Loading your reading…

The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume 31, 1640: 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 centuryAduarte, Diego

History

The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume 31, 1640: 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

Name: The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume 31, 1640: 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
Author: Aduarte, Diego

Aduarte, Diego

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

eyes something of what I have read in the letters of your Reverence
with regard to the great need of ministers here, and to the desire of
the people for them. We found the inhabitants kindly and peaceful, and
delighted to see us. When we disembarked at one of the heathen villages
on the way, some of the children ran to kiss our scapulars. Some of
the boys ran before us, reciting the prayers very well, not because
they had been taught, but because they had picked them up from a
couple of our boys whom they had seen several times. Yet in spite of
all this they will be lost and damned, for lack of friars. The wife
of the governor of this village was very ill; and desiring to die
a Christian, she had herself carried to the village of Pia, which
is a Christian village about a day's journey from hers. Father Fray
Pedro was at Pipig, a village near there, at the time, so that he was
in time to baptize her." In another letter to the same provincial,
he said: "Your Reverence might see here this morning a company of
old men learning the doctrines of Christianity; another of girls;
another of married women; another of young boys--giving praises
to God like so many choirs of angels, proclaiming His doctrine and
learning it to prepare themselves for baptism." Father Fray Jacintho
de San Geronimo, [3] who is still living, writes a letter to a friend
of his in Nueva España, which is dated on the last day of the feast
of the Resurrection, in 1607. It is substantially as follows: "I am
at present in the province of Nueva Segovia, in great happiness to
see the desire of the people to become Christians. Our poverty and
disinterestedness have caused them to have great confidence in us. I
would not change my lot for any other in the world, in spite of the
hardness of our life here." The same father wrote another letter to
a friend in Manila, to the following effect: "There are more than
four thousand souls in this village, not the eighth part of whom are
Christians, though all desire to become so. On Holy Saturday three of
us baptized six hundred persons." The date of this letter was April 2,
1607. Although this father had been but a short time in the province,
he had already learned enough of the language for such great results,
and could rejoice in the fruit of his labors. From all this it is
plain that the missionaries in this region who are busied with the
ministry of souls have no need of España nor of anything Spanish
for their comfort, except companions to help them in the work. As
there is no rule without an exception, it must be so in this case;
but if any missionary is unhappy here, it is generally because he has
failed in his obligations and become lukewarm in his devotions. Those
that can speak the language and thereby convert souls are happy
in their work; and those who cannot learn the language should
accordingly be unhappy. But the Lord is not so poor as that, as will
be sufficiently shown by a letter from father Fray Garcia de Oroz,

No reviews yet