Volume 31 — Chapter LI

The coming of some religious to the province, and the transactions of the intermediate chapter

At this time the Lord took to himself father Fray Antonio de Soria, one of the first missionaries of Nueva Segovia. He did not enter upon the religious life, as generally happens, when he was in boyhood or youth, but in mature manhood. He had been left a widower; and though he had sons to care for, he provided for them in such a way that he was no longer needed to attend to them. Being thus left free for the service of God alone, he determined to become a religious, and was accepted in the convent of our order at Puebla de Los Angeles, in Nueva España. Most persons of this age and condition, especially when they have lived in the luxuries which are common in Nueva España, find it difficult to accommodate themselves to the severities of religious life, both in little and in great things. Father Antonio was not such. He began with the greatest humility to study Latin, and became a master of the tongue. He entered upon greater studies, following them with such success that he was made lecturer in arts and a director of students. And as he was so superior not only in his learning, but also in virtue, he was also appointed master of novices, which is the same thing as being a teacher of the religious life. He joined the fathers who came to these islands in 1595, and became one of the first missionaries to the province of Nueva Segovia, there suffering all the want, discomfort, and hunger which have been described. The first results of his mission were at Camalaniugan, where he drove a demon out of a woman who was possessed. In the following provincial chapter, he was appointed superior of Nueva Segovia, to preach to and teach and guide the Spanish, who in these new conquests need the best of teachers. For his consolation they gave him the care of the villages of Camalaniugan and Buguey. Not satisfied with all this, he also took charge of the village of Daludu.] There lived in that city Captain Alonso de Carvajal, encomendero of Pilitan, which is distant from the city five or more days’ journey. He collected his tribute from the natives, and desired to give them a minister, as he was obliged; but he was unable to find anyone who was willing to undertake the mission. He accordingly urged father Fray Antonio to go to visit these Indians and their country, called Yrraya, to see if he could attract them to the law of God and the belief in His holy gospel. The journey was long and hard, not only because it was up the river, but because there were enemies on the road; and, besides, there was no religious to leave in his place. Yet the desire of converting heathen was so strong in father Fray Antonio that he overcame all these obstacles and went to this new spiritual conquest, in which all of the rest of the religious soon aided him. He preached the holy gospel, and the Lord gave him such favor with that tribe, that he led them by his command like tame sheep. The credit which they gave to his teaching was such that long after, when Christianity was more settled in Yrraya, and there was some difficulty in rooting out some superstition which had remained among them, the old people said: “If father Fray Antonio had commanded us that, there would not now be a trace of it, or anyone to contradict him.” To build the church in the village of Pilitan, he threw down the hut of an old woman, a noted anitera, by whom the devil gave answers to the questions which were asked him. As this was done in this hut, the devil regarded it as his own, and therefore greatly resented the overthrow of it. This he said on many occasions, and he even sometimes said that he had killed the father for tearing down his hut. But in this the Father of Lies should not be credited; for, as he often confessed, he was not able to appear before the religious; how much less, then, to kill them. The manner of living followed by this father among these Indians was exemplary, and such as to cause wonder among them. He suffered and endured many hardships, and hunger and want, that he might not inconvenience them. He was at once the master and the servant, at the house. In order that a boy who served him by preparing his food might not be offended at the work, the father went to the river and carried the water that he had to drink; he was the sacristan who cared for the church, the porter who closed and opened the doors of the house. He it was who attended to everything that was needed, that he might not trouble any persons by making them serve him. It was a journey of a day and a half from Pilitan to the village of Nalavangan. He went there and built a church, and baptized many; for the spirit of Fray Antonio was to undertake much, and he was never contented with that which would have seemed excessive to others. While he was engaged in these holy exercises, the time of the intermediate chapter arrived, and he was obliged to go to it to Manila. Here he was definitor, and gave an account of the good work which was being wrought by the Lord in the conversion of Yrraya. The chapter, feeling that the Lord had chosen him therefor, appointed him as first vicar of San Pablo at Pilitan. He returned in great contentment, because he was going where he would have more to do than in other places, much as there was to do everywhere, since all of these were new conversions, where the labor is great and the ease very little. When he was among his children he gave himself with such devotion to the labor of the ministry that within six months he was attacked by a mortal disease, which obliged him to return to the city to be cared for. Here, when he had received the holy sacrament, he gave up his soul to his Creator, to the great sorrow of all the religious, who were greatly afflicted to lose such a father and associate. He made some compositions in the language of the natives, which served as a guide to those who followed him; but the greatest guidance that he gave was that of his life spent and consumed in these so holy exercises.