The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898. Volume 17 of 55. Unknown
service, a messenger suddenly appeared and announced that the Mindanaos, their ancient enemies, were at Carigara. As soon as the Indians heard that, they poured out of the church all together in consternation, each trying to pass the other; and leaving the priest, for the mass was not yet finished, they fled from the village and took refuge in the mountains. The priest, when he had finished the divine office, and arranged his affairs as well as time permitted, began himself to think of flight, that the shepherd might be with his flock. However, being detained by an Indian chief, whose wife he had been about to bury, he remained, and performed the rites for the woman—one who had deserved well of the Christians, and who, as her husband testified, had been visited by the Blessed Virgin, In the mean time a messenger brought a more certain report, to the effect that a few small villages on the island had been visited by some five or six ships at Caragara; and that they had captured only twenty Indians, the rest having taken refuge in flight.
They all came back then from the mountains, and in a few days the work of many was accomplished. The number of those who confessed the faith increased so rapidly that the long days seemed short. This, I am sure, grieved the devil not a little; and no less did what Father Christoforo Ximenez effected after he returned to Manila where he put into print the catechism of Cardinal Roberto Bellarmino, translated into the Bisayan language.15 He went by the order of his superiors to Alongala, then without a priest. When he had remained there up to the beginning of Holy Week, and had made the people ready and active in all works of piety, it happened that a certain idol-worshiper of that island, a man of very high rank, Malacaia by name—who owned over sixty slaves, and who was reverenced by all the Indians most highly, even as a father—was once looking on, and wondering to see many of the natives busied in pious works, and so seriously engaged in scourging themselves. In amazement he said, “Shall I do that, Father?” “Do,” replied Ximenez, “what they are doing, and scourge thyself.” “Will that scourging do me any good?” asked Malacaia. “It will do thee no little good,” answered the father. The other instantly took off his tunic and girded himself for the work, and walking upon the stage with the others, the Christians, he so tragically worked upon himself that, not content with one scourge, although it was rough with little sharp studs, he also snatched the scourge from one standing near, and, as with a two-edged sword, fearfully smote himself upon the back as if with thunderbolts. These scourgings reached even to the man’s soul, although at the time he knew not what he was doing; for this noble deed was an example of great profit to others, and he himself, moreover, received at this time the desire for baptism, for which he is now being prepared as a catechumen.
X. The Christians taught by the fathers at the establishment at Cangara have this in common with those at Dulac, that they receive a mighty protection from the services of the church when duly celebrated. For as the former, by setting up a cross in the fields and by the use of holy water, drive the swarms of locusts from their grain, so the latter by bearing palm-branches and seeds to the church effect the same result. An old custom of theirs has been condemned—namely setting up in the fields great beams, which they call Omalagars, upon which they believe the souls of the dead to sit. Here fifty have been initiated in the Christian mysteries, and more would have been if ministers had not been wanting. Forty couples have been joined with a more holy bond. Several persons were found by the marvelous providence of God (for it would be impious to regard that as a chance which was wrought for Ours, kept safe in so many perils), who, being scattered over the mountains, so that they could have no one else, begged for a father to whom they might confess their sins. There were also found in a little island forty lepers loathsome with filth and stench, unclothed, and without food, lacking everything. To all of them first the teaching of Christ, then baptism, and finally food and clothes were given. But one man found God sterner, who, though warned by Ours to desist from his impious habit of swearing, yet never obeyed. He was often wont to use an expression by which he devoted himself to the crocodile; and not long after, being made the prey of one, he taught others by his evil fate to do that which he had refused to do before. As compared with his death all the more happy was that by which Father Alfonso Roderico was taken from us. He had professed the four vows, and was dear alike to Spaniards and to Bisayans. He was so devoted to the good of both that he was not satisfied with the narrow space of twenty-two years, during which he was permitted to live among us, but at his death used the very words of St. Martin: “Lord, if I am still needed by thy people, I do not refuse to labor.”
XI. The attention of Ours at Tinagon has wisely been given to the women, since they are more ready to take an interest in sacred things, and are more seldom absent from the village—except when one or another makes her escape from the hands of some procurer, preferring to pass the nights in the forests and mountains in the midst of serpents, rather than at home to suffer danger to her chastity among men that are as deadly. As for the other affairs of this establishment, they may nearly all be included under two examples, one of divine compassion, the other of divine justice. An Indian woman was carelessly crossing a stream, and was carried off by a ferocious crocodile. She screamed, she cried, she prayed to God for pardon, and for only so much time as should serve her to make her confession. Her husband, who was not far away, ran up quickly, threw himself into the water to attack the monster, struck it, and at last dragged his wife from its claws; but she was so mangled and lacerated that there was no hope for her life. What were the good people to do in a village without a priest, and far distant from the residence where the fathers lived? The woman was in such a condition that it was impossible to take her there before her death. Yet a way out of all these difficulties was easily found by the wise God of mercy, for by His guidance there came into the village, while they were still doubting what to do, a priest of our Order, quite unaware of what had happened. As soon as the matter was reported to him, he went to the dying woman, consoled her in her affliction, and sent her to Heaven, confessing and sorrowing for her sins. The other case differs little from that which we recorded earlier as occurring at the Carigara establishment. A fellow whom no fear or warning could improve, and who would not control his wicked habit of swearing and blaspheming, was one day testifying in a legal case. He devoted his head to the crocodile, if the matter were other than as he testified, adding that he could confirm his testimony by calling in others as witnesses. As he was crossing a stream to summon them in behalf of his case, he was carried off by a crocodile; and—a certain proof of the damnation of the man—it was later discovered by the testimony of others that he had borne false witness.
XII. At the settlement at Palapag there has been a conflict with hunger and disease; yet the Indians have so conducted themselves that the sick have not lacked the necessary services. Likewise Ours have made such provision that the poor were cared for from the harvest; for at their gate they daily served food to more than seventy persons. Their newly-built church and their sodality make them hopeful of great good, for their beginnings are such that six hundred of full age have presented themselves at the sacred font for purification; while I should reckon the number of children at eight hundred, the greater part of whom have gone the straight way to heaven. One of Ours was called to a little infant which was said to be sick, to baptize it; and he refused, partly because he thought the matter was not so pressing, partly because he wished to teach the Indians the custom of bringing their little ones to the churches. At last, overcome by the importunities of those who asked him, he went thither; but when he could perceive in the child not the least sign of illness, he was about to return without baptizing it. But when he looked at the boy again he seemed to be silently warned by it not to deny it that benefit. At last, when he had complied, and when everything had been performed duly and in order, the child expired in the very arms of its sponsor. By this event the father was rendered joyful, but still more cautious not to think that time should be allowed any advantage in matters of this kind; for, as he said, he would rather suffer all the ills of sea and land if he might open heaven to this single little boy. There have been seen other signs (not a few) of the singular care extended by divine providence to this tribe and Ours. Such a one was this. An Indian was wrapped in the folds of a serpent eight feet long, but, groaning forth the saving name of Jesus, he was released. Again: when there was a deficiency of that kind of food which it is lawful to eat in the days of Lent, a boat on the beach, brought by I know not whom, freely supplied fishes of a kind not usual there. Again, when a church was on the point of falling, the Indians were frightened out from it by a tremendous roar; and, because the mass had not been finished, it did not fall before the father had taken
See Vol. IX, note 13. Roberto Bellarmino, born in 1542, entered the Jesuit order in 1560, becoming one of its most famous theological writers. He was long connected with the college at Rome, and later was successively provincial of Naples, a cardinal of the Roman church (from 1599), and archbishop of Capua (1602–05); he died at Rome, September 17, 1621, Perhaps the most widely known of his works is the