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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. — John Shaqi

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.

Name: 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.
Author: Aduarte, Diego

Aduarte, Diego

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

[Though father Fray Francisco de San Joseph was not one of the first
founders of this province, he came in the second shipload from
España. Because of his great virtue he is worthy of an important
place in this history. For this purpose it has pleased God that there
should come to my hands from the bishop of Monopoli, Don Fray Juan
Lopez, an accurate account of the first years of this father, which
follows. Father Fray Francisco was born at Tarazona in Navarra. His
parents were exceptionally pious. From his youth father Fray Francisco
showed signs of exceptional devotion. He fled from the sight of women,
and even declined to accompany his mother, excusing himself on the
ground of his studies. At the age of thirteen he was sent to Alcala
de Henares to continue his studies; and at the age of fifteen he
assumed the habit, and showed the behavior of a man at that youthful
age. An account is given of his sisters; and the testimony of persons
of superior virtue to the sanctity of father Fray Francisco is cited.

In course of time he came to be reader of arts in the religious
convent of Piedrahita, where he was made master of the students. He
had even greater gifts as a preacher than as a teacher, having a fine
voice, natural rhetoric and powers of action, a great gift of words,
good memory, and skill in systematic arrangement. He was master of
the hearts of all those who heard him. His first pulpit was that
of San Antonino at Yepes, and later he was appointed as preacher to
the convent of Alcala. While here he felt the impulse to go to the
Philippinas, and, in spite of the efforts of the convent to retain him,
he carried out his purpose. When he reached Manila, his superiors,
desiring that the Spaniards of Manila might not be deprived of his
great talents as a preacher, assigned him to the ministry of Bataan,
which is near Manila. Here he learned the common language of the
Indians, called Tagal, so rapidly that he was able to preach in it
within three months, and taught others the language within six. He
was constantly studying the exact signification of the words of the
language and the method in which the Indians used them, so that he
might become a consummate master of this tongue.]

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

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