The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume 32, 1640

Chapter XVI
Some very virtuous fathers who died at this time

[In the hospice belonging to the province in the City of Mexico, there died at this time father Fray Athanasio de Moya, a near relative of the holy archbishop of Valencia, Don Fray Thomas de Villanueva. He assumed the habit in the royal convent of Sancta Cruz at Segovia, where he showed great courage and devotion in the great plague of 1599. In 1601 he came to this province, and was assigned to the ministry of Bataan. From here he was sent back to care for the hospice of San Jacintho at Mexico, where he constantly followed the rigorous rules of the province of the Philippinas.

In the next vessels which left for Nueva España the superior of this province sent father Fray Juan Naya to take the place of the father who had just died. The Lord, who had carried father Fray Juan throughout his life through great sufferings, ordained that he should not fight the last fight in the delightful clime of Mexico; and hence was pleased to take him to himself before the voyage to Nueva España was concluded. He was a native of Aragon, and assumed the habit of the order in our convent of San Pedro Martyr at Calatayud. His proficiency and scholarship was such, and such was his virtue, that he was appointed master of novices while still very young. The Lord wrought miracles through him. He cast out a demon from a sick woman in España; was miraculously protected from death on the island of Guadalupe; and was delivered from an illness which afflicted him in the Philippinas, by [making a vow to our Lady, as follows: ] “I, Fray Juan Naya, being afflicted by this severe infirmity, and seeing that I am very much hindered from carrying on the ministry for which I came from España, vow and promise, as humbly and devoutly as I may, to the most blessed Virgin Mary, my Lady, that I will minister to the Indians in this ministry, remaining and assisting in it at the command of my superior, in reverence and honor for this most sacred Virgin, my Lady, for seven continuous years from the day of her Visitation, the second of July, 1605, if she will deign to obtain for me from her most holy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, comfortable and sufficient health for me to be able to accomplish that which is necessary in this ministry; and I vow that, if I shall gain this health, I will exercise the ministry.” This humble supplication was heard at that tribunal of mercy, and our Lady of Compassion granted him his health so completely that at the end of the month he was well and strong enough to learn the language, and in three months was fit to render service and labor in it. As a memorial of this marvelous goodness, he kept this vow written in his breviary, and, as often as he read it there, he used always to give devout thanks to her who had gained that health for him; and with great devotion he fulfilled his vow, to the great gain of the Indians in this province. At the end of the seven years he was afflicted with a flux of the bowels, with abundance of blood; and on the same day of the Visitation he made another vow to serve four years more in the ministry in the honor of this Lady. He received complete health, so that he was able to labor in it for that time and much longer, as one of the best of the ministers of religion, giving a great example of holiness and virtue wherever he was. When he was living in the district of Ytabes, in a village of that province named Tuao, he was once burying a dead man in the cemetery when a venomous snake came out from the grass and, amid the noise and alarm of the people, entered between his leg and his breeches – which was an easy thing for the snake to do, since these garments are worn loose in this province and resemble polainas.²⁵ Although the Indians, who knew how poisonous the snake was, cried out and gave him over for dead, father Fray Juan continued with the act which he was performing, because of his duty as a religious, until he had finished burying the Indian; and then, putting his hand in his breeches, he caught the snake by the neck, and drew it out and threw it away, without receiving any harm from it. [When father Fray Juan was vicar of Yrraya, and was living in a village called Abuatan, a fire broke out. Father Fray Juan threw himself on his knees and prayed that the fire should turn away from the village, as it did – making its way straight toward the tambobos, or granaries where the Indians kept their food, the loss of which would have been a greater damage than the burning of the village. In response to the prayers of father Fray Juan, the wind fell and the fire ceased. On one occasion his guardian angel came to accompany him in his prayers. When he was assigned to the vicariate of San Jacintho at Mexico, he embarked in the flagship sent back that year, in which more than sixty persons died because of the hardships and length of the voyage. Father Fray Juan was attacked by some malignant fevers, and when he asked for extreme unction, on the day of St. John the Evangelist, the sailors were so much alarmed at the fear of losing his prayers that they declared that if he died they would not continue their voyage, but would go back to the island of the Ladrones, that they might not perish in the dreadful storms to which they would be exposed if they had not the aid and comfort of father Fray Juan. At the demand of the sailors, the general asked father Fray Juan if they should continue their voyage. The sick man was grieved at being asked that which was reserved for God alone; but he was persuaded to tell what God had given him to know, and made a sign for them to go on. His poor possessions were shared among those of the ship as precious relics; and on the octave of St. John, on the third of January, 1620, a fair wind began to blow. The sailors cried out joyfully: “Father Fray Juan has seen God, and has sent us fair weather.” On the seventh of the same month, they began to descry signs of land coming from the coast of Nueva España, whereupon they regarded as fulfilled that which the holy religious had promised them.

Father Fray Gaspar Zarfate was a native of the City of Mexico, and assumed the habit and professed in the convent of that city. He was a teacher of the arts in the convent at Puebla de los Angeles, whence he volunteered to come to this province. He reached the islands in 1595, and was one of the first founders of Christianity in the province of Nueva Segovia. Here he labored much, with great results. He devoted himself to the study of the language of the Indians in that region, and his attainments in it were very great. He was the first to make a grammar of this language, and he knew a very large number of words in it. Thus he opened the way for the other religious, that they might as a result of his labors more easily learn this language, and preach the holy gospel in it. He was most penitent and devoted to prayer; and so completely master of his passions that, though by nature he was very choleric, he seemed excessively phlegmatic. At one time when he was vicar of Camalaniugan an Indian saw our father St. Dominic praying in his company, and surrounded by light from heaven. In the village of Nasiping it was said that father Fray Gaspar had raised a child from the dead. The verification of this matter was neglected, but father Fray Gaspar’s reputation for sanctity was such that no one regarded the statement as incredible. He was made preacher-general of the province, in which there was only one such preacher. He was definitor, vicar-provincial, and twice prior of the convent of Manila, in which city he had the name of “the holy prior.” He suffered greatly from a urinary disease, from which he finally died. He received honorable mention on the records of the provincial chapter during this same year.]

Chapter XVII
The election as provincial of father Fray Miguel Ruiz, and events in the province at this time

On the first of May, 1621, father Fray Miguel Ruiz was elected as provincial, to the great satisfaction of the province. He was a son of the royal convent of Sancta Cruz at Segovia; and at the time of his election was prior of the convent of Manila, which position he had held twice. He exhibited in it and in other important dignities the excellent qualities which are desired in a good superior – much virtue and learning, great prudence, and natural gravity and kindness, which, while rendering him much beloved, did not allow others to lose respect for him. In this chapter many ordinances were enacted which were helpful for the quiet and calm of the religious. During this year two religious went from Nueva Segovia to Japon, and, after having suffered much in that kingdom, they had the fortunate end of glorious martyrdom – being burnt alive by a slow fire, as will be seen later. A fortunate provincialate was promised because it had begun so joyfully; for at that time the verification of a most famous miracle wrought by our Lady of the Rosary was being concluded. She went, in her holy image which she had in the convent of Manila, to give aid. (as she did most marvelously) to a votary of hers by the name of Francisco Lopez, who called upon her in the extreme necessity of his soul. The narrative, with the most marvelous circumstances which accompanied her act, has already been given in the part of this history which treats of the foundation of this convent – where something has also been narrated with regard to the great deeds of this most holy image, and some account has been given of the innumerable miracles which it has wrought and still works. Among them this, which was the most famous, has been described.²⁶ On account of it, this most holy image was brought out during the procession which was made to the cathedral on the first Sunday of the chapter-meeting, and with its beauty and the special joy of that day, the city was filled with delight and devotion. The miracle was made the subject of sermons, and was painted upon a canvas, and thus the devotion of all to this sovereign lady was greatly increased; and she, as if by grace omnipotent, from that day forward conferred more and greater favors on her votaries. She so greatly multiplied the working of manifest miracles that, although many of them have been recounted in the place referred to, there were incomparably more which were omitted on account of their number; and she has never ceased and will never cease to work the like marvels, until the devotion of this city for her shall cease. This provincialate was also very happy in the great number of holy martyrs which the province had during it. A detailed account of them will be given, so far as we have been able to learn the facts, though many great and edifying matters must remain in silence because the disturbances of the persecution gave no opportunity for verifying them. Yet that which is certain is so much that it alone would be sufficient to give glory to an entire religious order; and how much more to a small province – so small that there were many convents in España which alone contained more religious than this entire province. Under all these circumstances, for the Lord to give so many and so great saints to it is a special mercy; and however much we may strive to praise and give thanks for it, our praise and gratitude will never reach the obligation, which is far and beyond measure above our feeble strength.

All these new causes of joy were necessary to temper the sorrow caused among the religious of this province by the rising of a large number of Indians, which happened on the sixth of November in this year in the most distant parts of the province of Nueva Segovia, in the region known as Yrraya. On the Friday before, a very large and beautiful cross had been set up in the court or cemetery of the church in the largest village there, which was called Abuatan. At this time the Indians gave every evidence of joy and pleasure and even of devotion to the Lord who redeemed us on the cross; but on the following Sunday, instigated by the devil, they burnt their churches and villages, and avowed themselves enemies of the Spaniards, and even of God, whom they left that they might return to their ancient sites to serve the devil in exchange for the enjoyments of the liberties and vices of their heathen state. Practically all those in this village, and many of those in another near it called Pilitan, belonged to a tribe called Gadanes.²⁷ This tribe was always regarded as one on a lower plane of civilization than the others, and more devoted to freedom, and enemies to subjection; for they were a race bred in the most distant mountains and the wildernesses of that province, and they had less communication and commerce than did the other tribes – not only with the Spaniards, but even with the rest of the Indians. It was these Gadanes, then, who became restless, and disquieted the other inhabitants of that region, though these others had always been very faithful to God and the Spaniards. They had even sustained many bloody wars with the neighbors by whom they were surrounded that they might not be lacking in the friendship which they had with the Spaniards, or in the subjection which they had promised them. But now these revolted and joined the insurgents, partly as the result of force applied by the Gadanes – for the latter greatly excelled them in numbers, and caught them unprepared for defense – and partly also carried away by their own natural desire for liberty, to which they were invited by the safety of the mountains to which they proposed to go. The mountains, being very rough, offered opportunities for easy defense; and, being very fertile, promised them an abundant living. The Gadanes had planned this revolt far ahead, and had appointed a day for it to occur some time later. Their purpose was to try to get back first certain chiefs who were held as hostages in the city of the Spaniards; and they had already sent there one of their chiefs, named Saquin, who had the influence of a father over the rest, that he might bring away these chiefs, with great dissimulation and pretended arguments of necessity. It happened that the father vicar of Abuatan had grown weary of his work, and wished to resign his office. He had gone down at that time to the city to ask the father provincial, who happened to be there then, to give this office to someone else and to permit him to take some rest by being under his directions. The Gadanes, accused by their own bad consciences, supposed that he had detected their purpose of rising, and had gone down to ask for soldiers to prevent it. In fear of interference, they hastened on their treacherous act; and, without waiting for the appointed period, or for the return of him who had gone down for the hostages (their relatives), they decided to rise at once. Without further deliberation or delay, they began active operations. Father Fray Alonso Hernandez, who was at Abuatan, heard the tumult; and being above measure sad at what was happening, he tried his best to quiet them. He told them how foolish their proceedings were, and how they were deceived by the devil, not only as to the good of their souls, but also as to the many temporal advantages, which they possessed in their trade, with the Spaniards as well as with the rest of the Indians – in which they gained so much that they were the richest and most prosperous Indians in all that region. All this, he said, and their own quiet, peace, and comfort would be destroyed by their rising; while if they would keep quiet they would preserve it all, for he assured them that no harm would happen to them for what they intended to do. But the chiefs who led the insurgents said to him that he should not waste his time by talking about this; and that it was now too late, since they were determined to carry on what they had begun. “What is it that moves you,” said the religious, “to so imprudent an act? If the religious have done you any wrong, you have me here in your power; revenge it upon me, take my life in pay for it, and do not cast away your souls.” “It is not because of any wrong from the religious, or resentment toward them,” said the Indians, “but because we are weary of the oppressive acts of the Spaniards. Depart hence in peace; for though it is true that our rising is not against the religious, we cannot promise that some drunken Indian may not try to take off your head.” The religious perceived the obstinacy of the Gadanes, and the fact that arguments would be useless in this matter, and went away to watch over the village of Pilitan, which was under his care. He found it quiet, but that peace continued for a very short time; for presently – this was early Sunday morning – he heard a very great noise and a loud Indian war-cry. They came in a crowd, after their ancient custom, naked, and thickly anointed with oil, and with weapons in their hands. It was the insurgents from Abuatan, coming to force the Indians of Pilitan to join the uprising, in order that they might have more strength to resist the Spaniards when the latter should make war upon them to bring them to subjection. One of the chiefs who were leading the insurgents, named Don Phelippe Cutapay, a young man of about twenty-three, came forward. He had been brought up from infancy in the church with the religious, and when he was a mere child had aided in mass as sacristan, and afterward as cantor; and at this time he was governor of Abuatan. He went direct to the church to speak to the religious, intending to inform him as to what they were about to do, and to advise him to go down the river, for fear that someone might get beyond control and harm him. While he was talking with the religious in the cloister, his elder brother, named Don Gabriel Dayag, who was acting as guide to the others, came in. Being somewhat nervous and excited, he approached the religious with little courtesy; Cutapay rebuked him for the way in which he was acting, saying to him that he should remember that he was before the father, to whom he owed more respect. The elder brother answered: “Cutapay, if our minds are divided we shall do nothing;” however, he grew calm and behaved respectfully in the presence of the religious. The shouting increased, and there were now in the courtyard of the church about eight hundred Indians armed and prepared for battle. The religious roused his courage, and, laying aside all fear, went out to them; and standing in the midst of this multitude, as a sheep among wolves, he caused them to sit down, and addressed them for more than an hour. He urged upon them what would be for their good, and strove to persuade them to see the great error into which they were falling. Among other things in the utterances which the Lord is accustomed to impart under such circumstances, he said: “My sons, among whom I have so long been, and to whom I have so many years preached the true doctrine, which you ought to follow, and have taught you that which you ought to observe for the good of your souls, I am greatly grieved to see the mistaken path which you take, casting yourselves over precipices where destruction is certain, and from which your rescue is difficult. If your wish to run away is on account of the bad treatment which you have received from us religious – and from me in particular, as being less prudent than others – here you have me alone and defenseless. Slay me then, slay me, and do not cast away your souls. Let me pay with my life the evil which you are about to do; and do not lose your faith and your hope of salvation, nor pay in hell for the sin of this uprising, and for the many sins which you will add to it in your revolt.” Some of them made the same answer as before; that they had not done this because of ill-will toward the religious; but on the contrary, they felt for them affection and love, and therefore did not intend to do them any harm. This they said was plain because, although they had him alone in the midst of them, no one was rude to him, but even in the midst of the tumult showed him respect. “The reason of our uprising,” they said, “is that we are weary of the oppressions of the Spaniards; and if you or any other religious desire to come to our villages, any one of you may come whenever he pleases, providing he does not bring a Spaniard.” The religious responded by offering that the Spaniards would do them no harm, especially for what they had already done, promising himself to remain among them as security, so that they might take away his life if the least harm should come to them from that cause. But they were very far indeed from accepting this good advice; and some of them went away and set fire to some houses, upon which a great outcry arose in the village. Cutapay stood up and greatly blamed what had been done, saying that it was very ill considered and a daring outrage to set fire. “I call your attention,” he said, “to the fact that the father is in the village; and so long as he is here nothing should be done to grieve him;” and he commanded people to go and put out the fire and to calm the village. The religious began to preach to them again; but, though there were so many people before him, he was preaching in the desert, and hence could accomplish nothing with them. They asked the father to depart, and to take with him the silver and ornaments of the sacristy of this church and of that of Abuatan. This was no small generosity from an excited body of insurgents. They provided him with boats, and men to row them, and the friars went down the river to the friendly villages. The insurgents immediately began to commit a thousand extravagances. They set fire to the houses, they drank, and they annoyed the people in the village. If any were unwilling to join them, they threatened them with death by holding lances to their breasts. The result was that many joined them, being forced by the fear of instant death, and waiting for a better time when they could again have religious. A few of them succeeded in hiding, and going down the river after the fathers, some leaving their sons and others their fathers. There was one chief who, despising his wealth and his gold, left it all and came with the religious, taking with him only his wife. His name was Don Bernabe Lumaban. Doña Agustina Pamma, who was a member of one of the most noble families of the region and the wife of one of the chiefs, hid herself in a marsh – standing in it up to her neck that she might be left behind, and might go to a Christian village. However, she was discovered, and was taken along by the insurgents. But the Lord did not fail to reward her pious desires, for within a few years she accomplished them, and lived for a long time, as she desired, in the church. The insurgents did not cease until they had roused all the villages in their vicinity. As men abandoned of God and directed by the devil, they were guilty of horrible sacrileges. In the village of Abuatan they sacked the church and the sacristy, and made a jest and derision of the things which they found there. They treated irreverently that which they had a little before reverenced: the women put on the frontals as petticoats [sayas], and of the corporals and the palls of the chalices they made head-kerchiefs. They dressed themselves in the habits of the religious, and even went so far as to lose their respect for the image of the Virgin. The feet and hands of this image were of ivory, and it was one of the most beautiful in all that province and in all the islands. There was one man who dared to give it a slash across the nose, saying, “Let us see if she will bleed.” They also committed other sacrileges, and even greater ones, as a barbarous tribe of apostates. Afterward an Indian, finding an opportunity to flee from them to a Catholic region, did so; and he went not alone, for he carried with him the holy image of the Virgin of the Rosary which had been slashed across the face. Although it was received with great rejoicings by the Christians, they could but shed many tears to see it so outraged. All this grieved the hearts of the religious who had trained and taught them, and who now saw them lost irremediably and without reason; for although they said that they could not endure the oppressions of the Spaniards, these were not so great but that the profit which the Indians gained by their commerce with them was very much greater. The man who at that time used to collect the tributes was so kind a man and so good a Christian that, confident of his own innocence and of the fact that he had never wronged them, he went up when he heard this news, to try to bring them back by argument; but they no sooner saw him than they killed him.

One of those who were most grieved by this disastrous uprising was father Fray Pedro de Sancto Thomas, for he had dwelt for a long time among this tribe, and had been the vicar and superior of those churches, and loved each one of the insurgents as his spiritual son. Hence this misfortune hurt his soul, and he determined to strive to remedy this great evil as completely as he could, without shrinking from any danger or effort for the purpose. The places where the insurgents had betaken themselves had been selected as particularly strong and secure, and were in the midst of mountains so high and so craggy that they might be defended from the Spaniards, if the latter should try to bring them back or to punish them. Hence the journey to them was long and excessively difficult. Yet in spite of this, without hesitating at the hardships of the road, and at the great danger which he ran by passing through villages of other Indians – with whom he was not acquainted, and who were generally looking out for an opportunity to cut off some head without running any risk – he made his way through everything, went among them alone, and tried to arrange for bringing them back, and made agreements with them. No Spaniard dared appear among them, for they were certain to kill him, but father Fray Pedro was admitted and entertained; and in the following year, 1622, he brought back in peace with him some three hundred households of those who had rebelled. These had gone with the body of insurgents from the villages of Pilitan and Bolo. Most of them had been compelled to do so, as has been said, and they were accordingly brought back as a result of the earnest efforts and the courageous boldness of father Fray Pedro. Returning to a pacified region, they were settled at the mouth of the river of Maquila. After this was accomplished, he went further up the river of Balisi, where it was most difficult, with the alcade-mayor and the troops who were advancing against the rebels. He went before, trusting in God, to speak with the enemy; and he was so confident that he was able to say, like St. Martin among the highwaymen, that he had never had less fear in all his life, because fear had been taken from him by the Lord, for whose sake he had placed himself in this situation. The leader of the revolted enemy, Don Gabriel Dayag, came to him and kissed his scapular with great reverence, and embraced him. Repenting for what he had done, Don Gabriel planned to return; and although at that time he did not carry out this project, he finally came down in peace later, and revealed to the father some ambuscades on the road in some dangerous passes where the Indians intended to kill the Spanish soldiers, which danger was avoided by his information. At that time this father was vicar-provincial, and, that he might be able to have more time to attend to these necessary and arduous labors, the provincial relieved him from the office – to the great satisfaction of father Fray Pedro, who esteemed most highly that which was most laborious and least honorable. He paid little attention to his bodily health, all his solicitude being given to the spiritual health of himself and his fellow-men. He treated himself very ill, and would take no comfort even when he needed it. He never complained when he was suffering from illness, until the increase of the disease obliged him to keep his bed, in a condition of such infirmity that, even when in bed, he was unable to move. The hardships which he endured at this time by going (always on foot) over very difficult paths were most trying. The heat of the sun was terrible; he was obliged to be awake much; and he had but little food, and that bad – so that nothing could be looked for except a severe illness or death. He was reduced to skin and bones, and yet he strove to give himself spirit to return to that destroyed vineyard, that he might restore it to its ancient beauty and verdure; but his exhausted strength was insufficient to resist so severe a disease, and they accordingly had him carried down to be cared for in the city of Nueva Segovia. The medicines, however, came so late that he was no longer susceptible to them. Being nothing but skin and bone, he was like a living image of death. He was greatly grieved by his sickness, and his grief was greater since the disease immediately exhibited its deadly malice; yet it was not a rapid one, and hence he had time for preparation for the dreadful journey. He received the holy sacraments very calmly, and he made his confession quite at leisure. Since it was the last one, and there were now no stumbles to be feared, he declared that he went from this world in the virginal purity with which he had entered it. He died on the day of St. Peter the Apostle; on that day he assumed the religious habit; and finally, on that day he ended this miserable life, in the hope of going to eternal felicity by the aid of that same holy apostle, to whom he had always been devoted. This father was a son of the convent of Villaescusa, and, after a life in España in which he had a special reputation for virtue, he continued the same course in this province, with great spiritual progress, for more than twenty years. He was always beloved by all, and always distinguished in his labors for the spiritual good of his fellow-men – not only in Yrraya, but wherever he lived. This was especially true in the district of Malagueg, where another uprising occurred, and where, though he was in great danger of being slain by the insurgents, he showed great courage and readiness to die for the holy gospel. But here the Lord delivered him for more labors, greater merits, and higher glory. In the provincial chapter which followed, the following record was entered on the minutes: “In the convent of our father St. Dominic at Nueva Segovia, died the reverend father Fray Pedro de Sancto Thomas, an aged priest and father, vicar of Yrraya. He was beloved by God and man, and most observant of the rules of the order; and, although he suffered from disease, yet he underwent the greatest hardships for the conversion of the Indians and for sustaining them in the faith.”