The entry of the religious into Pangasinan
When the order of our father St. Dominic reached these islands the
Indians of Pangasinan were given over to idolatry, and so detested
the gospel that, though the ministry of some religious was brought to
the Indians on both sides of them (who are those of the provinces of
Panpanga and of Ylocos), these Indians always refused to admit them;
and they treated those fathers so badly that, though there were some
clergy and some Franciscan religious who desired and endeavored to
convert them, these had no success with them on account of their
determined resistance. On the contrary, the Indians were wretchedly
victorious, obliging the ministers, by their perversity, to go away
and leave them in the darkness which they so loved and delighted
in. There was only one place--the principal village, called Lingayen,
where the alcalde-mayor resided--in which some of the religious
of our father St. Augustine had been able to persevere. They were
protected and defended by the law, and by the Spaniards who lived
there, who by their presence were able to compel the Indians to treat
the fathers properly--not as they had been in the other villages,
where they were not only treated discourteously, but came near to
being killed. This treatment resulted in bringing the fathers to the
conclusion that it was best to leave them, which was what the Indians
desired, and even what the devil whom they served had commanded them,
on occasions when he had spoken with them. One of these occasions
occurred while some Indians were on their way from the villages below
to the mountains of the Ygolotes, on their ordinary business. As they
were going through a thicket [arcabuco] full of bushes and briars,
they heard a very loud and dreadful voice lamenting and complaining
pitifully. The Indians retreated with great alarm at hearing this
voice in so rough and so lonely a place; but, as they were many, they
ventured to follow it to see who had uttered it, and in this way they
came near to the place where it had sounded. Though they kept on going
up the mountain, they saw nobody, and came no nearer to the voice they
heard. Their alarm greatly increased, and one of them, exerting his
breath and voice as much as he could, asked: "Who art thou that thus
lamentest and utterest such groans?" and they heard this answer: "I am
Apolaqui"--who among them takes the place of Mars among the heathen
Romans--who might be called their god of war, and to whom they also
pray when they go on a voyage, or on any journey for business. And when
they heard it was their revered and highly beloved Apolaqui that was
complaining, their alarm increased so greatly that they were almost
out of their senses, until one of the most courageous of them said:
"Apolaqui, our anito," for thus they are accustomed to call those
whom they reverence as God, "for whom we celebrate feasts, what cause
have we given thee now that thou shouldest complain thus? Wherefore
hast thou thundered upon these mountains, putting us in such fear,
though we have done nothing to offend thee?" Apolaqui answered:
"I am weeping to see fulfilled that which for years I have dreaded:
that ye should receive among you strangers with white teeth, wearing
cowls, and that they should place in your houses some sticks of wood
laid across each other to torment me," for thus he spoke of the
crosses. "And now I am going from among you, seeking to find some
one to follow me, since ye have abandoned me for strangers, though
I am your ancient lord." To this day the Indians give to the place
where the demon spoke, this name (which in their language means "at
the cross"), Pinabuenlagan. Is it strange that he who would do such
things when he merely knew that the preachers of truth were near him,
and who would thus alarm the Indians who followed him, should cause
them to treat the ministers of the gospel as badly as they always
did? It was to these Indians then, so ill disposed to receiving the
faith, that father Fray Bernardo de Sancta Catalina was sent with five
associates, all priests, who arrived there in the month of September,
1587. A Spanish encomendero of that country, called Ximenez del Pino,
gave them a little bit of a house, for it was not to be hoped of
the Indians that they would offer any hospitality to the friars;
on the contrary, they hated them above all things. There was one
man that offered them, if they would go away, a chinanta of gold,
which is the weight of half an arroba--so far were they from offering
hospitality to our fathers and doing them any kindness. The religious
knew all this, and went on with patience, which was very necessary;
for so determined were the Indians to receive them badly that the
friars were, so to speak, in a desert, so far as anything that human
society could do for them was concerned. They suffered greatly from
hunger and from hardships. The Indians refused to provide them with the
necessities of life, for payment or for anything else. Many times the
religious had to carry on their backs their wood and water, and even
their poor little beds, when they went from one village to another;
for in this way the Indians strove to force them to go away, as the
religious had been in the habit of doing. But the virtues of these
fathers overcame everything. The hardships that they had to suffer,
however severe, did not attain the height of the sufferings which they
desired to bear for the Lord; nor did the difficulties which they met,
which were not few, discourage them; nor could the little hope that
the Indians gave of being converted take away the hope that the Lord
gave; for He was certain to pity these tribes, for whom He had shed
His blood. That which happened was very strange, and it should not
therefore be reported without evidence worthy of it, which is that
of the first bishop of these tribes, Don Fray Miguel de Venavides--a
religious of very superior virtue, as we shall tell in due time,
who made a report from his bishopric to Clement VIII, at that time
head of the church. This report, because of the person who wrote it,
because it was written to the sovereign pontiff, and because it was
written in fulfilment of the oath which he had taken, as bishop of
this holy see, to obey and to report the condition of his church
and bishopric to his Holiness, must be free from all suspicion. I
know not in what way, but somehow it was printed; and there are many
copies in our convent in Valencia. The report is as follows. "It is
about eleven years since the Dominican fathers entered the province of
Pangasinan. That which has happened in the conversion of the province,
which at the present time is composed of Christians--there being, of
course, a heathen here and there--is such that we must give thanks to
God for it. The miracles by which these tribes have been converted have
been the lives of the ministers, though there have not been lacking
other miracles, for the Lord has now and then shown the power of His
hand. There were at first six religious of this order; and when the
Indians saw them, they immediately asked the fathers when they were
going away. The natives saw no opportunity to drive them away from
their country; and so much did they detest them that there was no means
by which they could be induced to give the fathers anything to eat,
even for money. Thus for the space of three years they suffered many
hardships; but their rebelliousness could not outstrip the patience of
the fathers. Besides all this, five of the fathers fell sick at once,
and were in that condition for five months; but at the end of that
time, God was pleased to give them their health without physician,
or medicine, or comforts. Such was the treatment accorded them by
the Indians, to say nothing of the fact that no one was converted
to our holy faith. The bishop of these islands, Don Fray Domingo
de Salazar, noticing this fact, begged the religious to leave the
Indians and depart from their country. This he did at the request
of many Spanish captains. It was true that these Indians were of
all the tribes in the country the worst, the fiercest, and the most
cruel--an unconquered tribe who celebrated their feasts by cutting
off one another's heads. But the superior who was then at the head
of the province was unwilling to take this step; on the contrary,
he said, 'These bad Indians are the ones whom I wish my friars to
convert.' After three years, during which they only baptized a few boys
(for the natives were unwilling to give the girls), the Indians began
to believe in the religious; and the beginning that the Lord chose
for this was the following. When the Indians perceived the way in
which the friars lived, the fasts and penances which they performed,
their patience amid hardships, and the fact that the fathers not
only did them no harm, but came to their aid in their necessities,
they began to be mollified, and to believe what the friars said. The
story is told that an Indian chief went one night to a religious
and said to him: 'Father, you must know that I have been watching
you for two years, and have carefully noted everything that you do;
and I see that you all have one way of living. If one of you does not
eat, no more do the others; if one of you rises at midnight to pray,
so do the rest; if one of you avoids women, all the rest of you do
so too. You all of you follow one rule and one road; you strive to
obtain neither gold nor silver; you are ill-treated and yet patient;
you do all things for our good. Hence I have resolved to believe you,
since I am persuaded people who act like you will not deceive.' So
high did the good opinion of these Dominican religious rise among
those people (God having ordained it thus in His goodness and
providence), that the Indians actually regarded those of this habit
as sinless; so much so that if the devil sometimes suggested to an
Indian woman an improper dream with reference to a friar, when the
woman afterwards came to confess she did not say: 'I accuse myself
of having dreamed this about a friar,' but, 'about a devil in the
shape of a friar.' When the leading men of the tribe began to consider
becoming Christians--their headmen being already so, as well as some
others--they came to the religious, and persuaded them that, in order
that all of them might be converted together, they should first of
all give up in a single day everything which they held in commission
for the devil; these things were the instruments which they used for
their sacrifices. The fathers accordingly did as they wished, and,
with the assistance of these same governors of the country there were
given up an infinite number of pieces of earthen ware and a great
deal of very old wine--for this is regarded as the thing consecrated
to the devil; and no one dares touch or go near it except at the time
of the sacrifice, and then only the minister who performs it. They
are accustomed to keep this wine at the head of the bed in a little
earthen jar, like holy water. When they had given all this up (which
they did with very good will), they all proposed immediately to become
Christians, and to know and learn the things of our holy Catholic
religion. After they had learned them and been instructed in them,
they were directed to fast for forty days, or one month; and general
baptisms took place on the eve of the feasts of the Resurrection
and Pentecost. [Long before this a marvel had happened in which an
Indian had been cured of a frightful rupture after his baptism. This
made the Indians regard the baptism as something medicinal, and they
wished to be baptized whenever they were sick, in order to be cured;
but the fathers undeceived them. They made the same mistake about the
sign of the cross, and in regard to the cross itself. Visions were
seen. At one time, when some of the brethren were desirous of leaving
this region and of going to China to preach the gospel, one of them
laid the matter before the Lord in prayer. He dreamed that night that
he saw the good man of a household, clad in a long robe, and sending
men out to reap his harvest. When they came to one sterile place where
there was only a spike of grain here and there, they did not wish to
reap it, but to go to another field where the harvest was rich; but
the good man said to them: 'Will you not reap here? then you shall reap
neither here nor there.' Finally, God was pleased that by the patience
and sufferings of these ministers this tribe should be converted and
baptized. They are now very good Christians, insomuch that some of
them can conduct prayer like religious who most closely follow the
rules of their order. They are people of very good intelligence, and
often put very clever questions and propose intelligent doubts. At
one time when a religious was preaching of the mercy of God in dying
for men, an Indian woman rose in the midst of his sermon, and said:
'Wait, Father. How can you say that Christ died? You have said that
Christ was God; but God cannot die.' At another time, a sick Indian put
the question whether God did not concur in all things that happened in
the earth and was not thus responsible for the evil of it. They even
go beyond things required, in order to do works of supererogation,
many of them rising at midnight to pray when the matin bell rings;
they follow the fasts of the Dominican order; when they rise, the
first thing they do at dawn is to make an offering of themselves and
all that they have to our Lord; whenever they begin an undertaking,
they first offer it to God, with their minds, their hearts, and their
hands in the work. Though poor, they give alms frequently. Some of
them, whenever they eat, put aside a portion as 'Christ's food,'
and send it to some sick person. Some of them fast during the whole
Advent, in preparation for the feast of the Nativity. It is said of
one Indian woman that St. Mary and St. Joseph visited and ate with her
one Advent. All the Spaniards and religious of other orders are amazed
at this conversion, and especially at seeing them give up vices so
enticing as drunkenness, which used to be very common among them--up
to the point of making them unable to keep their feet--but which they
have now given up so completely that some do not even taste wine. They
greatly delight in the devotion of the rosary. The very friars who
are their ministers are amazed to see such a conversion in a tribe so
barbarous, so cruel, and so completely given over to vice. Their minds
are set upon preparing themselves for death, so that they regard all
besides--houses, property, and children, and all temporal things--as
merely accessory. Those who can afford it have masses said for their
souls while they are still alive, as if they were already dead;
and give much alms to this end. Those who have not the means for
this, fast and mortify themselves. In this province the ministers
have begun to give the most holy sacrament of the communion to the
natives, as being adult in the faith. They prepare themselves for the
communion with great devotion. As there are no masses except on the
great feasts, some prepare themselves as if they were to communicate
every month, being contented with spiritual communion. The hand
of the Lord hath wrought this; for the ministers had this success,
with a race speaking a foreign language, one which the missionaries
did not know as thoroughly as their own, while when these same men
preached to those of our own nation and language, their words have
had no such effect. The fault is in the hearers, who are unwilling
to profit by the good which God has sent them." Here the report of
Venavides ends. Other reports have been sent to Espana of the perfect
devotion of these people. One of these tells how the Indians crowd the
churches at the time of confession, fast, and communicate regularly;
how many of the married ones live a great part of the time not as
man and wife but as brother and sister--in particular, during Lent,
and for some days before communicating; how there would be no end
to the good that might be said about these people; and how some of
them are of very good intelligence, and ingenious in asking questions
which make the ministers reflect. This report is by father Fray Juan
de Sancto Domingo, afterward a holy martyr in Japon. [37] It is dated
at Magaldan, a village of Pangasinan, November 8, 1618. Father Fray
Bernardo de Santa Catalina or Navarro, the apostle to this tribe, one
of whose reports bears date of Manila, the twenty-fourth of [sic] one
thousand six hundred and twelve, says that the great care manifested
by our religious in following the rules of the order has given them
power to overcome these unconquerable tribes. He reports that the
number of persons baptized in the province of Pangasinan has grown
from a few new-born boys to ten thousand, and that the number of those
in this region who are prepared for heaven is constantly increasing.]