En febrero de 1945 quedaba aplastada bajo el peso de las bombas, tras 337 años de historia, la casa madre de la Provincia de San Nicolás de Tolentino de los Agustinos Recoletos. Este es un homenaje y tributo de gratitud a quienes construyeron esta emocionante historia comunitaria, dentro de las celebraciones del IV Centenario (1621-2021) de esta Provincia religiosa.

Being the Mother House, Intramuros was the home of all Augustinian Recollects who had been in the Philippines, and anyone who stood out for one reason or another – holiness, pastoral zeal, culture, practical knowhow, defense strategists against violent attacks – had something to do with this house.

Some of them have already been named; it is impossible to recall everyone. We limit ourselves to choosing several personages of two specific categories: bishops and historians.

The first are somewhat archetypal of the Filipino Recollect. The historians, for their part, collected, conserved and transmitted the Order’s work in that country.

Pedro de San Francisco de Asís (†1754)

An Aragonese born in Hijar (Teruel), he belonged to the Augustinian Recollect province of Aragon, and in it he died after spending 33 years in the Philippines, where he arrived in the 1711.

As far as we know, he resided in Manila for only five years, discharging the duties of general procurator, professor and provincial secretary. In 1737 he was assigned to the so-called Mexico Hospice, where he lived until his return to Spain in 1744.

Back in his mother province of Aragon, he was named general councilor and chronicler of the Order. As chronicler, he adapted and published volume III of the General History of the Augustinian Recollects, written but left unpublished by Diego de Santa Teresa (Barcelona 1743); and he penned volume IV, the publication of which was financed by the Philippine province, which explains why the volume was dedicated to Saint Nicholas of Tolentine.

Juan Romero de la Concepción (1724-1786)

Native of Madrid and son of the convent of that city, he came to the Philippines at the age of 25. Although not uninterruptedly, he resided in Manila almost till his death. He was, on top of being a professor, also prior provincial for some years; and, most of all, he was chronicler of the Province, a post that he was reelected to, from one triennium to another, for more than 20 years.

At his death, he had written the first General History of the Philippines, published in 14 volumes between 1788 and 1792, a masterpiece that for a century and a half was, in the opinion of some modern historians, the most detailed and faithful history of the archipelago.

The publication was funded by the Province, and she was supposed to take charge of its distribution, but did it in such a limited way. A big portion of the printed collection remained in the Intramuros library until, several decades later, a provincial ordered giving a copy to each friar.

Thus it happened that, in the luggage of many religious expelled by the Revolution, Fr. Concepcion’s History traveled to various corners of America.

Gregorio Fidel de Blas (1845-1920)

The thirty years that this prominent Recollect spent in the Philippines all transpired in Manila and the neighboring Tagalog-speaking provinces. As resident of Intramuros, he occupied the posts of secretary provincial (1879), councilor (1885), vicar provincial and prior provincial (1888).

While stationed in Cavite, he was protected by the leader of the Philippine Revolution, Emilio Aguinaldo (1896). He spent the rest of his life in Spain where, in 1914, he was elected, already nearing his 70th year, as prior general of the Order.

All those years in governance and the possibility of consulting the archive of the Province, both in Manila and Marcilla, allowed him to write a singular opus. He published it in 1910 under the title: Labor Evangélica de los Padres Agustinos Recoletos en las Islas Filipinas.

The work consists of 64 pages of statistical tables, with 11 maps of the Recollect geography in the Islands. These, in addition to being colored, are extremely faithful, the only exception being the Marianas Islands. An eyewitness and protagonist related how, in 1944, when the Japanese invaded the Philippines and came upon these maps, they sequestered all the copies for their own use.

Francisco Sadaba (1867-1923)

Fr. Sadaba was also provincial secretary, serving as such for 11 years, from 1895 through 1906. After the Philippine Revolution it fell on him to organize the transfer of the Provincial Archive from Manila to the convent of Marcilla (Navarra, Spain).

Later, he became general secretary (1906-1908) and in-charge in Rome of the Order’s affairs, till 1914. He would return to Intramuros as prior in 1917. And although he was assigned back to Spain the following year, he remained in the Philippines where he died, in Manila, on 6 August 1923.

He is worth mentioning here for a work that he published in 1906, on the occasion of the 3rd centenary of the arrival of the Recollects in the Philippines. It is the Catálogo de los religiosos agustinos recoletos de la Provincia de San Nicolas de Tolentine de Filipinas desde el año 1605, en que llegó la primera Misión a Manila, hasta nuestros días.

A work of this type could only be composed at the central convent in Manila, more concretely, at the secretary’s office and the provincial archive. In its almost 900 pages, by dint of counterchecking the archival data with utmost patience, Sadaba reconstructed with utter trustworthiness the biographical timeline of the more than 1,500 Augustinian Recollects who had been in the Philippines, until the time the catalogue was compiled.

Juan Ruiz de San Agustín, bishop of Nueva Segovia (1728-1796)

When this Caceres-born Spaniard was ordained bishop of Nueva Segovia, the church of Intramuros already was given its final form; it had been restored six years before, after the nth earthquake, that of 1771.

Indeed, it was fray Juan’s lot to monitor the works for a good part of the decade: as vicar provincial or prior provincial (1776-1779). By 1781, the facade was done: the tower was repaired and the church frontage was aligned harmoniously with it.

In the interior, the barrel vault was constructed, a new floor was installed and the choir that had stood beside the sacristy was transferred to the galleries built at the level of the high choir.

It was no suprise that fray Juan Ruiz would become a builder-bishop. Juridically, he was bishop of Nueva Segovia, one of the four Philippine sees existing then, from December of 1780 and he would reign starting May of 1782, although his ordination in Intramuros was not held until January of 1786.

He governed his see in Vigan (Ilocos Sur) in such a way that by the time he was ordained, he had already finished the episcopal palace, and was quite advanced in the work on the cathedral. Both buildings constitute one of the most harmonious complexes in the whole Philippines and are an important part of the historical city of Vigan, which in 1999 earned UNESCO classification as Patrimony of Humanity. It remains to be studied if the design of this splendid northern cathedral was not somehow inspired by the repaired facade of the church of San Nicolas of Intramuros.

Bishop Juan Ruiz’s necrology affirmed that: “Truly, he died as a poor religious; because he spent all that he received as bishop in the construction of his episcopal palace and his cathedral and in adorning the latter with precious jewels of gold and silver and ornaments”.

It could have added that he expended his very life, because supervising the work so keenly led to his sickness, and ultimately to his death, which occurred in Manila on 2 May 1796.

Joaquín Encabo, bishop of Cebú (1740-1818)

The continuity between Monsignor Encabo and bishop Juan Ruiz is something that strikes the attention. Both were from Caceres, practically townsmen, and both professed in the convent of Madrid. Encabo came to the Philippines in 1767, in a mission organized, precisely, by Juan Ruiz. Afterwards, Encabo would primarily be professor in Intramuros of the young religious.

He would also occupy there posts of governance, among them that of provincial, shortly after Juan Ruiz: from 1782 until 1785 and from 1788 till 1791. Between the two triennia, from 1786 through 1888, and at the request of Juan Ruiz, he had stayed in Vigan as his secretary. Finally, in 1796, he would be the one to pronounce the funeral oration of his illustrious countryman.

In his case, several years – six years no less – would also transpire from the moment he was proposed as bishop until he was ordained such. King Charles IV of Spain proposed him for the see of Cebu. And on 15 May of 1808, he was ordained bishop in the church of Intramuros.

And how was he as bishop? It was sid that he was an excellent prelate. The Cebu diocese was vast, and the last bishops were not able to visit many places. Encabo met people 70 years of age who had not seen a bishop and were not confirmed. He was able to visit the whole diocese, and twice at that.

On the other hand, “he was very charitable with the poor and was supremely detached, utilizing the 4,000 pesos that was his stipend in alleviating the needs of others”. Among them, the lepers, who abounded in the area. He constructed a leprosarium for them and established a foundation to sustain it. The initial financial endowment of this foundation came from his own pocket; and, after him, the Order continued making contributions till the beginning of the 20th century.

Jose Aranguren, archbishop of Manila (1801-1861)

He is the Augustinian Recollect friar who shone the highest in the Philippine ecclesiastical hierarchy and was the only archbishop of Manila in the entire history of the Order.

He was also a Spaniard, a Navarro from Barasoain. And he was among the first who professed directly in the province of Saint Nicholas of Tolentine, in the seminary that it had just opened in Alfaro (La Rioja) in 1824.

Aranguren made his profession in 1825 and, four years later, sailed for the Philippines in the first mission that left from Monteagudo (Navarra), which was where the seminary of Alfaro finally ended up.

He went assigned as profesor, as indeed that was what he did in the first years, residing in Intramuros while teaching ecclesiastical subjects to young religious, as Monsignor Encabo had done half a century before. Soon, he was charged with other responsibilities, like provincial secretary (1834-1835) and, later, prior provincial (1843-1845).

He did not finish his triennium as prior provincial because he was chosen to govern the see of Manila, the lone archdiocese that covered the whole archipelago. He was ordained in all solemnity in the church of Intramuros, on 31 January 1847.

Aranguren was archbishop of Manila for 15 years, dying on 18 April 1861. It was his right to be buried in the cathedral, and so it came to be; but he left instruction for his heart to be kept in the church of San Nicolas, among his brothers. And so it happened too, that heart that when extracted caused surprise because of its large size, was soaked in alcohol and deposited in a marble urn embedded in the presbytery.

Mariano Cuartero, bishop of Nueva Segovia (1830-1887)

This religious, born in the city of Zaragoza and Augustinian Recollect since the year 1850, seemed destined to remain in Monteagudo as profesor, mostly of physics. He had to plead several times to be assigned to the Philippines, until he succeeded in 1863.

Arriving in the country, he could enjoy the sweetness of the apostolate only briefly. Already in 1867, he was made prior in Manila and prior provincial in 1870. After his three years stint of duty, he was announced as bishop of Nueva Segovia. On 6 June 1875 he received episcopal ordination in the church of Intramuros. He immediately went to reside in the episcopal palace built by another Recollect bishop of Vigan, Juan Ruiz. There he would die, at the age of 57, on 2 August 1887.

The Recollect bishops of Jaro: Leandro Arrué and Andrés Ferrero

Vigan was not among the historical places of the Recollects; neither was the island of Panay, where Jaro is located, the episcopal see within the present city of Iloilo. True enough, there were Recollect ministries, like some in Negros island, that belonged to the Jaro Diocese; which explains why, as second and third bishops of this Diocese erected in 1865, two Augustinian Recollects would be chosen by the Holy Father: Leandro Arrue and Andres Ferrero.

The former, an Aragonese born in Calatayud (Zaragoza), came to the Philippines as a deacon, and was ordained priest there. After a decade of pastoral activity in different parishes in the Visayan region, he went to reside in Manila as general procurator (1873).

He would return again to Manila, this time as prior provincial, in 1879. He was happy being back in his parish in Bacong (Negros Oriental), finishing its convent and church, when he learned of his elevation to the see of Jaro.

He resisted as much as he could, only accepting in obedience to the formal mandate of his superiors. His ordination took place in the church of Intramuros on 30 August 1885.

We cannot include among the bishops ordained in the mother house Monsignor Andres Ferrero, third bishop of Jaro. Doubtless he would have wanted it, not only for the affection that he surely had for the house where he had been prior (1875-1882), councilor (1885-1888) and finally prior provincial (1894-1897).

But he came to the episcopate when the whole country was ablaze with the Revolution and he had to be ordained privately in the chapel of the archbishopric of Manila, on 13 November 1898.

Like all the other Spanish bishops, he had to tender his renunciation of the diocese. He was the last to return to Spain, on 27 October 1903, after drinking of the chalice of persecution for five years. The rest of his life was spent in the convent of Marcilla, where he died in 1909.


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