There live in this college (the leading one [34] in this vice-province)
seventeen of Ours--seven priests and ten brethren. All of them, by the
favor of divine Providence, have by their example and labor brought in
a rich harvest from the spiritual tilling of this city. This has been
added to on account of the war and the earthquake, the loss of the
ships, and other calamities; and we have learned by experience that
piety grows more rapidly in adverse than in prosperous fortune. The
earthquake has made us hesitate to go on with the completion of the
college buildings, for we are compelled first to repair what has
already fallen or is on the verge of ruin. Last year we wrote that
on the twenty-first of June the main part of the nave of the church
had fallen; but in this year of 1601, on the sixteenth of January,
the other part corresponding to it was overthrown, and the rest so
shaken that it had to be leveled with the ground. We regard it as
a great blessing that these buildings fell without injuring anyone,
although the first of the earthquakes came while the people were in
the church at mass, the other when it was least expected. The people
of Manila have accordingly been warned by Ours of the daily peril
of life on earth, and have begun to lift up their hearts to heaven,
and to pray for its care and protection. By a happy lot it has been
obtained for them by the patronage and advocacy of St. Polycarp,
[35] bishop and martyr, the disciple of St. John the Evangelist;
and in his honor they have begun to celebrate an annual feast with
a solemn procession.
The beginning of another pious work has been made this year with
marked results. This is the practice of scourging, not as hitherto
on three days in Lent, but every Friday throughout the year, in our
church. There is a great concourse of people at that time to hear the
fiftieth psalm, _Miserere_, by the melancholy harmony of which they
are most moved to devotion and to doing penance. Not infrequently
the royal auditors and the governor himself have been present, as
well as other leading men.
Those in prison also have been aided by the reception of sacramental
confessions and by pious exhortations; and--a thing that has edified
the people not a little--the necessary food was for some days carried
all the way to the prisons on our shoulders. From children, too,
the food of Christian doctrine has not been withheld on Sundays;
and with the children arranged in the form of a procession we went
out during Lent to the military barracks, where after delivering
sermons we reaped fruit not to be ashamed of.
The congregation of scholastics begun this year has made the best
of progress. Every month, according to the rules, they make their
confession to the priest, and partake of the divine food. On feast-days
they spend the afternoons in listening to spiritual reading and in
commemorating the examples of the saints. The solemn feasts of the
Blessed Virgin they celebrate with the greatest fervor and joy. On one
of these they go with their cloaks cast off, each with a silver ewer
and basin in his hands, and carry food to the prisons, marching in the
finest order and system; and with great readiness and humility they
serve the unhappy men. They are believed to have taken their manner
of procedure, in all respects, from the congregation at Rome. The
privileges of the Sodality, also, have so much attracted laymen that it
has been necessary to divide them into two orders. As for the adult men
and householders who look forward to spending Sundays and feast-days
to advantage in the Sodality, the father-visitor has made a beginning,
by delivering to them familiar exhortations, and narratives of pious
examples taken from the Lives of the Saints; and we have every reason
to hope that the undertaking will succeed to the greater glory of
God, with the most noble of advantages to the city. Even now there
are some who, having heard one or another sermon, have entered upon
more holy and profitable ways of living than they followed before.
A beginning was also made this year in selecting some saint's name
by lot (a custom introduced in some towns); and there has been a
great concourse of people. One man was plunged into the sea along
with many others in the naval battle with the Dutch already spoken
of; but because he invoked the name of his patron, St. Nicanor, who
had fallen to his lot that month, he was rescued from that danger in
which the others were swallowed up; and by swimming a whole league
at last got to shore, to his own great wonder.
The number of those confessing and communicating this year has
surpassed that of any previous year, for upon their old devotion has
been heaped up new, kindled by the torches of calamity. The quarrels
of many have also been brought to an end. In Lent, moreover, their
zeal for all piety flamed forth in the confession of many evils, and
in doing penance for them with daily scourgings, and other exercises
of devotion.
The chastity of a certain woman was assailed by some of the wicked,
with entreaties and the bestowal of gifts; but by the weapons of more
frequent communion and confession she repulsed the attacks of the
enemy. Yet even then the enemy was not made entirely to desist. One
day, after the holy communion, which she had devoutly taken in our
church, she was walking in a lonely place; and there he came up to
her, and with his dagger at her bosom, he threatened her with death
unless she consented to wickedness. But she answered with firmness
that she preferred death to offending God. Then with blows and words
of insult she vanquished the beastly desires of her adversary, barely
escaping with her honor.
Another, giving up all thought of God and of his own salvation, had
spent many years in dreadful sin, and especially in a disgraceful
lust, which was so deeply rooted and fixed in his innermost heart
that he regarded our priest, who strove to lead him away from this
vile manner of life, as only less than a fool. So completely had he
plunged himself into the filth of these pollutions of his soul that,
like a sow in a wallow, he seemed to take pleasure in nothing else. Yet
at last this obstinate man yielded to argument and persuasion, and
not only gave up visiting his harlot, but tore all lust from his
heart by the roots as completely as if he had had no knowledge of
it; for by a general confession of the lapses of his past life he so
corrected his morals that all those who knew him before were amazed
at the sudden change in his life.
When the Dutch pirates of whom we have spoken were condemned to death
in Manila by the judges, the governor thought it well to entrust
them to several religious, as they might perhaps abjure their errors
and be reconciled to Holy Church. It pleased the divine goodness to
restore all, to the number of thirteen, except the admiral, who as an
obstinate heretic was hanged and cast into the sea. The others with so
great sorrow for their crimes subjected themselves to the obedience of
the holy Roman church that it seemed good to the religious fathers to
admit them to the holy communion. Of five commended to our Society I
can affirm that they greatly edified all, for they made a confession
of the sins of all their life and approached the holy communion with
many tears, having previously made public profession of the Roman
Catholic faith and abjured their heresies, being prepared to live
and die in the said faith. Two days later, with rosaries around their
necks they were led forth to the place of execution in great joy of
mind that they could atone for their sins by death.
Our Order has been no less occupied with the Indians in these
regions than with others--partly because there is a greater number
of them gathered in this town of Manila than anywhere else, partly
because they feel a greater good-will toward the members of the
Society than toward any others. They never lack some one of Ours
to aid their confessions; and they would need old priests the year
round, if there were so many who understood the language, to hear
the confessions of all. They greatly affect the holy communion, and
report wonderful fruit from it. Every week, on Saturday, very many
hasten to perform their discipline with the others; and more would
come if the city gates which separate the Indians from the Spaniards
were not closed at nightfall. Indeed many do not fear to creep through
the little hole in the gates in order not to neglect that salutary
penance. They hasten, too, on the Sabbath to hear the sacrament of
the mass of the Blessed Virgin, and in Lent to hear sermons, and that
in such numbers that, although our church is of considerable size,
they fill it completely. And when it was overthrown by the earthquake,
they all hastened together, down to the very children, to give their
help in carrying stones away. It was a delightful sight to see them
swarming like ants upon the rubbish and the wall--men and women,
young and old, powdered with dust and lime, carrying baskets on their
shoulders and vying with each other in carrying off the ruins so as
to clear the space.
The girls' sodality, recently introduced among the natives, has
marvelously roused all the others. Sometimes they have fed the poor
with such liberality that much was left for the prisoners and other
needy persons. After the meal was over, they poured water for the hands
of the poor persons, and kissed them; and then the poor persons fell
on their knees and prayed God for their benefactors. At another place
these same Indian members of sodalities went to the Indian hospital and
there gave their aid to the sick by making their beds and digging up
the ground for them--a thing worthy of special admiration in this race,
for they abhor visiting hospitals. The sodality members, although poor,
offer the usual alms to the church and to those who are in need. They
are given to hearing sermons and to fasting, being content for whole
weeks with bread and water. They are glad to go to our churches for
confession and spiritual instruction, and obtain great spiritual
benefit and edification.
A certain Christian woman who was for a long time held in slavery to
the infidels in the islands of Mindanao and Borneo, which are given
to the faith of Mahomet, could not be torn from the true belief,
or be persuaded to the worship of idols, although she visited many
of their places.
An Indian man, who along with some others had made his confession
that he might receive the holy communion, declares that he had kept
silent as to the circumstances of some sins; and that in a vision he
saw a beautiful child offering to him the holy eucharist. But when
he answered that he was a great sinner, the child replied: "Thou
are indeed not worthy of the communion, for in thy confession thou
hast hidden such and such a circumstance." Therefore when he awoke
he hurried to our church, revealed the vision to one of the fathers,
and desired to repeat his confession.
Another had so accustomed himself to the scourging of his body that
one day when he was required to march with a troop of soldiers,
he withdrew from it in the night, in order that he might not omit
this holy exercise. When the officer of the infantry, going his
rounds at night, secretly perceived this, he thought the man was
meditating some mischief, and silently followed him. At last he saw
him enter the cemetery of a church, and after pouring forth prayers
to God, beat his back severely. When the scourging was finished, the
officer approached; and when he recognized this Indian, he was even
more edified. And when he asked him where he was from, he answered
that he came from the city of Manila, and said that he was in the
habit of confessing to Ours. The captain, marveling that a tyro in
the Christian religion should take such care of his soul's health,
gave him some money and told him to go back home, that he might not
be perverted by the habits of the soldiery.
A priest with a brother as his companion was sent off as on a
mission to some Seilan villages, which, being without parish priests,
needed instruction. When they reached there the plague was raging;
and the father and brother freely assisted them, not only by the
administration of the sacraments of confession and the communion,
but by that of food, which was prepared in our church.
On another mission performed by the rector of the college and another
priest, there was a mighty fruit of their labors reaped in hearing
confessions, in reconciling enemies, and in recalling the perverse to a
better life. Twenty adults were initiated by the sacrament of baptism,
having been imbued with the Christian faith by a certain blind man. He,
though deprived of the use of his eyes, yet took such care of his
catechumens that if a single one out of any number, however great,
was missing, he regularly informed the father. We think the more
of this from the fact that he who formerly was numbered among the
catalons--that is, petty priests of idols--now since his conversion
has become a teacher of Christian doctrine.