Reasons Why They Came: The Case of the Augustinians in the Philippines

What brought the Augustinians to the Philippines? This brief and simple article is an attempt to demonstrate the arrival and to clarify the reasons why the Augustinians came to the country. (This article largely contains excerpts from the History of the Order of St. Augustine written by David Gutierrez.)

The period between about 1500 and 1750 brought a dramatic change in world history. During this time, Christianity became the first religion to spread around the world. Why did this happen? One reason was the energy unleashed by the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation. In particular, much Catholic missionary work grew out of the Counter-Reformation. Religious Orders were dedicated to making converts to Catholicism. The second major reason for the spread of Christianity was the Age of Exploration. By the 1500s, Europeans were travelling by sea to almost every part of the globe. Missionaries followed the European conquerors, traders, and colonists. 

In the Order of St. Augustine in the 16th century, it was the Augustinian Province of Castile that aggressively moved and participated in the missionary activity of the Church.1  In the year 1527, when Juan Gallego was elected as Provincial of the said circumscription, he took the initiative to promote missionary activity. For this reason he was also known as the creator of the missionary ideal in the Order. Though he was tasked to lead the first Augustinian missionary to Mexico, he was not able to carry this out for he died in 1534.2  

After some time of studies and application to obtain the necessary permission, seven religious men (Augustinians) were appointed to initiate this new endeavour. They were “all men of great intelligence and talent and almost all of recognized holiness.”3  They embarked at Seville on March 3, 1533 and arrived in Mexico on June 7 of the same year where they were welcomed as guests by the Dominicans for more than a month until they had their own house.

Preceded by the Franciscans and the Dominicans in mission, the Augustinians were not well treated by some in the beginning, and although defended by the first archbishop of Mexico and the Viceroy, they had to extend their efforts to regions not occupied by their Spanish co-laborers. Adding to their work of Christianizing, the missionaries committed themselves to an intense humanitarian and socio – cultural program from the beginning.  Mexico served as a base of operations for missionaries in this century, and what have been mentioned about evangelizing, humanitarian and cultural work in Mexico also applies to the Augustinian missions in Latin America and the Philippines.

On first attempt on November 1, 1542, the Augustinians travelled from Mexico to the Philippine Islands. They stayed for a short time and did not establish any missions at that time.4  

On September 24, 1559, King Philip of Spain wrote a letter to Andres de Urdaneta, a former captain in his father’s service and later an Augustinian friar, asking him to take part in the expedition which was to sail from Mexico “to discover the islands of the setting of the sun.” The King added: “according to the great knowledge which you say you have about the things of that land, and understanding as you do about navigation, and being a good cosmographer, it would be of great importance that you should set out in those aforesaid ships, to see what you may discover for your expedition and for the service of our Lord.” With this letter, the king sent another to the Provincial of the Augustinians in Mexico informing him of the content of the letter to Urdaneta. The king also expressed his wish that the Provincial send other Augustinians along with Urdaneta, that they might start Christianizing the islands that they would discover.5  Thus, the first five famous Augustinians joined the expedition and set sail for the Orient.6  

They all arrived to the island of Cebu on April 27, 1565. On May 5, they began the construction of the first foundation which the missionaries dedicated to the Child Jesus, in honor of the statue of our Saviour which Pigaffeta, the historian of Magellan’s expedition, had given to the ruler of Cebu and his wife in 1521, and which the Augustinians found upon their arrival. As to date, the Augustinians have been in the Philippines for 470 years.

Jürgen Moltmann once said: “Historical awareness differentiates between the present past and the past present, and puts us in the position to discover the future in the past, to pick up past possibilities again to link them with the present future.”7  fr. ericson borre, osa.

 

END NOTES:

1 Rano, Balbino, The Order of St. Augustine, 1975, 94.

2 Gutierrez, David, History of the Order of St. Augustine. Vol. II, (Pennsylvania: Augustinian Historical Institute, 1979), 207.

3 Kavanagh, Denis, The Augustinian Order, (Pennsylvania: Villanova Press, 1965), 59.

4 It was not until twenty years later that the Augustinians established themselves in the Philippines. Rano, p. 96.  

5 Gutierrez, p.221.

6 The goal was not the archipelago named after Philip II, but rather China which the missionaries of Mexico were gazing in 1543.

7 Moltmann, Jürgen, Paradigm Change in History, (New York: Crossroad Publishing Co., 1991), 321.

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THE AUGUSTINIAN EMBLEM

THE AUGUSTINIAN EMBLEM

The emblem of the Order of Saint Augustine is a flaming heart pierced by an arrow (1) on the background of an open book. The open book suggests a dedication to intellectual searching or study; the pursuit of knowledge, both divine and earthly.

Saint Augustine is often portrayed holding a flaming heart to indicate his great personal charity and the fact that he preached love of neighbour as the way to serve God. In the emblem of the Order it reminds Augustine's followers that they must practice and preach charity toward God and neighbour. The arrow piercing the heart and the book represents the Spirit of God piercing our minds and hearts and calling us to a continual growth of faith, hope and love in our lives.
The Order does not have an official motto, but often you see the Latin words Tolle Lege used like a motto. Those words mean Take! Read! Which are suitable as an encouragement to study. They have, however, an historical connection with the conversion of Saint Augustine (2). During a period of his life when he was in a confused mental state, trying to take the final step of becoming a Catholic, he was in a garden with his friend Alypius, reading the Letters of St Paul. He had put the book down and walked away; suddenly he became aware of some children nearby repeating those words Tolle Lege over and over again; he rushed back to where he had put down the book; he took it up and opened it at random and read from St Paul's Letter to the Romans Chapter 13 verses 13 and 14 (3). Immediately all his hesitation vanished and he was able to make the decision to become a Catholic.
(1) This imagery is inspired by a statement Augustine makes in the Confessions: Book IX 3 "With the arrows of your charity you had pierced our hearts, and we bore your words within us like a sword penetrating us to the core".
(2) Confessions Book VIII.29
(3) Let us walk becomingly as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in debauchery and wantonness, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and as for the flesh, take no thought for its lusts".

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Earliest Philippine-born Augustinians

Earliest Philippine-born Augustinians

 

Augustinians began living in Intramuros in 1571. The monastery there was designated an Augustinian novitiate on 30th March 1575 (and still serves in that capacity once again).

 

In 1576, the first person to complete his one-year novitiate there was Juan de Penalosa O.S.A. in 1576.

 

As had happened similar novitiates in Goa and in Mexico City, the early entrants were Europeans. In Manila, the first Filipino to make Augustinian vows was Martin Lacandula in 1590.

 

The Book of Augustinian Professions at the Monastery of San Agustin, Intramuros lists that after 1641 (unfortunately the first book is missing) 250 native Filipinos joined the Order of Saint Augustine.

 

For example, in 1641 there were 160 Spaniards and 38 Filipinos in the Order in the Philippines.

 

In the history of the Philippines Province, special mention needs to be made of a number of Philippine-born Augustinians, most particularly the botanist Ignacio Mercado O.S.A. and the historian, Anselmo de San Prospero O.S.A.

 

One of the earliest Filipinos in the Order of Saint Augustine was Brother Marcelo de San Agustin O.S.A., who died in 1697. He was a descendant of one of the original owners of the land upon which was built the Church of San Agustin in Intramuros.

 

Father Benito de Mena Salazar O.S.A. was a mestizo from Vigan, Ilocos Sur. He evangelised the mountains of Ilocos Norte; he died in Bacarra in 1676.

 

Father Ignacio Mercado O.S.A., a mestizo (i.e., a person with one parent Spanish and the other Filipino) from Paranaque, Manila was a botanist. He propagated cocao in Bauan, Batangas, where he died in 1698.

 

 

The revolution of 1896 caused the Order of Saint Augustine its heaviest losses in the entire 19th century.

 

It swept away much of what the Order had previously done there.

 

In 1899, for instance, the Order of Saint Augustine was removed from 194 parishes and 100 mission stations, which were handed over to diocesan clergy.

 

About 240 members were deprived on their income from ministry (benefice), and 122 Augustinians were captives of the insurgents.

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Augustinians in the Philippines in 1900s and the growth of Filipino vocations

Augustinians in the Philippines in 1900s and the growth of Filipino vocations

 

 

Within a few short years of 1898, the Philippines Province had only a tenth of the houses in the Philippines that it had possessed there before the revolution.

 

In the Philippines the Order retained only a few parishes, including their main foundations in Cebu and Manila and Iloilo (where the Colégio San Agustin began in 1904.

 

It grew into the University of San Agustin of today). There were only thirty-eight Augustinians available for ministry in the Philippines.

 

Many of the Spanish priests of this province either returned to Spain or were deployed to Augustinian missions in Latin America. The work of the Order in Peru, Brazil, Argentinaand Colombia received great benefit from these men.

In addition to the 122 Augustinians who were captives, four hundred other Augustinians had for immediate refuge moved to San Agustin in Intramuros, Manila, to Macao, or to the Augustinian monasteries at Valladolid and La Vid in Spain.

In this way, 284 Augustinians departed from the Philippines.

 

Although in 1900 the Province had only 38 Augustinians in the Philippines, in total internationally it had 30 houses, 370 priests, 64 lay brothers and 152 candidates. 

 

As well as assist Latin America, in the next seventeen years it opened as many as twenty houses and schools in Spain itself.

 

Another consequence of the above difficulties was the transfer of the headquarters of the Province from Manila to Madrid in 1901 when Fr Jose Lobo O.S.A. was Provincial.

 

In 1927 the Provincial Gaudencio Castrillo O.S.A. returned the Provincial residence to Manila, but it was again moved back to Spain in 1935, just one year before the Spanish Civil War.

 

Disaster struck the Province in the Philippines again in World War II, leaving in ruins from aerial bombing and artillery shells the two monasteries at Intramuros and Cebu, and the school in Iloilo.

 

Thirteen Augustinians in Manila were killed by the departing Japanese armed forces.

 

There was point in time when Fr Manuel Gloria O.S.A. was the only living Filipino-born Augustinian.

 

As already stated, during the Japanese occupation some Augustinian friars were killed, and the Order sent others back to Spain or to serve in South America. Augustinian parishes in the Philippines here were turned over to the diocesan clergy, except for one or two in Cebu and in Pampanga.

In the Philippines in the early 1950s there was only one Filipino Augustinian and about fifteen Spanish Augustinians who were present in Manila, Cebu, Pampanga and Iloilo. 

Five or six U.S. Augustinians came on loan after the War  to help the Order run the University of San Agustin for a couple of years, while young friars from Spain of the Philippine Province were studying for their Master's degrees in the U.S.A., or learning the English language in Australia. One of the American friars is the now candidate for beatification, John McKniff O.S.A., later a bishop in Cuba.

There was no official Augustinian policy to recruit Filipino vocations during that time, and among the present Filipino Augustinians in 2010, two of the eldest made their simple vows in 1951 and 1955 respectively. All the rest came afterwards. It is safe to say that serious recruitment of native vocations by the Order in the Philippines did not begin before the early 1950s.

By 1980 the Province had built itself up to 59 members in the Philippines, of whom 29 were Filipino by birth, eleven Spaniards who had become Filipinos by naturalization, three more in the process of naturalization, 14 Spaniards and two men from India.

 

The number of Spaniards was declining, as older men died or retired to Spain. There were, however, six local novices and 15 professed Filipino students preparing for priesthood.

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Augustinian Trivia

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