The great persecution in Japon, and the care of the province to send
ministers there
[There were three of our religious in Japon at this time, who comforted
the Christians and kept in hiding from the ministers of the law. It
was with great difficulty that they could be assisted. In the year
1628 the four religious orders in these islands, the Franciscans,
the calced Augustinians, the Recollect Augustinians, and our order,
put forth all their energies to send religious to Japon as secretly
as possible. The expense was enormous, amounting to more than ten
thousand pesos from the common purse of these four orders. They
embarked twenty-four religious; among these were six of our holy
order, one of whom died after two days of sailing--father Fray Antonio
Corbera, a native of La Mancha, who had come within a short time to
the Philippinas from the college of San Gregorio at Valladolid. The
ship was wrecked by the carelessness of the pilot. Though the fathers
escaped from drowning, two of ours died from injuries received in
the wreck, and from sunstroke after reaching land. One was father
Fray Antonio Cañizares, a native of Almagro and a son of the convent
of our order there, who had labored nobly among the Indians of these
regions for some years. [44] The other was father Fray Juan de Vera,
a native of the city of Sancta Fee in the kingdom of Granada. He
studied in España at the convent of San Pablo at Valladolid. He came
to this province, learned the Chinese language, and was occupied in
the ministry to the Chinese when he was assigned to this duty. The
Franciscan fathers, not dismayed by the failure of this enterprise,
strove to make the journey to Japon by themselves. During two years,
no news reached us from Japon, except that the persecution had attained
such a point that not even a letter could get in or out.
Finally father Fray Domingo Castellet was captured by the diligence
of the persecutors. He was born in a village named Esparraguera, in
the principality of Cataluña, October 7, 1592. He assumed the habit
of our order October 23, 1608, in the convent of Sancta Cathalina
Martir at Barcelona. He pursued his studies in the very religious
convent of Sancta Cruz at Segovia, where he showed great ability. In
the year of our Lord 1613, when I was about to make a voyage to the
Philippinas Islands as procurator-general for the province of the
Holy Rosary of the Order of St. Dominic, and when I came to Sancta
Cruz at Segovia searching for religious to accompany me, one of the
first who enlisted was father Fray Domingo Castellet. He was assigned
to the province of Nueva Segovia, where he taught for six years in
the new villages called Los Mandayas. In 1621 he was directed to go
to Japon, where he showed the greatest intrepidity in danger, and
wrought a marvelous work. He was taken by surprise, and was followed
to prison by several confessors.]