The foundation of Manavag in Pangasinan and the deaths of some
religious
In the year 1605 the missionaries to Pangasinan, not contented with the
fruitful results of their labors in the level region of that province,
took under their charge the village of Manavag, situated among the
mountains at a considerable distance from the other villages. The
first entry into this village was made by the religious of our father
St. Augustine in the year 1600; they built there a church named after
St. Monica, and baptized some children. The village was so small,
however, that it was not possible for a religious to find enough to
do there to justify his continued residence; and accordingly it was
visited from Lingayen, the capital of that province, which was at
that time in their hands. It caused them a great deal of labor, since
they were obliged to travel three days if they went there by water,
and two if they went by land; and therefore it was seldom visited, and
little good resulted to the village. Inasmuch as the whole population
were heathen, they required much persuasion to lead them to baptism,
and a great deal of attention to their religious instruction. On this
account, those fathers placed a juridical renunciation of the said
village in the hands of the bishop, Don Fray Diego de Soria. The
bishop, being a religious of our order, asked his brethren to take
charge of this village, since there were in it many baptized children,
and no other body of religious could care for and guide them. The
bishop, in asking the religious to take this matter in charge, was
laying upon them no small burden; yet the need was almost extreme,
and the great labor brought with it great reward--for, as the
apostle says, each man shall be rewarded at the last judgment in
proportion to his labors. Hence they determined to assume the charge,
and the superior sent there father Fray Juan de San Jacintho, [50]
a devoted religious and an indefatigable laborer in the teaching
of the Indians. He went to Manavag in the year mentioned, and the
fact was spread abroad among the neighboring villages. On account
of the great love which they had for the order, and especially for
the religious who was there (for he was like an angel from heaven),
some other hamlets were added to that one, and the village of Manavag
was made of reasonable size. The Negrillos and Zambales who go about
through those mountains were continually harassing this village, partly
because of their evil desires to kill men, and partly for robbery. They
often came down upon it with bows and arrows, and with fire to burn
the houses and the church which was practically all of straw. They
committed murders, and robbed women and children. Those in the village
being thus terrorized, and the men being unable to prevent the evil,
since their enemies came when they had gone out into the fields,
it was determined to take as patroness the Virgin of the Rosary,
that she might aid them in this need. They accordingly dedicated a
new church to her, and solemnized the dedication with many baptisms of
adult persons. Within a few months, there was not a heathen within the
village--a clear proof that the presence of heathen in the country is
due solely to a lack of missionaries. Wherever the missionaries are,
all are immediately baptized; and not only those of that village which
has the missionaries, but some of their neighbors also, participate
in the teaching of the religious, and in the favors of our Lady of the
Rosary. This is plain from a miracle which occurred a few years after,
and was verified before the vicar-general of this country, who at that
time was father Fray Pedro de Madalena. It happened thus. Four leguas
from Manavag, in a village of Ygolote Indians who inhabit some high
mountain ridges, there lived an Indian chief, a heathen, by the name
of Dogarat, who used sometimes to go down to the village of Manavag,
and to listen out of curiosity to the preaching of the religious. Since
the matters of our faith are truly divine, the Indian began to incline
toward them, and even toward becoming a Christian. He therefore learned
the prayers, and knew them by heart; and the only thing which held
him back was the necessity of leaving his vassals and his kinsmen if
he was baptized, and going away from the washings in a river of his
village, where they used to gather grains of gold, which come down with
the water from those hills and ridges where they are formed. God our
Lord, to draw him to the precious waters of baptism, brought upon him
a severe illness. When he felt the misery of this disease, he sent to
call the religious who was at that time in Manavag, father Fray Thomas
Gutierrez, who came to his village, called Ambayaban, and visited the
sick Indian, giving him thorough instruction in the matters of our
holy faith. When he was thoroughly prepared he baptized him and named
him Domingo. By the aid of the Lord he recovered, and used to attend
church on feast days. He asked for a rosary, which the religious gave
him with a direction to say the prayers of the rosary every day,
that the Sovereign Lady might aid him. He went out hunting once;
and in order that the rosary, which he always wore about his neck,
might not interfere with him or be broken by catching in a branch,
he took it off and hung it on a tree, and with it a little purse in
which he was carrying a trifle of gold. It happened soon after that
some Indians set fire to the mountain to frighten out the game. The
fire kindled the tree where the rosary was hanging, and burnt it all
to ashes. Some time afterward Don Domingo came back for his rosary,
and discovered the destruction which the fire had wrought, and the tree
in ashes. As he was looking among them he found his rosary entire and
unhurt, while everything else was burnt up, and the purse and the gold
were consumed, though they were close to the rosary, which did not show
a sign of fire. The Indian, amazed, went and told his story to father
Fray Thomas, who for a memorial of this marvel kept the miraculous
rosary among the treasures of the church, giving the Indian another
in its place. There it remained, in token of the esteem and respect
which our Lady willed that the fire should pay to her holy rosary.
[In the month of June, 1607, father Fray Juan Baptista Gacet ended his
labors happily in the convent of Sancto Domingo at Manila. He was a
son of the convent of Preachers at Valencia, and a beloved disciple of
St. Luis Beltran, whom he succeeded in the office of master of novices
at Valencia. When St. Luis returned from the Indias, the Lord moved
father Fray Juan to go to them, as he desired to reap a harvest of
souls, and feared that they might strive to make him superior in his
own province. He received the approval of St. Luis, and went to the
Indias at the time when master Fray Alonso Bayllo went out from his
convent of Murcia, by command of our lord the king and of the general
of the order, to divide the province of Vaxac from that of Sanctiago de
Mexico. Being threatened with a superiorship in the province of Vaxac,
father Fray Juan did what he could to avoid it. When a company of
religious under the leadership of father Fray Pedro de Ledesma passed
through Nueva España on their way to the Philippinas, father Fray Juan
decided to accompany them, though he was already of venerable age;
and he reached Manila in 1596. Here he was greatly honored, and, being
too old to learn the Indian languages, was retained in the convent of
Manila to act as confessor and spiritual guide to a number of devout
persons in the city. He was made definitor in the first provincial
chapter, and was later obliged to accept the office of prior--having
no other country to flee to, as he had fled from España to the Indias,
and thence to the Philippinas, to avoid this elevation. He was given
to devout exercises and to prayer, reading often from some devout book,
usually from St. John Climachus, and afterward discussing the passage,
and making it the basis of devout meditation. After leaving the office
of prior, he returned to his life of devotion and abstraction.
On the twentieth of July in the same year, father Fray Miguel de Oro
ended his life in the province of Nueva Segovia. He was a native of
Carrion de Los Condes; and he took the habit and professed in San
Pablo at Valladolid. He afterward went to the religious province of
Guatemala, where he remained for some years, but afterward returned
to España. In 1599 the plague attacked all España and raged with
especial violence in Valladolid. Father Fray Miguel, with four other
religious of our order, devoted himself to the care of those who were
plague-stricken. After the plague he retired to the convent of La Peña
de Francia; but his memory was constantly stirred by the recollection
of his service among the Indians, and in 1601 he went with some other
religious to Manila. He was assigned to the province of Nueva Segovia,
where, although on account of his great age he was unable to learn the
language, his holy example was of great value. He was of great help and
comfort to the minister whom he accompanied, doing all that he could
to make it possible for the minister (who knew the language) to work
among the Indians, and to write in the Indian language compositions and
spiritual exercises, which were of service to the ministers that came
after them. He used to wear next his skin a thick chain, weighing ten
libras; and, that the other brethren might not perceive the marks of
it on his tunics, he used to take care to wash and dry them apart. He
died as a result of a fever caused by the heat of the sun. Father
Fray Miguel was of swarthy complexion, with black and very prominent
eyes which inspired fear. After his death he remained handsome, fair,
and rosy, which caused those present to wonder-all supposing that
these were signs of the glory which his soul already enjoyed.]