Note 27 — Letter from Manila Dominicans to Felipe IV

Fray Diego Ordóñez Vivar was a native of Guadalajara in Nueva Galicia, and professed in the convent of Mexico in 1557. Arriving at the Philippines in 1570 he became the first missionary to Bulacán in 1572, provincial secretary in 1580 and 1584, minister at Hagonoy in 1582 and 1587, procurator-general in 1583, and minister at Tendo in 1594 and 1599. He died in Pampanga in 1603. Agustín Maria, O.S.A., in his Osario Venerable (still unpublished) says that Ordónez was in Japan and was an eye-witness of the martyrdom of the Franciscans in 1596. See Perez’s Catálogo, pp. 9, 10.