The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume 32, 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.Aduarte, Diego
History
The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume 32, 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.
Aduarte, Diego
Demarcation line of Alexander VI; Missions -- Philippines; Philippines -- Discovery and exploration; Philippines -- History -- Sources
[Father Fray Luis had the three virtues which St. Ambrose, the
doctor of the Church, affirms to be fundamental ones: the power to
keep silence, the power to speak in due time, and the contempt for
worldly things. His habit of silence seemed excessive to some, but
when it was necessary he spoke with great spirit; and he so contemned
worldly things that, in spite of the high offices which he held in
the order, he had not even, as many good religious have, an image
or any other trifling thing of his own. When he was ambassador in
China, he left the rich table of Don Fernando de Castro and sustained
himself, as one in poverty, by the allowance granted to the poor in
China. Contrary to his nature, he was very humble. He was devout in
prayer, and careful in saying the divine offices. He distributed his
time with the greatest accuracy. He was most modest in the presence of
women, and, though he sometimes had to speak to them, he never looked
upon their faces. He was so charitable and tender-hearted that, when
the judges were about to execute any rigorous sentence, they always
concealed it from father Fray Luis, because they knew they could not
resist his prayers for pity and pardon. He could not bear offenses
against God, however willing to suffer wrongs to himself. He slept
on a mat on the floor of his cell. His pillow was a piece of wood
hollowed to make it light. Though the rules of the order permitted
him two blankets, one to lie on and the other to cover himself with,
he contented himself with one, folding it so that it would fulfil
both offices. He wore his serge tunic a month without changing it,
which in such a hot country causes great annoyance, because of the
great amount of perspiration. He said that custom had made it not
uncomfortable for him. He constantly wore a hair-shirt next his skin,
and over that a corselet of mail. In his extreme old age, the bishop
of Nueva Segovia compelled him to lay this last aside. He wore his
breeches in such a way that the fastenings cut into the flesh of
his legs. He was very sparing in his eating, giving his suppers,
when the constitutions permit them to us, to the poor; and his noon
allowance was more theirs than his. His lunch was two biscuit crusts
and a banana, or two guavas, when there were any; and except at these
times he neither ate nor drank. When he was vicar of the convent of
Nueva Segovia, a father visited him as his guest, bringing with him
two crawfish, which he boiled and put on the table; but father Fray
Luis would not permit them to be eaten, saying it was not a feast,
that they should have anything so unusual. He scourged himself every
night, with the energy which was his by nature. He was most patient,
and, though his body was mortified, his spirit was open to divine
influences. He had great power of insight into the souls of those
whom he saw. At one time he caused the bishop of Nueva Segovia, whose
vicar-general he was, to dismiss two youths of his household--saying
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