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.