Some miracles wrought by God in Pangasinan at the beginning of the
preaching in this province
[Though the Lord did not work so many miracles in this province as in
the primitive church, since that was the foundation of all the churches
since, He still gave authority to the preaching of His gospel in these
regions by many marvelous works. Father Fray Alonso Montero, [38]
a son of the province of Mexico, and a native of Castilla la Vieja,
tells us that, in two years during which he was in this province, no
day passed without a miracle. After a year, during which no conversions
had been made among the Indians, because of their hardness of heart,
it seemed to father Fray Bernardo that it was time to break the silence
which they had kept up to that time. By the favor of an Indian chief
who had been converted in Manila, Don Juan de Vera by name, and of his
brother, who was headman of that village, they visited all the houses,
asking the people to let them have the children to baptize them. In
one house they had a child and hid it. When father Fray Bernardo asked
for it, they told him they had no child. In affliction he turned to
his companion, father Fray Luis Gandullo, and said: "There was a child
here, and they will not let me have him. Ask for him, your Reverence,
perhaps they will give him to you." After they had refused him, too,
the child put up its head, and when father Fray Luis opened his arms
and said to him in the Castilian language, "Come to me, child of my
heart, that knowest not the good that thou losest in being hidden
from holy baptism; come to us. I promise thee to take care of thee,
and to do thee good," the child, as if it had understood Castilian
(of which it did not know a word), and as if it had had the sense to
know what was for its advantage, left its mother and its kinsfolk to
go to the religious, keeping its eyes fixed upon him as if thanking
him for the good counsel they had been giving it. It went with the
religious and was baptized, and turned out to be a very perfect
Christian, as having been made one by miracle. An old man annoyed
them by speaking against them in his own language, and following them
about everywhere. When father Fray Luis took him by the arm and kindly
remonstrated with him, the Indian, who did not understand the language,
began to scream and said, "Let go, Father; I do not wish to become a
Christian." They kept this up for some time till the father let him
go. Some days afterward, the two fathers saw him again; and father Fray
Luis, who had prayed much for him in the interval, pointed him out
to father Fray Bernardo, and said: "Let us ask him now if he wishes
to be a Christian." He accepted, and was baptized. A girl was born
blind, and her parents were so afflicted that, as cruel barbarians,
they planned to kill her. The religious knew of this, and prayed to
God that He would be pleased to provide relief. Father Fray Marcos de
Sant Antonio undertook the business of gaining this soul. He spoke to
the parents of the child; but they were unwilling to give the child,
and offered to sell her. They came to an agreement for eight reals;
and the religious took the child and baptized her. At her baptism,
the Lord was pleased to give her not only the light of His grace, but
also that of corporal sight; and her eyes became miraculously clear
and beautiful. With this the eyes of the parents were also opened,
and they began to give their children for baptism, especially as this
was not the only miracle wrought among the baptized children. That they
might not suppose that the virtue of this most necessary sacrament had
an effect upon children only, an Indian who was wounded in the abdomen,
so that his entrails protruded in great quantity and he seemed to be
near death, was implored by the religious to be baptized. He, however,
refused, and was not even influenced when they once said that this holy
sacrament had sometimes cured bodies as well as souls. The religious
came and did what they could to keep away the ants which came to feed
upon his entrails. He already had the smell of death upon him; and,
when he felt that death was near, he begged for baptism. When he was
baptized, his entrails drew in again, the wound was closed, and he was
as sound as if such a thing had never happened. A number of similar
miracles of healing were wrought. The Indians were surprised to see
the religious come among them unarmed and alone, while the other
Spaniards always came in numbers and with firearms--even then not
regarding themselves as safe, but proceeding with much caution. The
religious, however, went about carelessly. When the Indians consulted
the devil, according to their custom before doing away with any one,
he responded to them that the religious did not go unprotected; that
they were accompanied by an armed angel, with a cross on his brow,
and another on his shield. The Indians had never seen such a thing,
and could not have made up a fiction because they had never seen a
painting or heard mention of any such matter. Thus they learned that
the devil was not so strong as they had supposed, since he was obliged
to admit that there was one stronger than he. Another heathen Indian,
who had permitted his child to be baptized, was rewarded by a vision,
by which he was converted. He put away all his wives but the first,
though he loved another and better one. He built in his village,
called Gabon, a monastery and a church for the religious, more
capacious than those they had. Devils were driven away by the holy
sacrament of baptism, and children were restored to life. When the
heathen jeered at some Christians for going to church on Sunday and
neglecting their fields, God was pleased to send a plague of locusts,
which spared the fields of the Christians. Many more miracles might
be put down here, of which we have reports from religious of great
virtue; and there is a still greater number which they have passed
over and failed to mention.]