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The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 13 of 55: 1604-1605; 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 13 of 55: 1604-1605; 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 increase of this mission has been very great, although it requires
arduous labors on the part of the fathers, who have been obliged to
go forth among mountains and rugged cliffs seemingly inaccessible;
for they go to seek the people in their huts and grain-fields, where
it seems as if the devil, in order to deprive them of instruction and
gospel truth, had persuaded them to seek wild and rugged places which
can be reached only with the greatest difficulty. In this work the
fathers have spent the greater part of their time, and have gathered
into settlements (to the consolation of their own souls) a great
number of people, of all classes. Old persons who seemed the living
and fearful images of death, men, women, and tender little children,
of all ages, have in this way become acquainted with gospel truth;
and as they see that we act disinterestedly in all things, even aiding
them in our poverty, they are attracted to us, and soon are ranked
in the number of the faithful.

The fathers have succored them in their sickness; and during a
pestilence which was prevalent in one of the places visited from this
mission, they went there twice to confess the people, although the
distance was great, and the roads so difficult that in the going to
that one place one must go through nine or ten precipitous ravines,
to pass which, as it was then the rainy season, they must walk
barefoot, the mud in many places being knee-deep. The fathers heard
the confessions of all the sick, some of whom our Lord soon took to
Himself. While returning from this village the father passed through
a little hamlet of Christians not dependent on this mission, which
lay within some very rugged ravines; and among all its people there
was not one who had in all his life made confession. They welcomed
the father with great joy, going more than a quarter of a legua out
of the village to meet him; and when he departed from the village
they accompanied him to a like distance. He heard the confessions
of some, and all were desirous of removing to our mission-village;
they put this desire into execution, at the end of four months, by
breaking up the entire village, and proceeding with their families
to Silan. This and other beneficial results from that residence of
Silan are well described by Father Gregorio Lopez in a letter written
by him for the father-visitor, thus:

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

Opening the text

History

The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 13 of 55: 1604-1605; 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 increase of this mission has been very great, although it requires
arduous labors on the part of the fathers, who have been obliged to
go forth among mountains and rugged cliffs seemingly inaccessible;
for they go to seek the people in their huts and grain-fields, where
it seems as if the devil, in order to deprive them of instruction and
gospel truth, had persuaded them to seek wild and rugged places which
can be reached only with the greatest difficulty. In this work the
fathers have spent the greater part of their time, and have gathered
into settlements (to the consolation of their own souls) a great
number of people, of all classes. Old persons who seemed the living
and fearful images of death, men, women, and tender little children,
of all ages, have in this way become acquainted with gospel truth;
and as they see that we act disinterestedly in all things, even aiding
them in our poverty, they are attracted to us, and soon are ranked
in the number of the faithful.

The fathers have succored them in their sickness; and during a
pestilence which was prevalent in one of the places visited from this
mission, they went there twice to confess the people, although the
distance was great, and the roads so difficult that in the going to
that one place one must go through nine or ten precipitous ravines,
to pass which, as it was then the rainy season, they must walk
barefoot, the mud in many places being knee-deep. The fathers heard
the confessions of all the sick, some of whom our Lord soon took to
Himself. While returning from this village the father passed through
a little hamlet of Christians not dependent on this mission, which
lay within some very rugged ravines; and among all its people there
was not one who had in all his life made confession. They welcomed
the father with great joy, going more than a quarter of a legua out
of the village to meet him; and when he departed from the village
they accompanied him to a like distance. He heard the confessions
of some, and all were desirous of removing to our mission-village;
they put this desire into execution, at the end of four months, by
breaking up the entire village, and proceeding with their families
to Silan. This and other beneficial results from that residence of
Silan are well described by Father Gregorio Lopez in a letter written
by him for the father-visitor, thus:

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

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