Note 20 — EARLY FRANCISCAN MISSIONS

Nothing can be done in the missions if the religious do not learn the language of the natives. The religious of this province have always occupied themselves in this with great assiduity, as they are so free from property and business. The first missionaries left many writings in the Tagálog and Bícol languages, the best of which are those left by fathers Fray Juan de Oliver, Fray Juan de Plasençia, Fray Miguel de Talavera,20 Fray Diego de la Asunción,21 and Fray Gerónimo Monte.22 Mention is here made of the above fathers because they were the first masters of the Tagálog language, and since their writings are so common and so well received by all the orders. They have not been printed, because they are voluminous, and there are no arrangements in this kingdom for printing so much. Those things that have been printed, as being urgently needed for the instruction of the natives, are the following. In the year 1613, father Fray Pedro de San Buenaventura23 printed a Tagálog vocabulary. In the year 1610, father Fray Gerónimo Monte printed in the Tagálog tongue Oraciones devotas para Comulgar y Confesar [i.e., “Devout prayers for Communion and Confession”]. Father Fray Alonso de Santa Ana24 explained and printed the Misterios de nuestra Santa fe [i.e., “Mysteries of our Holy faith”] in the same Tagálog language in the year 1628. In the year 1637, father Fray Joseph de Santa Maria translated into the same language the Doctrina of Cardinal Bellarmino. In a different style father Fray Antonio de San Gregorio tried to explain the principal mysteries of our holy faith, in the year 1648. Father Fray Andrés de San Agustín25 printed a grammar of the Bícol language in the province of Camarines in the Bícol language (which is the commonest and most universal of that province), in the year 1647; and the translation that he made into that language of the Doctrina of the same Cardinal Bellarmino,26 in the same language and in the same year. Father Fray Juan del Spiritu Santo printed another Tratado de Comunión y de Confesión [i.e., “Treatise on Communion and Confession”] with which the father ministers and these natives have sufficient for study—the first, the so important barbaric languages of these kingdoms; and the second, the so necessary mysteries of our holy faith. The above is what has been printed in the Bícol language; and since the writings left by fathers Fray Marcos de Lisboa27 and Fray Diego Bermeo,28 the first ministers of that province and the first masters of that language, have not been printed, we shall make no mention of them.