History of the Province of Saint Nicholas of Tolentine of the Order of the Augustinian Recollects.
1. From War to war
Navigating the turbulent waters of the 19th century was no easy task. This century begins with a war in Spain and ends with another in the Philippines.
Both will leave a profound mark on the internal and external structure of the Order. The Spanish War of Independence against the French (1808-1814), for instance, disperses the communities and raises questions about their future.
This unusual situation will tragically culminate with the legal suppression of the convents, an event that will occur both in Spain and Colombia.
Between July 1835 and January 1836, the Spanish Recollection is stripped of its convents, unable to live in community, with its religious members dispersed through cities, towns, and villages. In 1861, the Colombian Recollection will experience the same situation.
Only the Province of the Philippines remains intact, which throughout the century will follow an ever-ascending trajectory. It intensifies its presence in the traditional fields of apostolate and ventures into new ones. Its spirituality is typically missionary, and it will eventually transfer it to the entire Recollection, to the detriment of other ascetic, contemplative, and community values.
2. A Century in Three Stages
It would be misleading to consider the entire century as a monolithic unit: there are three clearly distinct periods.
A) 1800-1825: Five Lustrums of Suffocation
The first period, spanning from 1800 to 1825, is characterized by a continuous decrease in the number of religious and the consequent abandonment of parishes and missions in the Philippines.
In Spain, the War of Independence initially, and the harshness and instability of politics later, coupled with the ruin of the State by the war against the French, hindered the recruitment of missionaries.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the communities of the Philippines were exhausted and multiplied their calls for help to the State Government and the authorities of the Order. But all were in vain. The Spanish communities were not in a position to help; and the Government, on the one hand, promised aid to the missions, but on the other hand, blinded their sources of supply.
From 1800 to 1825, only 20 Recollects arrived in the Philippines, to which must be added the 14 who professed in Manila between 1800 and 1828. These figures were not enough to replace the losses. Between 1801 and 1828, 82 religious died and another 7 returned to Spain; that is, the casualties (89) almost tripled the number of new arrivals (34).
B) 1826-1841: from Alfaro to Monteagudo
The second period lasted only 16 years. It began in 1826, with the arrival in the Philippines of the first eight religious formed in the novitiate of Alfaro (La Rioja, Spain), and ended in 1841.
The idea of creating a college for the training of future missionaries appeared for the first time in the second decade of the century. After overcoming many economic, administrative, and political difficulties, on January 20, 1824, the King issued the Royal Decree in which he granted the Recollects the opening of a missionary college in the Riojan town of Alfaro.
This college had capacity for only 20 students and was clearly insufficient. Very soon, it was thought to replace it with another, and the hermitage dedicated to the Virgin of the Way, in the nearby Monteagudo (Navarra, 30 km. from Alfaro), seemed to satisfy the requirements. On April 24, 1828, a Royal Decree authorized the transfer.
In Monteagudo, everything was dilapidated, and the first years of the community passed between internal dissensions, economic hardships, and uncertainty about the future. This atmosphere negatively affected the quality of the training imparted.
But, despite these weaknesses, during this time, it provided the Province with 72 new religious, which allowed it to recover some abandoned ministries in the Philippines and strengthened its presence in other regions of the Islands.
C) 1842-1899: The Zenith
The third and last period began in 1842 with the arrival in the Philippines of 24 new religious, and covers the rest of the century, until the end of the Spanish regime.
It was excellent, at least in some aspects; thus, the members of the Province rose from 86 in 1837 to 560 in 1898, not including the 65 religious who joined the Province of Colombia between 1889 and 1899.
These brilliant vocational results exerted a determining influence on the life of the Province.
Firstly, they obliged it to expand the training house of Monteagudo, which had become too small to accommodate the ever-increasing number of candidates. In 1848, it doubled its capacity with the construction of two new wings. Even so, in 1863, there was already the need to acquire another building that would allow for the reception of more candidates and for improvement of the quality of the training.
The solution is found not far from there, 30 miles to the north, in Marcilla (Navarra).
Finally, with the acquisition in 1878 of the monumental Benedictine monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla (La Rioja), the Province completed its training structure and could, for the first time, significantly raise the level of its ecclesiastical studies.
Then came the need to widen the apostolic field of the Province. Firstly, it opened new parishes and missions in its traditional territories; and, later, it accepted and even requested other new territories.
To understand these two measures, it is advisable to consider the galloping demography of the Islands and the growing suspicion of the Spanish Government towards the native clergy.
By mid-1897, the Recollects worked in 19 of the 49 provinces of the Archipelago, and administered 167 parishes, in addition to another 70 jurisdictions of lower rank.
Many of these parishes were located in regions of ancient Recollect tradition, which had been abandoned between 1785 and 1814: Bohol, Marianas, Mindanao, Mindoro, Palawan, Romblón, Cebú, Camotes, Siquijor, Bataán, and Zambales.
Among those that now emerge in new territories, those of Cavite, sought by the friars, and those of the island of Negros, where they went having been called by the Government, stood out. Those located in the provinces of Manila, Batangas, and Laguna will receive them from 1863 as compensation for those that had been taken away from them in Mindanao.
This recovery counted at all times with the protection of the Government, fearful that the movement of independence that had occurred in the American colonies would be repeated in the Philippines. Hence, it blatantly supported the friars, all Spaniards, against the secular clergy, predominantly Filipino. And this not-so-subtle protection of the regular clergy will poison the always difficult relations between both clergies.
A Memorable Date: 7 July 1867
Now the date may seem less relevant since the Augustinian Recollects have two canonized saints: Saint Ezekiel Moreno and Saint Magdalena of Nagasaki. However, it remains a significant milestone in the history of the Province of Saint Nicholas and the Order.
On that day, Saint Peter’s Square witnessed the beatification of two hundred and five martyrs who were sacrificed in Japan between 1617 and 1637. At last, the centuries-long efforts of the Province bore fruit. It had initiated the canonical processes before the tribunals in Manila and Macao as early as 1630, curiously at the request of those who would later become beneficiaries—Blessed Francisco de Jesús and Blessed Vicente de San Antonio.
The Beatification
The ceremony occurred on the morning of 7 July with the solemn proclamation of the pontifical document dated 7 May. This was followed by the booming of Castel Sant’Angelo’s cannon and the general tolling of bells. The Roman Pontiff was not present for the morning event but came in the afternoon to venerate the relics.
In attendance were six Recollects; two resided in Rome, and the others had come from Spain. Among them was Prior General Gabino Sánchez, who also represented the exclaustrated friars of the Province of Aragon. Additionally, two more exclaustrated religious were present to represent the former Provinces of Castile and Andalusia.
From the Province of Saint Nicholas, only one was present—its representative in Spain, Guillermo Agudo.
The martyrs
The pontifical brief included a lengthy list of the blessed, catalogued according to the dates of their martyrdom. The list concluded with our martyrs and their group, who were sacrificed on 3 September 1632. The Portuguese Vicente de San Antonio is listed as number 201, while the Spanish Francisco de Jesús is number 202. Both were identified as Augustinian priests, akin to the beatified Bartolomé Gutiérrez. From a legal perspective, the two Recollects were still part of the Order of Saint Augustine.
Yet, they were not the sole martyrs of the Augustinian Family. Six Japanese, numbered 194 to 199, were martyred on 28 September 1630. It is noted that they were members of the Third Order of Saint Augustine.
The papal brief does not offer further details. Consequently, two inaccuracies were observed: four of the blessed were not tertiaries but professed religious. Moreover, three of them were Augustinian Recollects named Mancio (no. 195), Lorenzo Scixo (no. 197), and Pedro Cufioie (no. 198).
3. Parish Apostolate
In the 19th century, the majority of religious in the Philippines worked among Christians, and their activities were similar to those of rural parish priests of the time. The scarcity of leaders and public employees, poverty, insecurity, and dispersion of the population, among other circumstances, obliged them to complement their spiritual and pastoral functions with secular tasks.
The fruit of this temporal activity is the number of towns, roads, canals, bridges, forts, churches, and other public buildings designed, directed, or even built by them, which are still admired today by both scholars and casual travellers.
Parishes were usually too extensive. They consisted, so to speak, of a nucleus and a periphery. The nucleus was made up of the town where the parish priest resided and the hamlets around it. The neighbourhoods, ranches, and huts that dot the farthest fields form the periphery, where most of the parishioners usually resided.
These parishioners, very often, lived in isolation and led a languid spiritual life, as reflected in the scarce attendance at Sunday Mass and the relative profusion of illegitimate unions.
The nucleus of the mission absorbed almost all the time of the parish priest. The nearest neighbourhoods and ranches saw him three or four times a year. The most remote ones must be content with the annual visit, which usually takes place during the patronal feasts.
The prolonged stay of the religious in their parishes, the continuous interaction with their parishioners, and the scarce communication with their superiors and companions favoured their identification with the people, whose interests they considered as their own. In not a few cases, the people became the ultimate horizon of their lives.
It is a commendable attitude, very typical of a pastor and even of any public servant. But it hides two pitfalls: the first is paternalism with authoritarian overtones; the second, the isolation from one’s religious community.
During the first half of this 19th century, there were religious who lived totally alone, separated from their nearest companions by tens and even hundreds of kilometres, devoid of roads. They do not even have the consolation of confessing regularly, and there were many who died alone, without a brother to close their eyes and administer the last sacraments.
In the last third of the century, the situation improved. The creation of new parishes and the incipient development of communications facilitated encounters between neighbouring parish priests.
The taking of possession of the new parish priests, the inauguration of churches and parish houses, spiritual exercises, Lenten confessions, the birthdays of the parish priests, the canonical visit of the provincial prior, and above all, the patronal feasts of each Parish, provided occasions for organizing fraternal gatherings among religious of the region.
4. La Revolution (1896-1898)
The Philippine Revolution marked a fundamental milestone in the path of the Province and the Order as a whole. It put an end to a special century of its history and placed it at a crossroads that forced it, first, to seek new apostolic horizons, and then to rethink its insertion in the Church, giving itself new legal channels.
The Revolution lasted a couple of years and developed in two phases. The first only affected the provinces around Manila, and lasted from September 1896 until December 20 of the following year.
The second affected the entire Archipelago and extended from April 25, 1898, when the United States declared war on Spain, until December 10 of that same year, when the Treaty of Paris ended the conflict.
The balance of the Revolution was tragic for the Augustinian Recollects. Thirty friars were murdered, three drowned trying to escape, and four died in prison.
Almost another hundred, also prisoners, were subjected to humiliations and exhausting marches for months. The others had to hastily seek refuge in the convents of Manila, from where the majority will continue their journey to Spain and South America.
The persecution of the friars, on the other hand, brought with it the abandonment of many parishes, the closure of seminaries, and the collapse of religious practice. Another consequence was the secularization of education, derived from the complete separation between Church and State.
On the contrary, as far as the Mariana Islands are concerned, where the Province had been since 1769, there were no insurrection or persecution of religious. The Recollects left there in 1908, when the American Government placed them in the dilemma of choosing between voluntary departure or expulsion.
NEXT PAGE: 5. 20th Century until Vatican II: Breakthrough
TABLE OF CONTENT
History of the Province of Saint Nicholas of Tolentine:
‘Always in mission’
- History of the Province of Saint Nicholas of Tolentine: ‘Always in Mission’
- 1. Introduction: “Navigare necesse est”
- 2. 17th Century: The Province of Saint Nicholas of Tolentine
- 3. 18th Century: The Philippines, Land of Heroic Deeds
- 4. 19th Century: The Philippines, Zenith, and Collapse
- 5. 20th Century until Vatican II: Breakthrough
- 6. 20th Century after Vatican II: High Seas Swell
- 7. 21st Century: Facing the Future
- 8. Epilogue: Living the present with passion and embracing the future with hope
