The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume 32, 1640. Aduarte Diego
that those who were coming to these islands might remain in that kingdom, which has so attractive a climate and is so abundant in all things; but as these fathers did not come to seek for pleasures, but for the souls of their fellow-men and labors for themselves, it was not hard to overcome this and other difficulties which were met. To this good result the excellent administration of the superiors greatly contributed, and the constant occupation of the friars in holy exercises, prayer, fasting, and disciplines. Thus they not only prevailed against the temptations of ease and comfort, but were prepared so that the Lord might raise them to higher things – some of them even to the glory of martyrdom, which, as St. Augustine says, is the greatest glory of the church.
[In order to inspire in them a longing for these things, the Lord gave them grace in the meantime to save some lost souls. Two notable cases of this sort occurred, one in Cadiz and the other in Mexico. Two of them rescued and returned to her convent, a wretched woman, eighteen years old, whom a dissolute lieutenant had enticed from a convent in Xerez. In Mexico there was a wretched man, a person of acute intellect and learning, who had been guilty of an infamous crime with a boy. He had refused to confess, and, when he was tortured, had charged a number of innocent persons with complicity with his foul actions. The president of the alcaldes de corte [i. e., “judges of the high court”] was at this time Dr. Morga, who had a very kind feeling for the religious of this province, since he had come to know them by his long residence here as an auditor. By his assistance, and by that of one of the officers of the prison, father Fray Pedro Muriel obtained access to this unfortunate man; and by his wise and kindly conferences softened his heart, so that he confessed his original guilt and also his malice in making false charges against innocent persons. Both before and after his execution, there were manifest signs that the Lord had been pleased to grant him salvation. In the following year, 1616, father Fray Bernardo de Sancta Catalina, or Navarro, commissary of the Holy Office in these islands, and one of the first founders of the province, was a second time elected provincial. In the following month, at a feast of the Visitation, there died in the city of Nueva Segovia father Fray Garcia Oroz, a Navarrese by nation; he was a son of the convent of our Lady of Atocha in Madrid, and a religious old in virtue as in years. When he made his first efforts to come to the province he had been hindered, but afterward carried out his intention; and although, because of his years, he was unable to learn the language, he was of great use to his companion who understood it, by his assistance and by the good example of his life.]
Chapter IV
The life and death of father Fray Bernardo de Sancta Cathalina, or Navarro
[The new provincial had but a short time in which he could exercise his office, as he died in November of the same year, on the octave of All Saints. Father Fray Bernardo was a native of Villanueva de la Xara. He was much inclined from his earliest years to letters and the Church; he assumed the habit in the convent of Sancta Cruz at Villaescusa. After he had professed, he was sent to study in the college of Sancto Thomas at Alcala, which was the highest honor that the convent could bestow on a student. Here he so distinguished himself that the college gave him charge of the conduct of a theological discussion in the provincial chapter, which is the highest honor that a college can give its theologues. While at the college, he did not take advantage of the privilege of eating meat, which is granted to students in consideration of their labors and study. He was a successful and beloved preacher, and lived a life of the severest mortification. He was most devoted to the holy sacrament. At one time when a sick person had received the Lord and had afterward vomited forth the sacramental species, which was carelessly swept into a rubbish-heap, father Fray Bernardo rescued the precious treasure. He was most successful in uprooting the vices of the villages in España where he preached. When he came to this province he was one of the best of the ministers, and one of those who labored in the conversion of these tribes with the greatest results. He was assigned to be superior of the religious who preached to the barbarian Indians in Pangasinan – an indomitable, untamed, and bloody race; and above measure opposed to the gospel, since that was above measure opposed to their vices, cruelties, lewdnesses, superstitions, and idolatries. Noble religious were his companions, eager to act and to suffer for the conversion of souls; but father Fray Bernardo was the head and superior of these religious, the one who first began to succeed in christianizing those Indians, the one who perfected them and carried them on to a high state of Christian excellence. His life and his doctrine were alike marvelous and efficacious in influencing the souls of those Indians. He was devoted to his charge, seeking alms from the Spaniards for his Indians, and defending them with all his might from the wrongs which were committed against them. It was only in defense of his Indians that he was seen to give up his ordinary gentleness of demeanor, which was like that of a dove. The Lord blessed his efforts for the conversion of those Indians by miraculous healing wrought by his hands. He was visited by the saints, in particular by our father St. Dominic and St. Vincent Ferrer, who were seen to come and say matins with him. He was given miraculous insight into the souls of those who confessed to him; was miraculously preserved from fire and water; and had power given him to see devils who had taken possession of those who were confessing to him, or whom he desired to convert. It was declared that he even had a vision of the holy Virgin. He lived a life of abstinence, penance, and the greatest devotion; and translated into the Indian language a hundred and fifty brief devout treatises. He also wrote in their language a number of spiritual letters, afterward collected by father Fray Melchior Pavia, who made a goodly volume of them that they might serve as an example of the manner to be followed, in writing to the Indians, by the religious who came after. In temporal matters he likewise assisted those Indians in all ways in his power; for in addition to their poverty they were his dearest sons, engendered in Christ with mighty but successful labors.
Although father Fray Bernardo would have been pleased to be left forever among his Indians, the province felt that it had need of him for higher duties, and elected him as provincial in 1596. He gave a noble example as head of the province, and was most wise, kind, and prudent in his visitations. At one time, finding it necessary to chastise one of his subordinates, he began the punishment upon himself, compelling the guilty person to scourge him severely while they two were alone. Then he proceeded to scourge the man who was in fault, who, considering what had preceded, received his chastisement with great humility and amended his life. The fervent love of God of father Fray Bernardo was manifest in all that he said and did. The high esteem in which he was held spread from the Philippinas to Nueva España, so that the tribunal of the Holy Office in Mexico made him its commissary-general in all these islands. On some occasions he showed the gift of prophecy, foretelling the deaths of some persons, or declaring the deaths of those who were at a distance. Once when a governor assembled a great fleet against the Dutch enemies, he was obliged to obtain the necessary revenue by great oppression of the Indians and the poor, since the royal treasury did not yield a sufficient amount for the undertaking. Father Fray Bernardo was greatly grieved by this course of procedure, and strove to remedy it without success. When the governor was about to set out, father Fray Bernardo declared to him that he would never return; and, in point of fact, he died in Malaca without ever seeing the enemy.12 The persecution in Japon was revealed to him before it occurred. Being asked how he knew of the threatening danger, he said that he inferred it from certain stars in the sky, which resembled a comet threatening Japon. His companion when he had looked was unable to see any comet, or anything like one. His love and charity kept constantly increasing, and there were continually on his lips the words, “Let us love God; let us love God.” He sent what he could to the needy and persecuted Christians in Japon, and wrote to Mexico to get such assistance for them as he could obtain. He was always most loving and kindly to all the religious.
At the end of his term as provincial, he would have been glad to live and die among his children in Pangasinan, but was detained in Manila by his duties as commissary of the Holy Office. Yet every year he used to make a visit to Pangasinan, where he was received as an angel from heaven, and sometimes carried almost by force to distant villages, by Indians who came more than twenty leguas for the purpose. His arrival was like a feast-day. The people crowded to confess to him, and to listen to his spiritual exhortations. They put off the settlement of their most weighty differences to submit them to his judgment. They sometimes crowded about him to kiss his hand or his scapular so that he could not move. When he was a second time elected as provincial, his devotion to the duties of his
This was Juan de Silva, who died on April 19, 1616 (see Vol. XVII, p. 279).