The college of San Juan de Letran owes its institution to a Spaniard of singularly exemplary life, who took charge of the orphan children of the Spaniards, and those whose fathers and mothers were poor. He supported them and taught them at the expense of his own income, and when that did not suffice, he collected alms to assist the lack in his own funds. The king, in order to make it easier for him to exercise his humane acts, gave him an encomienda in the province of Ilocos. At the approach of old age, he retired into the infirmary of the Dominicans, with the permission of the archbishop, and died there a religious. He renounced his encomienda, his house, and all his possessions, in due form; and placed them at the disposal of the Dominicans, on condition that they take charge of the rearing of his orphans. According to the act that was passed June 18, 1640, the house was erected into a college under the advocacy of St. John of the Letran. The king added to it some revenues from the royal chapel; and the students who left that college belonged to the king, and had to enter his service, either in the military or otherwise. The Dominicans have gradually changed those rules. The students of that college, to the number of about fifty who are supported there annually, are all or nearly all destined for the priesthood. Consequently they study philosophy and theology in the university of Santo Tomas. Opposite San Juan de Letran, on the other side of the street, stands the royal community of Santa Catalina. It has undergone various changes since 1695, the year in which it was founded. [85] The Dominicans had charge of it at first; while now they have a mother superior, they follow, nevertheless, the third Order of St. Dominic. They have no church of their own, but the college of San Juan de Letran serves them as one. Without celebrating there any office, they attend mass there, being separated from it by the width of the street, where they have a gallery which communicates from their cells with the church of San Juan de Letran. The Recollects arrived at Manila in 1606. They have built a fine convent there, and so large that two hundred religious could be very comfortable in it; however, they never have more than forty. They have a dozen livings in the archbishopric of Manila.