As a token that in the name of Christ our Lord and of his most holy Mother he assumed possession thereof, he said mass, and assigned to the village as their patron the Virgin of the Pillar of Zaragoça. [62] It was surely a prudent thought to fasten this tender church to this strong pillar, upon which from of old that noble city has been supported, and has stood firm without being overthrown by the storms that have assailed it since its foundation, though it be as many years in age as the days of the same Virgin in this mortal life; and it shall last to the end of the world. Throughout that whole day the father spent his time in converse with his new sons, encouraging them to go on with what they had so happily begun; but he was obliged to leave them for the time, that he might return to the villages under his care, for Lent was at hand and it was necessary for him to listen to confessions. The ministers are so few that their strength and power cannot reach as far as their desire. The Indians were greatly grieved when they saw that they were to be without a guide just as they were beginning a path which they had never trod; but the father was more grieved at being obliged to leave them. He promised to come back and live among them as soon as he could; and they determined to go to his superior to beg for a minister and a teacher to instruct them in the way of salvation. They carried out their plan at such a fortunate time that they found the fathers preparing to go to the provincial chapter, which was at hand. The religious promised to help the Indians in their good purpose, and did so, as will soon be seen. Father Fray Geronimo departed from them with many tears on both sides--the Indians weeping from sorrow at being left behind; the father partly from grief at leaving them, and partly from joy at seeing his desires realized and his labors so well begun, for this meant that the work was half done. The fathers of the chapter complied with the promise that had been given, and recounted to the definitors the good beginning of this conversion which they had seen, and the great desire with which these heathen Indians asked for ministers to teach and baptize them. The result was that the definitors felt obliged to grant so just a petition, and to give them as minister and preacher the same Fray Geronimo de Zamora, who offered to dwell in those solitary mountains in order to carry on what the Lord had begun through his ministry and diligence. That he might be able to go, he was provided with two good companions--a great number where the religious were so few, and where there was so much calling upon them for their help. The convent and convents which might be established there were accepted; and the patronage of the Virgin of the Pillar was extended over all the Christian churches which might be formed there. This last request was so just that it brought its favorable answer with it; and, even if father Fray Geronimo had