The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 21 of 55: 1624; 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 21 of 55: 1624; 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
He who labored most in the conversion of those people was father
Fray Augustin de San Pedro, a son of the convent of Valladolid, and a
Portuguese by nationality. He not only took care of the teaching of
the faith, but also instructed the Indians in civilized ways. Thus
did they seem to have been transferred from wild beasts into men. It
happened in a memorable assault that some nearby Indians made at dawn
on the village of Cagaiang, with the intention of killing the fathers
(that was an attempt of the devil, and he instigated the Indians to do
it, in order to break the friendship which those villages had made)
that father Fray Jacinto de Jesus Maria was alone in his cell. The
barbarians entering the house killed eight persons who were guarding
it. Making themselves masters of the door, they fought with their
campilans and other weapons, aiming thrusts, cuts, and strokes in
all directions, so that in the darkness Ours might not hide from
them. But the said father, trusting in God, went out through the
midst of them all, without receiving the slightest blow. It is not
difficult for the divine omnipotence to work those miracles, and He
is wont to perform them often in order to defend His ministers. The
father hid in a thicket, until after the fury had subsided, when he
could place himself in safety.
§ XI
_Foundation of the convents of the above-mentioned provinces_
We cannot excuse ourselves, for the glory and honor of God, from
referring to the souls whom Ours drew from the darkness of heathenism
into the light of the Christian religion, in the provinces of Caragha,
Butuan, Calamianes, and Cagaiang--for whose conservation it was
thought necessary to found convents, whence the religious set out to
overrun the country, administering sacraments, consoling some, subduing
others, and always gaining souls for the Lord. We have not been able
to ascertain with certainty in what year they were established, but
that amounts to but little. The order in which they are mentioned in
the records of the provincial chapter held at Manila in the year one
thousand six hundred and fifty is as follows:
_Tandag_
1. The convent of Tandag, head of those in the province of Caragha,
where there is a presidio of Spaniards, is one hundred and fifty leguas
distant from Manila. It has to its account seven hundred Christian
families. It was founded by father Fray Miguel de Santa Maria. At first
it was more than one legua up the river but was afterward removed
to the seashore for certain reasons of convenience. It has a devout
confraternity of the most holy Virgin, and another of the girdle of
our father St. Augustine, which has been already established in the
other convents.
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