Note 1 — Chapter XXIX

Fray Juan de Medina was born at Sevilla, and entered the Augustinian convent of that city. On reaching the Philippines he was assigned to the Bisayan group, and was known to those natives by the name of “the apostle of Panay.” A zealous worker, he was wont on feast days to preach to his flock in three languages—Bisayan, Chinese, and Spanish. He was minister at Laglag in 1613, at Mambúsao in 1615, at Dumangas in 1618, at Panay in 1619, and at Passi in 1623; prior of the convent at Cebú in 1626; and definitor in 1629. After twenty years of missionary labors, being soul-tormented, he asked and secured reluctant permission to return to Spain; but the exigencies of the weather prevented the ship from making its voyage. Three years later he obtained permission to make the same voyage, but died at sea (1635). Diaz, in his Conquistas, says that Medina composed many things in aid of his missionary work; but only the present history and four volumes of manuscript sermons in the Panayana language are known with certainty. See Pérez’s Catálogo, pp. 83–85; and Pardo de Tavera’s Biblioteca Filipina, p. 255.