Note 51 — Chapter IX

According to an official report sent to the king in July, 1752, the Dominican province of Santisimo Rosario had then only 83 religious, who were in charge of 219,459 souls. Besides the missions of China and Tun-kin, the province conducted in the Filipinas Islands seven missions in Cagayan, two in Pangasinan, six in Ituy, one in Cauayan, and eight in Paniqui; and one in the mountains of Oriong, in Bataan. “In all these missions, or villages of new converts, there were reckoned 8,917 Christians, with many catechumens who were being prepared to receive the holy sacrament of baptism. This number is not included in the general administration of the province previously mentioned. Some of these villages or missions were committed to religious appointed as vicars in other and older villages, to which the former were added, and considered as visitas or annexes—especially in Cagayan, where there has not been any religious with only the title of missionary. The number of souls who are today in charge of the province in the islands of Luzon and Batanes, according to the general report of 1870, is 560,911.” (Ferrando, Hist. PP. dominicos, iv, pp. 560, 561.) ↑