It was founded in 1699 under the direction of the Jesuit fathers. Its
benefactress and first beata was Mother Ignacia del Espíritu Santo,
a native of Binongo, who died in 1748, at the age of eighty. It has
25 beatas, 59 servants, and 55 wards, [some of] whom pay four pesos
monthly for their support, and some two or three pesos, but these
latter assist in the kitchen and washing once a week. This institution
is supported by the alms and by the products of some sewing and by the
washing of clothes. Every year there are exercises held there which
begin in October; those who attend it are Filipino women. They are
divided into three shifts, and about 300 of them assemble, each of whom
pays two pesos. From that sum they meet the expenses of preachers,
confessors, and their support. Since the expulsion of the Jesuits,
this beaterio has been under the direction of the provisor of the
archbishopric, and for lack of a shelter-house, it supplies its
place. The object of the foundation was that Filipino girls might be
reared in it and taught embroidery, sewing, reading, and writing.