Note 34 — Chapter VII

In this private session father Fray Juan García declared under oath, in verbo sacerdotis, that, having kissed the feet of our most holy father Innocent XI on September 20, 1677, among other favors which his Holiness had granted him the latter had told him that by his apostolic authority he made good all the defects which might have occurred in the elections of this province, from its foundation until the said day. His Holiness granted him several jubilees for certain convents, and eleven thousand ordinary indulgences, in the new form which his Holiness has promulgated; and gave him two notable relics, a bone of St. Venturino the Martyr34—the first for the hospice at Méjico, and the other for the convent of San Pablo at Manila. Father Fray Juan García also obtained from his Holiness, on petition by this province, a bull in which he granted that all the procurators who may go to Rome and bring hither missions of religious shall enjoy the same exemptions which those possess who have been provincials (who are called absolutos); this was accepted [by the Council of Indias], and father Fray Juan García was the first who enjoyed this privilege, all his life. But he, as the devout religious that he was, would not allow the religious to address him as “Our Father,” as is the custom with the provincials, both active and retired; and, retiring to the province of Ilocos, where he was minister, he devoted himself to leading an exemplary life, abandoning himself entirely to meditation, mortification, and prayer until his death, and leaving behind a noble example as a sincere religious.