Note 5 — NEWS FROM FILIPINAS, 1640–42

I have just completed the official statements regarding our martyrs, and have finished transcribing them; two copies of them I send now, the other I will carry or send to your Lordship. The martyrs of whom this report is made are: Fray Luys Gomez, Fray Gabriel, Fray Juan Torrilla, Fray Gines de Quesada, and Fray Geronimo de la Cruz—who is that Japanese priest who, when I came from Spain, was in that church of the Japanese (in our war of Dilao5) at the side of, or a little behind the well. The holy Fray Luys Gomez is one of those who in former years were summoned by the emperor in order to question them about our holy faith; he was eighty-four years of age and had spent forty in Japon. He died hanged in a cave, head down, with two Japanese helpers [dogicos], in company with Father Sebastian Viera, and four other native helpers of theirs. In the official account which the Society drew up about their father, our Fray Luys is also included. The holy Fray Gabriel de la Madalena, or Fonseca, after having suffered the torture of hot water was burned alive, in company with Fray Geronimo, a Japanese, in the little cottage of the latter, on the third of September, 1632; Fray Luis, on the sixth of June, 1634. Marvelous things, enough to fill a large book are related of Fray Gabriel. It is common knowledge that when he prayed he was many times raised above the ground, and that he often disappeared for a time from the eyes of those present. From various small herbs that he gathered he made medicines, with which he wrought miraculous cures. While he was being burned, they say, he rose in the air two cubits [codos], and while praying in the mountains this was an ordinary occurrence.