Volume 31 — Chapter LXI

The venerable father Fray Miguel de Venavides, one of the first founders of this province and archbishop of Manila.

Among the great kindnesses and benefits which our province, and indeed all these islands, have received from the Lord, one of the greatest was His having given them father Fray Miguel de Venavides as one of the first who came to establish this province of the Holy Rosary, and as second archbishop of this city. At a time when its inhabitants suffered great tribulations, and found themselves suddenly besieged by a number of enemies much larger than their own—enemies from within their houses and their homes—they found in him a true father for their consolation, and a prelate acceptable to God, who could placate His ire by interceding for his people. He was born in Carrion de Los Condes, of noble parents, well known in that region because of their descent and their virtue. When he was not more than fifteen years old he assumed the habit of this religious order, and learned by experience how true is the saying of the Holy Spirit that it is well for a man to carry the easy yoke of the service of God from his youth. He received the habit and professed in the distinguished convent of San Pablo at Valladolid. He immediately began to display the subtilty of his mind, which was very great; at the very beginning of his studies he seemed like an eagle soaring above his fellow-pupils, distinguishing himself by special marks or acuteness, so that most of the students and the learned were astonished. He was, accordingly, soon made a member of the college of San Gregorio in that city, a crucible in which is refined the metal of the finest intellects which the order has in the provinces of España and Andalucia. Here he had as master him who of right was the master of the theology of España—the most learned father Fray Domingo Bañez. The two were so completely suited to each other in virtue and ability that father Fray Miguel could not fail to be the beloved disciple of such a master. So much did the great teacher love him that, when he saw him advance so far in both virtue and ability, he was accustomed to say Hic est discipulus ille [i.e., “This is that disciple”], giving him by antonomasia the name of his disciple, out of the many, whom he regarded with so great praise. He taught the arts in his convent, and theology in many houses of the province; and finally returned to be lecturer in theology in his convent of San Pablo. It was while he was engaged in this duty and exercise that he was taken captive by the voice of father Fray Juan Chrisostomo, who was seeking for religious for the foundation of the province of the Holy Rosary in the Philippinas. The province was to be founded for the conversion of the many heathen who were in those islands, and for the purpose of entering upon the preaching of the gospel in the most populous kingdom of China, if the Lord should open the door to it, as well as in that of Japon and the other kingdoms neighboring to the said islands. Being seized by a fervent desire and a holy zeal for the redemption of the souls of the many heathen in these islands, he gave up his position as lecturer, and the honors and degrees which were waiting for him; and esteeming it a higher task to labor for Christ and for his fellow men he made up his mind to go with those who were preparing for this holy journey. The Lord thus ordained because of the serious problems which were to be met, in which his character, ability, knowledge, and talents would be very necessary to overcome the many obstacles which confronted this holy foundation as soon as its founders reached Nueva España, and also in the royal court and in the Roman court; for in all these places there were many impediments. Against all of them father Fray Miguel was the defender of truth; and by his speeches and writings he came off always victor. Afterward, when the difficulty which was met with in Mexico was overcome, he came, with the rest of the fathers who founded the province, to the city of Manila on the day of the apostle St. James; and on the day of our father St. Dominic, which came immediately afterward, he presided in the great church over some theological discussions. This he did to the admiration of his listeners, who were not accustomed to have anything so remarkable in these regions. The good bishop of these islands, Don Fray Domingo de Salacar, was bathed with tears of joy when he heard, to the great refreshing of his spirit, such superior preachers of the gospel in his bishopric—men who were not only fit to be teachers of these heathen races, but to teach others who might be the same, and this more excellently than he had ever expected to see in those regions. Among the many various heathen nations who come to this country that which excels in intelligence, civilization, and courtesy is that of the Chinese; and, much as they excel in these qualities, they likewise excel in their multitude and number. For there are very many who come every year to attend to their large and rich business, and to serve the city in all the trades which can be expected in the best regulated of cities; for they learn everything with the greatest ability, and succeed in everything that they undertake.

Some of the Chinese, though very few, were Christians; and it was believed that many would be converted if there were someone to preach in their language. But this is so difficult that, although many desirous to undertake that conversion had endeavored to learn it, no one as yet had succeeded; and thus no religious order had taken up this ministry, being afraid of the difficulty of the language. When father Fray Miguel arrived, he instantly undertook this enterprise—for the Lord had created him for great things; and this ministry was given to our order, the bishop asking each and everyone of the religious orders who were there before to undertake it, and not one of them accepting it because of the reason given. Father Fray Miguel immediately began with all his energy to study this language, and succeeded with it. What is more, he learned many of the letters of it, which are much more difficult. Father Fray Juan Cobo joining him immediately, they began to teach the Chinese, amazing those people that anyone should have been able to succeed with their language and to preach to them in it. Much greater was their amazement, however, at the extraordinary virtue and charity which they beheld in these two religious. They did not content themselves with the labor of teaching them—which was not small, for soon many were converted and began to be baptized; but they proposed to build a hospital where the sick poor could be cared for. The number of these was great, because their sufferings were great in this foreign land, where they were neglected by all, and suffered the extremity of need, which is sickness and death. The fathers began their hospitals; and, poor religious as they were, they had no better house than that which they were able to make, almost without money, out of beams and old planks—the habits and cloaks of the religious often serving as beds, because they had no other bedclothes. The religious sometimes brought in the sick whom they found lying on the streets, without power to move themselves and with no one to pity them. In this way the fame of the virtue of father Fray Miguel and his companions was very widely spread, and there were many of the Chinese heathen who were converted and baptized. The fragrance of this great charity spread so far that it reached Great China and proclaimed in trumpet tones what was done for their sick in the Philippinas. There was one man who came from China to look upon so rare a thing as caring for the sick—poor, and cast out by their own nation and kinsmen; but admitted, sought for, and cared for by persons who were not known to them, and who were not only of another nation, but of a different law and faith, and who labored without any expectation of temporal profit, but merely for the salvation of souls. Hence the Lord was favorable to them, and this work was constantly growing better in all things. It is today one of the most glorious things in Christendom, not because of its income and its building (though in these respects it is very good), but because of the many who at the hour of death are baptized in it with many indications of going hence to glory, as being newly cleansed of their faults and their sins by baptism.

The rich harvest which was reaped in the conversion of these Chinese, as well by preaching to those in health as by the care and instruction of the sick, was so sweet to father Fray Miguel that it caused in him glowing desires to go to Great China. It seemed to him, and with reason, that there, without abandoning their own country and the company of their fathers, sons, wives, and kinsmen, which here are great impediments to their conversion, the Christians converted would be many more, and far better ones. Hence he was always making plans to go to that great realm, where the devil is so strongly fortified that he does not even permit the entrance of those who might, by preaching the gospel, cast him from the throne which he unjustly holds among that people. He was finally successful in making his entry into that kingdom, and went there with father Fray Juan de Castro, who was the first provincial of this province. They suffered the hardships which have been described in chapter twenty-six, together with the marvelous miracles which the divine pity wrought in their favor for the preachers of the gospel. When they returned to Manila from China, where they had suffered so much, the orders of their superior directed them to undertake another longer and more painful voyage, which was to España. They were to accompany and assist the bishop, Don Fray Domingo de Salaçar, who was going to discuss very important business with his Majesty; and were also to endeavor to bring back religious from España, to aid in the great labor which rested upon the religious of this province in the conversion of the heathen of these lands, He did not take for this journey money or anything else, or even more clothes than those which he wore, so that he did not have a change of clothes in the whole voyage, which lasts for six months. A ship is so much an enemy to cleanliness that, when he reached Mexico, his habit was in such a condition that the father prior of the convent in that city was obliged to give him clothes wholly out of charity. During the voyage he fell into the sea and was miraculously brought back to the ship by the Lord at the prayer of the good bishop—who afflicted by the accident, prayed the Lord briefly but devotedly for the remedy of it; and he gained what he desired, for the Lord is very quick to listen to the prayers of His servants. The time between the end of this voyage and that which follows afterward over the Mar del Norte [i.e., Atlantic Ocean] was spent by father Fray Miguel in the convent which offered him hospitality, but without the dispensations which the reception of hospitality usually brings with it. He was the first in the choir and the refectory, and in all the other labor of the convent. In particular he helped in the infirmary, in caring for the sick and serving them, whenever he had an opportunity. This was a charge which he took upon himself when, at the coming of the first founders to the Philippinas, they were guests in this same convent. As at that time he had done well in this service, daily exercising many acts of humility and charity, virtues which are supremely pleasing to God, he would not cease this same conduct on this second occasion; on the contrary, as one that had grown in virtue, he did it better than before. What he did here for the sick religious was not a heavy task [for him], for he had become accustomed to do much more in his hospital at Manila for the Chinese heathen, who are by nature filthy and disgusting. Father Fray Miguel reached España, and was present before the royal Council of the Indias, endeavoring to obtain religious for this province as its procurator-general. One of the counselors, incorrectly informed by persons who resented the sermons of our religious, said: “If the matter were in my hands, the Dominican religious would not be in the Philippinas.” The rest desired him to restrain himself, and he went on with what he had to say. Father Fray Miguel answered, showing his cloak, which was very old and patched and full of holes: “So far as concerns ourselves, we have no need to go to the Indias; what we endeavor to do by going there, this cloak tells well enough.” So well did the cloak of rough, mended serge speak that all were highly edified, and he who had offered opposition was abashed and corrected. In the convent of San Estevan he gave to be washed his inner tunic, which served him in place of a shirt. This was of serge so rough and hard that one of the religious of the convent of novices, who put it on over his habit, was unable to bend any more than if it was a bell; and they all gathered around to look at it as if it were a bell that was sounded. That which began as jest and ridicule so powerfully supplied the place of father Fray Miguel in winning religious, that many determined to go to the province where the religious treated themselves so rigorously and observed such poverty.

The end of his days finally approached; and as he lay on his bed it was plain to him that this was his last sickness, and he began to prepare for this important journey. At his departure he was much afflicted to leave without a minister the Indians of Marivelez, which is situated at no great distance from Manila. Since these Indians were few and by themselves, he had found no one who was willing to accept the charge of them. Taking advantage of the present occasion, he sent for father Fray Miguel de San Jacintho, who at that time was provincial of the province, and most energetically begged him to urge on his religious to give instruction to these poor Indians. When the provincial promised that he would do all he could for this purpose, the bishop remained in great content, as if there were nothing now to cause him sorrow. He divided his poor treasures, sending part of them immediately to his church, and giving part to our Lady of the Rosary, and part to the poor. In his illness he did not complain or ask for anything; and when he was asked if he wished or longed for anything, he answered, “I desire to be saved.” His face was very full of joy, and the words which he uttered came forth kindled so by the love of God that they showed plainly what a fire of love was in the breast where they were forged. He asked them to dress him in his habit; and on the coming of the festival of the glorious St. Anne in the year 1605 he asked them to get ready his pontifical robes, as if he were preparing to go out on that festal day. This was as much as to say that his departure was at hand. He was surrounded by his friars, and though they saw him joyful they themselves were very sad to perceive that they were to be deprived of such a superior and such a religious. He consoled them with loving words, and, perceiving that his departure was at hand he called fervently upon his special patroness, the Virgin, his guardian angel, our father St. Dominic, and the other saints of his devotion, with whom he spoke as if he were already with them in heaven. His countenance appeared to be celestial rather than to belong to earth; and amid loving converse with God, with His most holy Mother, and with the saints, his soul departed to his Lord, leaving his body, as many said, fragrant with the odor of roses. By the voice of all, he was given the palm of a virgin, as if all had heard him in confession and felt the certainty which his confessor had and manifested in this respect, although this declaration was made after that in which the palm had been given to him as to a virgin. When the fathers of St. Francis came, father Fray Vicente Valero, who lived and died with the reputation of sainthood, went up to the dead man, saying, “This body is holy and should be regarded as such,” and kissed the feet. After this all of his religious did the same thing, and they were followed by the others, for in this way the Lord honors those who faithfully serve Him. His interment was performed with all possible solemnity in the cathedral, on the epistle side near the high altar. The archbishop left behind him some writings of much erudition, and full of Christian teaching, which are very helpful to the ministers of the holy gospel.