Chapter V
_Now the second provincial Chapter is held. The mission to the Philippinas Islands is effectively discussed. The college of Zaragoça and the convent of Pedroso are founded. Reference to the life of Sister Polonia de los Santos_.
_Year 1605_
[At the second provincial chapter meeting of the Augustinian Recollects, held in April, 1605, at the convent at Madrid, father Fray Joan Baptista de Vera was chosen provincial. At that chapter meeting, the question of the rules of the young order was taken up, with other business. After the conclusion of their business the convention dissolved, "while father Fray Joan de San Geronimo [25] was effecting his passage to the Indias, with his good companions" (pp. 396, 397).]
_First mission of our religious to the Philipinas Islands_
To his arduous labor in the formation and growth of the poor discalced Augustinians, the first provincial [_i.e._, Fray Joan de San Geronimo] gave a heroic end by beginning the very observant province of San Nicolàs [26] de Tolentino, in the islands adjacent to Asia which we commonly call Philippinas....
[A short narrative of the early discoverers follows, and the beginnings of the Augustinian missions. That order proving inadequate to cope with the immense number of the infidels, the other orders are also given a part in their conversion. But the need of other laborers is still felt, and King Felipe II assents to the petition of Fray San Geronimo "to go to the Indias with twelve associates to preach the gospel, in that part that he should deem best." King Felipe "immediately decreed that he should get ready to go to the Philippinas Islands, and ordered his ministers to give him the despatches immediately. The noted and pious father had the despatches in hand before the celebration of the chapter, where after it was called to order, he presented there the decree, which received prompt obedience."]
The memorial of this circumstance is found in the old register, and is in the following form: "May first, one thousand six hundred and five, while the very reverend fathers were in session, etc. Our father Fray Joan de San Geronimo, outgoing provincial of this province, presented certain royal letters of the king our sovereign, and of his royal Council of the Indias, in which his Majesty gives permission to the said father Fray Joan de San Geronimo to take twelve religious to the Philippinas Islands to preach the holy gospel, and to found monasteries of our holy order in those Philippinas Islands. Having examined and read them, the expedition seemed to us to be one of great service to God, and we, the entire body of definitors, resolved that it should be undertaken accordingly; and that all the documents and authority necessary should be given to him so that he should go as superior and vicar-provincial of the said Philippinas Islands; that he may found monasteries there, and in all parts of the Indias--with the following proviso, namely, that he shall not have more authority than that which this province shall give him; and that those houses that shall be founded there, and the religious in them, shall always be subject to the father provincial who is, or shall be, over this province. He shall always correspond with the latter, and at each chapter held they shall send the elections of vicar-provincial and priors, and the acts that they shall pass, so that the father provincial of this province may confirm them, or refuse to confirm, as he shall deem best. Advice shall be given of all the deceased of those houses, so that the office may be performed for them, at the time when the elections of the vicar-provincials shall be sent, etc." Then, lower in the roll of those elected--or in the catalogue, as we commonly call it--one reads at the end the words that follow: "As vicar provincial of the Indias, we nominate the venerable father, Fray Joannis de Sancto Hieronymo, and assign to him fourteen religious, who shall always be subject to this provincial of this province of Hispania." This arrangement having been made (which was made by the intervention of the royal decrees that were despatched at Valladolid, April three of that year, and which contained, in fact, the permission for such, and general authority to found as many convents there as the new Augustinian Recollect missionaries were able and desired; to which were added other messages touching spiritual matters which the pontiff's legate generously conceded), the father provincial, Fray Joan Baptista, decreed the issue of his warrant, on May two. In this document, after mentioning that he was ordered and commanded by the king, and also by the said legate, to send the said father as superior of the religious, who were about to set out for the help of those who were occupied in the vineyard of the Lord, in the cultivation of those islands, the father provincial entrusted to him all his authority, without reserving anything whatever; but with the conditions that we mention, in the records and other minutes which are generally made on such occasions, the permissions that are despatched.
The father vicar-provincial had already chosen his workers, men like himself. They were among the choicest and best men that the Reform then had in their convents. They were as follows: Fathers Fray Andres de San Nicolàs, who was called de Canovas, an apostolic man, and a great preacher in word and deed; Fray Miguel de Santa Maria, a most exemplary man, and devoted to the rigorous life; Fray Geronimo de Christo, [27] very austere and observant; Fray Pedro de San Fulgencio, a capable and very clever man for all things; Fray Diego de la Anunciacion, [28] adorned with very singular virtues, and regarded as a saint; Fray Rodrigo de San Miguel, [29] most keen-witted and erudite in all learning; Fray Francisco Baptista, a penitent to excess, and regulated by conscience; Fray Francisco de la Madre de Dios, most zealous for the discalced, and for the welfare of his brethren; Fray Andres del Espíritu Santo, a religious, although very young, very modest and retiring. [30] The father superintendent also chose four other religious, lay brethren, who were of use and a great credit to the Reform, on the voyage, and at the time when they came, whose names are as follows: Fray Simon de San Joseph; Fray Joan de San Geronimo; Fray Geronimo de la Madre de Dios; and Fray Joan de San Guillermo. They all assembled in Madríd on the fifteenth or sixteenth of May. Thence they left for Sevilla, and from there went later to San Lucar. They were detained there until they could embark in one of the ships of the Nueva España trading-fleet, which set sail from the great bay of Cadiz, July twelve, and commenced its voyage happily. The zealous missionaries were going, very full of God, and consequently did not abate one point of their observance, fulfilling their religious obligations as if they were in the most retired house of those which they had left behind in their province, notwithstanding that they were going in the midst of the traffic and excitement that seem to be inevitable in sea-voyages, and more so in so long ones as are those of the Indias. They did not discontinue the two hours' mental prayer or the choral divine office, at their proper times, and the silence, fastings, and discipline. If they were given any moment from those holy exercises, they employed it in preaching, and in caring for the sick. They cared for and served the latter with what they needed, and as well as they could. They did not content themselves only in their own ship, for when good weather and the quiet of the sea permitted, they went in the small boat or lancha to the others, in order to console and confess those in need of it. They gave them wholesome counsels, and encouraged them to serve God our Lord as they ought. By such course they succeeded in gaining great credit and esteem. The commander himself always approached them with his flagship to salute them, and to ask after their health, and whether they needed anything, while he commended himself very earnestly to their petitions and prayers. He visited them in the island of Guadalupe with the great following of his men, charging to them the prosperous outcome of the fleet. Finally they reached the port of San Juan de Lua, September seventeen, with the rejoicing common to those who sail, and especially on those seas. They disembarked and, after having rested for some little time, they took the road; this they moderated by stopping several days in La Puebla de los Angeles, [31] as guests of our calced fathers, where they received the friendly reception and love that that province has shown to the discalced very often because their beginning was in that form.
Since the strictness of that convent was then extreme, it lit up in great measure the devotion and modesty of ours, the will of all going well alongside the rare mildness of their customs. The more serious inmates of the house did not fail to praise the humility, poverty, and circumspect behavior of our fathers; and consequently not a few of them were determined to follow their purpose and accompany them on that holy undertaking, and to enjoy so good examples. They requested this from the father commissary, but he, being so exact in matters of attention and courtesy, excused himself prudently, in order not to anger the prelates of the province; and, besides, because he had no order from the king, nor any subsidy with which to pay the expenses of any more persons than he had brought from España, although he esteemed the desire that they showed to aid him. He went immediately to Mexico, leaving the fathers of La Puebla very enamored and sad. They were received in that magnificent city with kindness and extraordinary devotion by the most learned father, Fray Diego de Contreras--to whom was given, after a few years, the church of Santo Domingo, the primatial church of the Indias. He was then professor of rhetoric in the noted university, and rector of the college of San Pablo whose venerating community went out to meet them in solemn procession and with pomp, when they entered their gates. The learned master gave proof of his ardent charity in his hospitality and cordial kindness, making them very happy. He prepared a room for them, in which they remained, where they received all comfort and aid, until the father vicar-provincial rented a comfortable house, into which he and his subordinates, and the brethren whom he had with him moved, in order not to give occasion for so much ceremony and so many compliments; hoping for the near opportunity to depart for the port of Acapulco.
That one--although formerly a secular lodging, now a very strict convent--could rival the most famous monastery in the matter of observance; for, giving themselves to continual prayers, rigorous fastings, harsh mortifications, and severe penances, all of them were opposing themselves to the best of their ability in the war against the flesh. They did not leave the house unless summoned for some work of charity, such as to confess or to preach, which they performed very willingly, and to the profit and good of souls. They voted unanimously not to strive to obtain for themselves or for others, under any pretext, in person or through others, any offices within the order, or out of it--in order to give, as was actually seen, a solid foundation to the province which they afterward erected so humbly. Their rigid mode of life there was bruited through the city, and the most noble and the wealthiest, with simple earnestness, asked them to remain. Some of such persons offered to endow their house, and others to contribute very ample alms. They begged our fathers at least to leave them the number sufficient to give a good beginning to the convent that they desired to establish. The master, Fray Diego de Contreras, whom we mentioned above, was aiding and encouraging those arguments, promising that they would become discalced, and that he would carry forward our Institute, [32] with his great authority and power, in that kingdom. Father Joan de San Geronimo was tempted by those pious offers of generosity, but he did not deceive himself; for many souls would have been lost if he had desisted from that opportune and holy voyage, or if he had lessened the number of the helpers whom he took with him--who were but few for the abundant harvest that they set about gathering, as we shall note with the lapse of years, in the manner in which it occurred. Accordingly, having closed his ears to all the proposed advantages, he undertook to go to the port at the end of that year, where we shall leave him continuing with his observance of rules and pious devotions on the roads, although these were horrible, as if he had been in the most comfortable and most quiet convent of all those which he had lately left well established in España.
[The remainder of chapter V is concerned with matter that does not touch the Philippines, namely, the founding of the college of Zaragoza, that of the convent of Pedroso, and the life of Sister Polonia de los Santos.]