Note 4 — Chapter IV

Juan Polanco (not Palanco), was a native of the Burgos mountain region, and professed in the Dominican convent of Valladolid, July 13, 1639. As he showed evident signs of a brilliant mind he was sent to the college of San Gregorio of Valladolid, after graduating from which he returned to the convent as lecturer in philosophy. Thence he went to the convent of Trianos as master of students, but later joining the Philippine mission arrived at those islands in 1658. Destined for the instruction of the Chinese he was sent to the Chinese missions as soon as he had mastered the language. His two years in China were years of continual suffering, imprisonment, and torment. Recalled, although against his will, to become procurator for his province in Madrid and Rome, and to act as definitor in the general chapter, he gave up his mission work. Always of a humble and obedient disposition, when he was ordered to return immediately to Spain on one occasion after he had just conducted a mission to Mexico, he obeyed without hesitation, but he had scarcely reached the convent at Sevilla, when he died, December 2, 1671. At the chapter held at Rome 1668, he petitioned the beatification of the Japanese martyrs. See Reseña biográfica, ii, pp. 1–3.