The life and death of father Fray Thomas Gutierrez, vicar provincial
of the province of Ytuy
[Father Fray Thomas Gutierrez was a native of the city of Origuela
in the kingdom of Valencia; and he assumed the habit in the convent
and college of the order there. When the opportunity offered he went
to the province of Sant Hipolito de Oaxaca in Nueva España. Here he
learned the language of the Mistecs, whose minister he was for some
years. Coming to the Philippinas, he was assigned to the province of
Pangasinan, where in a few months he learned the language so well that
he surpassed many of the very natives. He rebuked the vices of the
Indians with such efficacy that they called him "Thunder," because
he frightened them like the thunder, which they greatly fear. He
was a rigid observer of the rules of the province and was notable
for his modesty. He went courageously among the savage Indians, who
often attack those who are traveling along the paths--not for their
purses, but for their heads, he who cuts off the greatest number
being the most highly esteemed among them.] On one occasion he came
to a village of these Indians called Managuag. While he was there,
more than four hundred of these Zambales, as they are called, appeared
in the village, with their bows, arrows, lances, and daggers such as
they use--which are so keen that in a single instant they strike a
head to the earth. They came into the unsuspecting village with such
a noise and shout that the poor inhabitants, being unarmed, almost
died of fear. Some fled to the mountains, and some sixty Christian
Indians took refuge in the house of a chief. When they saw that they
were lost, having no weapons nor any means to defend themselves,
they put themselves in the hands of God, and decided to make use of
prayers in place of weapons; so they fell on their knees, and began in
a loud voice to pray in their language. The Zambales, hearing them,
surrounded the house and undertook to go up to it. Without knowing
what held them back, they were several times obliged to retreat when
they were half-way there. They finally set fire to it, though against
their will, for they thought much of being able to take with them the
heads of its inmates. It was burned to the ground in a few moments,
with those who were within. Although God did not deliver them from the
fire, He showed by a miracle that He had delivered them from the fires
of hell, and perhaps from the fires of purgatory, exchanging those
for this fire; for they were all found dead in a circle, untouched
by the fire, and on their knees, with their elbows on the ground and
their heads on their hands. Most of them took refuge in the church
under the protection of the father and of God. These availed them;
and the father, without attempting to close doors or windows, took
in his hands a Christ that was on the altar, from whom he and the
people (who were about him) all begged for mercy, which the Father
of Mercies granted them. It was a marvelous thing that though the
cemetery in front of the church had a wall the height of which was
only from a few palmos up to two varas, the enemy were unable to cross
it; and one of them, who leaped over it, was struck dead by a stray
arrow. The roof of the church and the convent was of nipa, which is
like so much dry straw to the fire. Upon it fell many brands and more
than fifty burning arrows, none of which kindled it, though it was
so inflammable. God, choosing to show who it was that defended this
place, by the prayers of His servant Fray Thomas, permitted an Indian
who was with him in the church, and who thought he was not safe there,
to go out, thinking that he might escape by running. The enemy caught
him and cut off his head in an instant. Not an arrow touched even the
clothes of one of those who remained with the father, though these
fell as thick as grass, and though many arrows passed among them,
for they came in at the doors and windows of the church like showers
of rain. Finally the enemy, frightened--although, being barbarians,
they could not understand--when they saw that the fire would not catch,
though there was nothing to prevent it, and that their arms would not
injure these people, though disarmed, retreated with some heads (the
spoils which they most desire) and with some captives. The father,
when the disturbance was over, immediately set about burying the
dead and putting the village in a situation to defend itself from
any other similar attack.
On a mountain chain near two villages, one of which is one of the
most important in the province of Pangasinan, which are called
Binalatongan and Balanguey, there were some unpacified Indians so
savage and barbarous that they knew no occupation but cutting off
heads. They were even more cruel than the ones just referred to,
and came down into the valleys, to the fields of the peaceful Indians
and to the roads, to hunt the latter like so many deer. Father Fray
Thomas was much grieved by this, and did not know what to do to
prevent it. To keep them back by arms he had not the strength; and,
as for arguments, these were not people who would accept them. He
therefore made use of a means which the event showed to have been
revealed to him from above, because according to carnal reason it
seemed to be very contrary to the rules of prudence. He directed two
Christian Indians to go up the mountains to the settlements of their
enemies, totally unarmed, and to carry to them a certain message from
him. They went, for the Indians did not know how to refuse to do what
the father directed them; but they went as if they were going to the
slaughter. When they came to the place, they made signs of peace;
but the barbarians, who knew no more about peace than about theology,
were on the point of killing them without listening to them. But one
of the savages themselves diverted them from this purpose by saying
that they would better listen to them first; that there would be time
to kill them afterwards, because they could not escape. They called
our Indians, and asked them what they wished; and they answered that
they were bringing a message from father Fray Thomas their father;
this was, that he begged them earnestly to do no more harm to these
Indians their neighbors, who were to him as sons. He desired them to
come down and settle in the plains wherever they pleased, promising
that he would regard them likewise as his sons, and would show them
great kindness. They were not acquainted with the father, and did
not know his name; and some of them were of the opinion that they had
better slay the simple ambassadors. Others, contrary to their usual
practice, defended the latter, treated them well, and showed them
hospitality. Among those who were thus kind to them were two chiefs,
of whom one--who was, as it were, the leader of all--was named Duayen;
the other was named Buaya. Their hearts, which were harder than the
hearts of tigers, God softened without any other application than
that which has been described. They sent back his ambassadors to the
father with an escort to defend them in dangerous places, and to take
them safe to his presence; and by them they sent the answer that they
were very ready to do with a good will what he commanded them, and
that they would come down to the plain and settle in three places,
so situated that the father might visit and teach them. They did not
delay in carrying out their promise. They built their villages, and
in them churches and dwellings for the father. In one of the churches
were baptized immediately a son and two daughters of Duayen, together
with many other children, twenty of them boys. Thus was sown the seed
of the gospel, which has grown luxuriantly, at no further cost than
has been recounted. Father Fray Thomas was indefatigable in striving
for the good of souls. For the benefit of souls he made journeys of
twelve leguas on foot, over very bad roads and in the heat of the
sun. He sometimes went among warlike Indians who cut off the heads of
others, while he and those who went with him saved theirs. It seemed
to his companion, when he took one, that even though the companion was
weak, a contagion of strength went out from the father, so that his
associate was able to follow him, and they both went on long journeys
without being much exhausted. Father Fray Thomas was not grieved
that the direction of his superior occupied him in different posts,
and called him from one place which was already cultivated well to
another which was not so, but very ill--an effect which might have
resulted from various causes. In the province of Ylocos--which is
next to that of Pangasinan, and between it and that of Nueva Segovia,
all of them being in this island of Luçon--there is a large village
called Nalbacan, the instruction of which was entrusted to secular
clergy. As they were quickly changed, one after the other, and as some
of them did not know the language of the natives, the village was in
great lack of religious instruction. The bishop of these provinces,
Don Diego de Soria, determined to give this village to the order,
that it might minister to it. The father provincial who held that
office at the time, charged father Fray Thomas with this duty. He set
out there immediately, and began on the way to learn something of the
language of the country, of which he had already a vocabulary and a
grammar. Though it is different from that of Pangasinan, he preached
in it at the end of twenty days after he arrived there, and before
the bishop and other priests who were there, and before the natives,
to the wonder of all. He began to fill his office so acceptably to the
Indians that some came from the most remote parts of the province to
confess to him and to receive his counsels. He was given the name of
"the holy father," and, whenever they spoke of him, they used this
name. As this is the appellation of the supreme pontiff of the church,
whom the Indians had never seen, and still less had any dealings with
him, those who were not acquainted with the secret were surprised
to hear them speak until they came to understand it. Father Fray
Thomas remained here a year, and his teaching and example were easily
perceived in the improvement of the Indians and of those who were
under his direction. All this province of the Indians is under the
care of Augustinian fathers, who have in it many places where they
give Christian instruction. They accordingly claimed this of Nalbacan,
which was the only place outside of their jurisdiction. The order was
very willing to yield it, and in exchange for it the Augustinians
gave to our order another, which they had among our ministries in
Pangasinan; and thus each order remained with its province complete,
with its own tribe and language. When the Augustinian fathers came
to take possession of the house of father Fray Thomas, as they did
somewhat in advance of the time, he departed with nothing but his
cloak, his hat, his breviary, and his staff, setting out for the
province of Nueva Segovia, which was very near, to wait for the
order of his superior, and to be disposed of as he pleased. Desiring
not to be idle in the interim, for he did not wish to be idle a
single hour--and if he did not know the language he would have to
be idle many hours--he learned the language of that country with the
facility which God had given him. He was aided by the fact that the
languages of these three provinces of Indians are somewhat alike,
and resemble each other in their idioms and in their syntax--which
does not seem to have been invented by a barbarous people, but by a
race of intelligence and keenness of mind. He remained but a short
time in this province, being sent by the order of his superior to
his former province of Pangasinan, whose language he understood as
if it were his mother-tongue. In this language he wrote many books
of devotion, sermons, and treatises, which he distributed while
he was alive among the fathers who were ministers to that people;
and he left others behind him at his death, as his estate, for he
had no other estate except instruments of penance. From these long
journeys on foot, through these rough and hot regions, a sickness
resulted in Pangasinan which threatened to be the last of his life,
and obliged him to give up the ministry to the Indians, much against
his will. He suffered from this very much more than from the pain
of the illness; but what he could not gain in this life he laid up
for the other by his admirable patience and fortitude. Finally God
restored his health, without medicines or comforts, for which there
is little provision here; and there was less then, because things
were nearer the beginning, when everything was barrenness and extreme
poverty. With all these merits, he still lacked one thing to fill up
the measure of his deserts. The common enemy of souls guessed this,
and once appeared to him, while he was reading a book of devotion,
in a hideous and shocking form; and although the father made the
sign of the cross, the enemy did not flee so quickly but that he
had time to say that, if it were not for the stones on the father's
neck, he would be revenged upon him. This was the rosary, which the
father took off neither by night nor by day, that he might be at
all hours armed against him who may attack at any hour, and will do
so whenever he is permitted. His zeal for souls increased with age,
contrary to what often happens; for with the old age of the body,
the weakening of the strength, and the increase of infirmity, old
age often attacks the spirit--as St. Paul says (Hebrews, viii),
Quod antiquatur et senescit prope interitum est [56]--which is as
true of the spirit as of the body. When the father had reached the
age of seventy years, he implored father Fray Francisco de Herrera,
who was provincial at the time, to send him to Japon on the occasion
when the large mission thither was planned which, afterward, God did
not see fit to permit to be carried out. I think that this was not
the first time that he proffered this request to his superiors. In
proportion to the dangers and hardships promised by this mission,
of which father Fray Thomas was not ignorant, was his earnestness
in the desire to be a member of it. This is a proof of his vigorous
spirit in venerable old age. His urgent request was not admitted, on
the ground of his age; but he did not lose the merit of it, since he
made it without any hypocrisy. God preserved him for another mission
(that described in the previous chapter), which he undertook in the
province of Ytui. He had made a beginning there in former years, but
had not carried it on because of the obstacle there mentioned. He had
now come to three years beyond seventy, and undertook the difficult
expedition already described with as much spirit and energy as if
he had only half his years. Yet he was much bowed with infirmities,
as well as with age; and between them he seemed, as he walked,
to be dragging along his body and his bowels. The words which the
church sings of the holy old Simeon are not inappropriate, Senex
puerum portabat; puer autem senem regebat. [57] This same God whose
name he, as His vassal, desired to carry to all regions, directed
him and strengthened him, so that he undertook enterprises so far
beyond the strength of one bowed with years and infirmities. In this
period of his life he began to learn the language of this province,
accomplishing his purpose in three months, and beginning to preach
to the natives in it. He went to attend them in their spiritual needs
whenever they summoned him, however far away he was, without heeding
rain, or sun, or difficult roads. Though very compassionate to all,
he was rigorous to himself alone, and that throughout his life. Every
night he took a rigorous discipline; and never after he entered the
order did he eat meat, except in case of grave necessity. He did not
complain of his food when it was scanty or ill prepared, in sickness
or in health. To the fasts of the order he added others. After the
festival of the Resurrection he added another Lent up to Whitsunday,
and another afterwards to the day of our father St. Dominic, so that
the whole year was to him fasting and Lent. On Wednesdays, Fridays,
and Saturdays throughout the year, and on the eves of the festivals
of Christ our Lord, of the Virgin his most holy Mother, and of our
father St. Dominic, and of the saints of the order, he fasted on
bread and water. As a result he possessed that which follows such
fasting--a heroic degree of chastity. Finally the last illness of
his life came upon him, being occasioned by a fall from a precipice,
while he was in the work of his ministry. During the whole time of
his illness, his companion could not persuade him to accept a sheet
of very coarse cotton, or to permit his bed to be changed. On the bed
which he had in health, which was a frame of cane-work covered with
a patched blanket, he desired to await the hour of his death. Before
his death he made a general confession, covering his whole life from
the time before he reached years of discretion. Though his confession
covered so many years, it lasted about a quarter of an hour. After
he had most devoutly received the other sacraments, he died in the
Lord, March 30, 1633. The following provincial chapter, in giving
notice to the province of his happy death, said: "In the province of
Ytui father Fray Thomas Gutierrez ended his days, an aged priest and
father, most observant of the rules of the order, severe to himself
and most gentle to others. He labored in this province for the good
of souls for the space of five and thirty years, with such devotion
that the very Indians, by whom he was most beloved, held and regarded
him as pious and a saint. This aroused the ill-will of the devil,
who appeared to him while he was at prayer; and the wicked enemy was
able to arouse in him great fear and terror, but not to harm him,
because he found him protected with the impregnable rosary of the
Virgin. Of him we have the pious faith that, full of years and of
virtue, he has flown to heaven."