The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898. Volume 24 of 55. Unknown

good zeal. A brother served him in his cell, a creole whom he wished well and whom he treated with affection. The latter, in return for the benefits which he received, gave him pounded glass in his chocolate, for he had been told that that was the most virulent poison which could be administered. But the provincial’s natural force resisted everything, for he was robust, though small of body.

      During this time, which was June of the same year, 1617, as the ships which had been despatched the year before had put back in distress, the viceroy of Nueva España, in order not to leave the islands without succor, bought a small Peruvian ship called “San Jerónimo,” little but very staunch. Although they had but little comfort, the bishop, Don Fray Miguel García, embarked with his fine company of religious; and he brought them in safety to the port of Cavite, although they were almost wrecked among the islands, because the vendavals had set in early and with violent force. At last freed from this and other dangers by the mercy of God, and as they were laborers chosen by God for this His vineyard, He did not wish them to lack work in it; and so He placed them at the doors of the convent of Manila, poor from the lack of comfort in the voyage, but rich with their hopes and virtues. Their names were:

      Father Fray Hernando Guerrero, who came as prior of them all.

      Father Fray Antonio de Ocampo, a very eloquent preacher, and a Castilian.

      Father Fray Juan de Trejo, a very eloquent preacher, and from Estremadura.

Father Fray Juan Ramírez, a preacher, from Burgos.

      Father Fray Pedro Ramírez, a preacher, from Burgos.

      Father Fray Diego de Robles, a Castilian.

      Father Fray Diego de Avalos, from Toledo.

      Father Fray Agustín Carreño, from Asturia, a Tagál.

      Father Fray Francisco de Madrid, a preacher, and a Castilian.

      Father Fray Lúcas de Aguilar, a Castilian.

      Father Fray Juan de las Cuevas, from Madrid.

      Father Fray Andrés de Prada, from Burgos.

      Father Fray Antonio de Ulloa, a preacher, and a Castilian.

      Father Fray Alonso Delgado, from Estremadura.

      Father Fray Alonso Rodríguez, a fine organist, and a Castilian.

      Father Fray Juan de Orasco, a Castilian.

      Father Fray Martín de Arastí, a Biscayan.

      Father Fray Félix de Villafuerte.

      Father Fray Antonio Quintano, a preacher, from Burgos.

      Father Fray Juan Gallegos, a preacher, from Mancha.

      Father Fray Jacinto de Herrera; this was the second time that he has sailed for this land. He is a preacher and a Castilian.

      Father Fray Pedro Mejía, a preacher, from Mancha.

      Father Fray Jerónimo de Paredes, a preacher, and a Castilian.

      Father Fray Martín Vázquez, a Castilian.

      Father Fray Tomás de Villanueva, from Mancha.

      Father Fray Alonso de Carabasal, reader, and who came the following year. He remained behind because of his poor health.

      Father Fray Antonio de Mójica, a Castilian.

      Father Fray Cristóbal Enríquez, a preacher, from Estremadura.

      Father Fray Juan de Espinosa, a Castilian.

      Father Fray Gaspar de Lorenzana, a Castilian.40

      All those fathers who came here were from the province of Castilla. Their arrival was of great consequence, and with them the death of the father provincial, Fray Jerónimo de Salas, was, in some measure, corrected; for, in return for a person whom the Lord took from the province by that action, He gave it many workers in whom there were very great hopes.

      Our father rector-provincial, as the matter devolved on him, divided the fathers among the four provinces of Tagalos, Pampanga, Ilocos, and Bisayas. He had ordered that father Fray Alonso Baraona, at that time definitor of the province, should take the religious who fell to its share to the Pintados; and that he should come to the province to govern it, since he was his vicar-provincial and visitor. The religious embarked, therefore, and with them, the father prior of Sugbú, Fray Luis de Brito,41 and the prior of Panay, Fray Miguel de Suaren.42 As the winds were adverse, because the vendavals were raging obstinately, they were unable to get away from the island of Manila for a long time.

      Two ships were sent to Nueva España. One put back and the other, which was a Portuguese caravel, went to India and was wrecked. The ships for Castilla were being prepared, and were to sail by the first of August. Our father provincial tried to have father Fray Juan de Ocadiz sail in them, as he considered his return to España necessary for his own quiet; and since he was able to do so, he ordered that Fray Juan should go immediately to Cavite, for he suspected that, if anything evil was to occur, it would be perpetrated by that man. Finally, the religious left, after putting off his departure as long as possible. He said “goodby,” in order to go to embark in the morning, and permission was given him. That night, the first of August, 1617, one of the most tragic events that has ever happened in these islands occurred in our province—namely, that that same night our father rector-provincial, Fray Vicente de Sepúlveda, was choked to death, and was found dead in his bed at two o’clock in the morning, with clear signs of a violent death. In that most horrible crime were implicated three religious—one a priest, one a chorister, and one a lay-brother, namely, the creole who gave the poison to the father, and whom his relatives hid; and, as he had money, they helped him to escape out of these islands. The lay-brother was a European, and the father priest, Fray Juan de Ocadiz, an American. They [i.e., the last two] were hanged near the atrium of our church, in front of the well, after we had first unfrocked, expelled, and disgraced them. The two said men were buried beneath the cloister of our convent, near the porter’s lodge, before the altar of St. Nicolás de Tolentino.43

      In the interval from the death of our father provincial, Fray Jerónimo de Salas, which occurred on May 17, until our father rector-provincial Sepúlveda was killed, a singular case happened in our convent, which was apparently a presage of the said fatality. It happened that in the fine infirmary of the said convent, which looks toward the sea, a white cat was found which was rearing three rats at its breasts, feeding them as if they were its own kind of offspring, and giving a complete truce to the natural antipathy of such animals. But after it had reared and fattened them well, it ate them, ceasing the unwonted truces in its natural opposition. Almost all the people of the community of Manila and its environs came to see such a thing, for scarcely would they credit the truth of it, and all affirmed that it must be the presage of some great fatality.

      By the death of the said our father Sepúlveda (which was very keenly felt by our province, and which grieved the hearts of all the members individually), although the father definitors ought to have taken up the government, yet they made a renunciation of the right which pertained to every one of them. Accordingly, announcements were sent through the provinces to the effect that the provincial chapter should be held on the last day of October, the thirty-first, of the year 17.

      About this time the very illustrious Don Diego Vázquez de Marcado, archbishop of Manila, a most worthy prelate, died. He was the embodiment of learning, virtue, and prudence, and all grieved sorely at his death. Our bishop of Cebú, Don Fray Pedro de Arce, entered upon the government of the archbishopric, by a special bull of Paul V, and he was assigned one talega44 more salary than he received in his bishopric.

      During this period occurred the persecution of Christians in Japón by the emperor Dayfusama, and the martyrdom of our blessed martyrs in that kingdom.45

      Our enemy the Dutch also came with seventy [sic] vessels to Playa Honda in Zambales, seeing that they were unable to attain their designs—namely, to capture the port of Cavite, and

40

For sketches of these Augustinians, see Pérez’s Catálogo.

41

Pérez mentions no missionary by this name.

42

Evidently an error for Fray Miguel de Suárez. He was from the branch of the order in India. In the Philippines, he served as a Tagál and Visayan missionary, laboring in Batan in 1605, in Masbate in 1607, in Ibahay in 1611, in Aclán in 1614, in Panay in 1617, in Batangas in 1621 and 1633, in Tanauan in 1623, in Tambobong in 1626, in Taal in 1629, in Bugason in Bisayas in 1630, in Guiguinto in 1632 and 1639, in San Pablo de los Montes in 1636, and in Caruyan in 1641. He was also procurator-general in 1620, and prior of the convent of Cebú in 1638, dying in 1642. See Pérez’s Catálogo, p. 186.

43

In the unfortunate event which Father Medina mentions with as much minuteness as candor, two important points must not be overlooked by the judicious reader, which were the cause of this unfortunate deed. One was the extreme harshness of the provincial in his government, which must have been very excessive.... The imposition of new commands must have been very heavy for the religious, since even laymen intervened with the provincial, either for him to moderate unnecessary harshness or to renounce the provincialate. The second fact which also enters strongly into this case, is human passion exasperated even to obscuring the intelligence, and personified in Father Juan de Ocadiz, … a man peevish and melancholy.... Hard beyond measure must he have thought the measures taken against him. He saw in the distance his perpetual dishonor, yet did not have the virtue sufficient to resign himself; and, instigated by the spirit of evil, perpetrated the crime which he expiated with his own life.—Coco.

44

Literally, a sack containing one thousand pesos in silver.

45

There were eleven Augustinians martyred, and they received beatification from Pius X in 1867.—Coco.