Of the intermediary chapter; and of some religious who are mentioned
in it as having died, leaving behind the reputation of virtue.
The intermediary chapter of the provincialate of father Fray Carlos
Clemente Gant was held in the convent of St. Dominic in Manila, May
15, 1639. [The deceased missionaries given mention in that chapter are
as follows: Jacinto de San Geronimo, who professed in the convent of
Santa Cruz at Carboneras in the province of España, and died in the
province of Itui, after a glorious life of labor. Geronimo Morer,
of the province of Aragon, who professed in the convent at Valencia,
and died at an advanced age in the missions of the Babuyanes; he had
charge there of about one thousand tributes in two villages. Juan de
Santo Tomas, who died September 5, 1638, one of the founders of the
province. Next morning early also died the lay-brother Juan de San
Dionisio, a native of Aguilar, who took the habit at the convent of
Escala Coeli (i.e., the Ladder of Heaven) at Cordova; he was known,
before his arrival at the Philippine province, as Juan de Heredia. He
joined the Philippine mission in 1590, and on reaching that land was
employed in various duties, among them that of nurse in the Chinese
hospital of San Gabriel.]
[Chapters iv and v deal with the life of Juan de Santo Tomas (alias
de Ormaza), one of the founders of the province of Santo Rosario,
and its fourth provincial. He was a native of Medina del Campo, and
his father was a noted jurist. The latter desiring his son to follow
in his footsteps, he was sent to the university of Salamanca; but the
youthful student, developing a taste for the religious life, prevailed
upon his parents to allow him to devote himself to religion. He entered
the Dominican convent at Valladolid, where he professed. The first
mission to the Philippines, which arrived there in 1587, found him
among its ranks. Arrived at the islands he was assigned to the missions
at Bataan, where he labored assiduously until the year 1600, when he
became provincial by unanimous vote. Shortly after the completion
of his term of office he was sent to Japan as vicar-general of the
Dominican missions there, and after several years there he returned
to Manila and resumed his old vicariate of Bataan. As old age came
on he retired to the convent of Manila, where he died at the age of
nearly ninety, on December 7, 1638. In the general chapter held in
Rome in 1644, he received mention for his good life and works.]