adequate for its maintenance, or give me permission to apply
to it some repartimiento of Indians.

8. _That Captain Don Luis Perez and the fathers of the Society are
establishing a seminary for the natives; that this had not been done
earlier because the income assigned to it has not been furnished;
and that the work should be furthered._

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

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