Volume 31 — Chapter LXV

The foundation of Manavag in Pangasinan and the deaths of some religious

[In the month of June, 1607, father Fray Juan Baptista Gacet ended his labors happily in the convent of Sancto Domingo at Manila. He was a son of the convent of Preachers at Valencia, and a beloved disciple of St. Luis Beltran, whom he succeeded in the office of master of novices at Valencia. When St. Luis returned from the Indias, the Lord moved father Fray Juan to go to them, as he desired to reap a harvest of souls, and feared that they might strive to make him superior in his own province. He received the approval of St. Luis, and went to the Indias at the time when master Fray Alonso Bayllo went out from his convent of Murcia, by command of our lord the king and of the general of the order, to divide the province of Vaxac from that of Sanctiago de Mexico. Being threatened with a superiorship in the province of Vaxac, father Fray Juan did what he could to avoid it. When a company of religious under the leadership of father Fray Pedro de Ledesma passed through Nueva España on their way to the Philippinas, father Fray Juan decided to accompany them, though he was already of venerable age; and he reached Manila in 1596. Here he was greatly honored, and, being too old to learn the Indian languages, was retained in the convent of Manila to act as confessor and spiritual guide to a number of devout persons in the city. He was made definitor in the first provincial chapter, and was later obliged to accept the office of prior—having no other country to flee to, as he had fled from España to the Indias, and thence to the Philippinas, to avoid this elevation. He was given to devout exercises and to prayer, reading often from some devout book, usually from St. John Climachus, and afterward discussing the passage, and making it the basis of devout meditation. After leaving the office of prior, he returned to his life of devotion and abstraction.

On the twentieth of July in the same year, father Fray Miguel de Oro ended his life in the province of Nueva Segovia. He was a native of Carrion de Los Condes; and he took the habit and professed in San Pablo at Valladolid. He afterward went to the religious province of Guatemala, where he remained for some years, but afterward returned to España. In 1599 the plague attacked all España and raged with especial violence in Valladolid. Father Fray Miguel, with four other religious of our order, devoted himself to the care of those who were plague-stricken. After the plague he retired to the convent of La Peña de Francia; but his memory was constantly stirred by the recollection of his service among the Indians, and in 1601 he went with some other religious to Manila. He was assigned to the province of Nueva Segovia, where, although on account of his great age he was unable to learn the language, his holy example was of great value. He was of great help and comfort to the minister whom he accompanied, doing all that he could to make it possible for the minister (who knew the language) to work among the Indians, and to write in the Indian language compositions and spiritual exercises, which were of service to the ministers that came after them. He used to wear next his skin a thick chain, weighing ten libras; and, that the other brethren might not perceive the marks of it on his tunics, he used to take care to wash and dry them apart. He died as a result of a fever caused by the heat of the sun. Father Fray Miguel was of swarthy complexion, with black and very prominent eyes which inspired fear. After his death he remained handsome, fair, and rosy, which caused those present to wonder-all supposing that these were signs of the glory which his soul already enjoyed.]