Note 197 — San Agustin’s Letter on the Filipinos

84. There is no little to learn and study in the matter, concerning the manner in which one must behave with them—especially we ministers, who come from remote lands in order to assist and teach them; for because of not understanding this aright many have become disconsolate, and have conceived a horror of the Indians, and have returned to España, or they have lived amid great hardship, in a continual combat of impatience and anxiety, thus frustrating the good vocation which brought them to these islands, a vocation so acceptable to God our Lord. For, as says the angelic doctor St. Thomas, 22, book 188, article 4: Deo nullum sacrificium est magis acceptum, quam celus animarum.197 To those who take this charge upon them, the words of the Lord in His revelations to St. Brigida are of great consolation. Among many others, he says (book 2, chapter 6): Vos ergo amici mei qui estis in mundo procedite securi, clamate, et anuntiate voluntatem meam. Ego ero in corde et in ore vestro. Ego ero dux vester in via et consolator in morte. Non relinquam vos, procedite alacriter quia ex labore cresit gloria.198 For it is a fact that all this exhortation is necessary, in order to combat the friction that is caused to the European disposition by dealing with people of customs so different, and which has caused so many to lose their reason.