THE DOMINICANS IN MACAO

The Dominicans in Macao

By way of an introduction, we summarize the information of the “Encyclopedia Americana” on Macao: “Macao is a colony and seaport on the southern coast of mainland China. The colony is 6 square miles (16 km2) in area and consists of the Macao peninsula and the small islands of Taipa and Coloane. It is connected by an isthmus to the island of Chung-Shan … Established in 1557 as the first center of trade between Europe and China, Macao eventually became a haven for European traders and missionaries in times of uprisings. Starting in 1563, and for nearly 300 years Portugal paid the Chinese Government a yearly rental or tribute for the colony…Macao enjoyed its most flourishing period during the 18^th and part of the 19^th centuries, when it and Canton were the only ports of China open to European commerce.

(Macao, a Portuguese colony for centuries, returned to China as a Special Administrive Region (SAR), like Hong Kong, on December 20, 1999)

The sources used for the information on Macao and the Dominicans are: Fr. Eusebio Arnaiz, C.SS.R., “Macau, Mae das Missoes no Extremo Oriente,” Fr. Manoel Teixeira, “The Portuguese Missions in Malacca and Singapore,” 2. vls, Lisbon 1961; Fr. Diego Aduarte, OP “Historia de la Provincia del Santo Rosario de la Orden de Predicadores,” etc., Manila, 1640; “Acts of the Provincial Chapters, Holy Rosary Province;” Luis Cacegas and Luis de Sousa, OP “Historia de S. Domingos particular do Reino e Conquistas de Portugual,” Lisboa, 1866; Salvador Luis, OP (trans. Lionel Xavier, OP): “The Spanish Dominicans in the Delta of the Pearl River,” Hong Kong, 1987.

1. The colony

The first contacts of the Portuguese with Macao took place in 1540-1545. The City-factory (of the “Holy Name of God”) was built in 1557 “in the heart of the colony.” A simple chapel dedicated to the Moder of God, built in 1558-1560, was the first religious building or “house of God.” It was in that same year that the famous commercial relations of Macao with Japan began.

It is interesting to note that one year before, in the winter of 1556, the famous Dominican missionary Frei Gaspar da Sta. Cruz arrived in Canton from Cambodia and remained there about a month; “he preached in the streets of the town, but without success.” ¨He was the first to enter China as a missionary in the modern times.” He returned, via Macao, to Malacca…, and from Malacca he went to Ormuz (Persia), where he worked for 12 years before returning to Portugal . He died in Setubal in 1570. “He was a man of (great zeal) and unusual energy” and wrote a book entitled “Tractatus where the things of China are narrated in great detail,” and was published in Evora in 1569-1570.

The colony of Macao developed amazingly fast, to the point that, twenty years after its foundation there were already 1,000 Portuguese. In 1640 the total population of Portuguese, Hindus, Malay, Africans and, above all, native Chinese, was in the vicinity of 40,000, of whom 8,000 were soldiers and military personnel. It was a moment of great splendor! The Jesuits arrived there in 1565, the OSA in 1586, and the Spanish Dominicans in 1587.” Macao was destined to be the basis for the missionary contacts with Japan, China, Vietnam, etc.

2. The Diocese

There were some 5,000 Catholics in Macao in 1568 and the colony depended ecclesiastically on Malacca (which had become a diocese in 1558, with Fr. Jorge de Souza of Santa Luzia, OP as first bishop). The Diocese of Macao was established on January 23, 1576 and from then on was a suffragan of Goa (where a diocese was created in 1533). China, Japan, and the South were part of the territory of the Macao Diocese. Timor and some other Indonesian islands were placed under the Diocese of Macao in 1874, while before they were under Malacca.

The first bishop of Macao was Melchor Carneiro SJ (1516-1583). He had been named bishop by St. Pius V in 1556 and was ordained in Goa in 1567; he was supposed to have “China and Japan under him.” When the Diocese of Macao was created in 1576 he was made first bishop of the new Diocese by Gregory XIII. He died in 1583.

The second bishop of Macao was Dom Leonardo de Sa (1583-1599). In 1587/88, when he was returning to Macao from Goa, where he attended the Third Provincial Council, he was captured with his traveling companions by the Muslims of Sumatra and held there till c.1598.

The third, and only Dominican bishop of Macao , was Joao Pinto da Piedade. He was consecrated in Lisbon in 1604 and departed for Macao on March 28, 1605. He resigned the Diocese in 1623 and died in 1626.

3. The Spanish Dominicans arrive

Three of the “Founding Fathers” of the Holy Rosary Province of the Dominican Order (Antonio Arcediano, Bartolome Lopez and Alonso Delgado), “few, but very much advanced in religion, letters and prudence,” were sent from Acapulco in the patache “San Martin” on April 3, 1587 to “Macan, seaport and city of the Portuguese in the mainland of China,” since “the first goal of this Province was to enter to promulgate the Holy Gospel in the great kingdom of China.” After a long and hazardous trip, with shipwreck included, they arrived in Macao at the end of July (or September 1, according to Fr. Salvador Luis, OP) of that same year and, for some time, they were guests of the Augustinians, who had arrived one year earlier.  

The new arrivals were warmly welcomed by the ecclesiastical establishment and on the month of October, 1587 they were given the humble chapel in “the heart of the colony,” dedicated to Our Lady, as mentioned above. They immediately proceeded to build a convent, attached to the church, which would not be much better than the church. This foundation was accepted by the Holy Rosary Province in its first Provincial Chapter of June 10, 1588, as the number two among the foundations of the Province, immediately after the convent of Sto Domingo of Manila. The Vicar, Fr. Arcediano, received into the Order a Chinese-Portuguese mestizo priest, Antonio de Santa Maria, the first oriental to be received into the Order.

Unexpectedly, things took a bad turn, and soon after Fathers Arcediano, Lopez and Delgado had to depart for Europe, “by the way of India,” since the Viceroy of the Portuguese State in India (Goa) decided that the Spanish Friars could not settle in Macao, being afraid that “after the Friars, the civilians will come and they will take away from us the port and the commerce.” They were not allowed either to join their confreres in Manila. In their trip back home to Spain they became the first Dominicans to circumnavigate the world!

Fr. Antonio de Sta Maria continued to live in Macao, where he died years later, leaving behind him the reputation of a saintly life. He was included by the Dominican historian Fr. Juan Peguero (Manila, 1692) among the “religious of the Province well known for their virtuous lives.” It is said that “he was buried in the habit of the Order.”

Eventually, the church given to the Spanish Dominicans and the convent built by them, were taken over by the “Dominican Congregation of the East Indies,” of the Province of Portugal (who arrived in Goa in 1548 and in Malacca in 1554), when they established themselves in Macao towards the end of the sixteenth century. A heated litigation would ensue between the Portuguese and the Spanish Dominicans over this foundation, the matter reaching the General Chapter of the Order in 1611, which decided that the house should be handed over to the Holy Rosary Province, “the legitimate owner.” But this decision was never implemented, as it can be seen by the following document:

“The King wrote on March 26, 1613 to the Viceroy of Goa saying that he had been informed that the General of the Dominican Order at the Chapter held in Paris, at the requests of the Dominicans in the Philippines, had ordered that the Dominican convent of Macao should be given to the Spanish Dominicans of the Philippines. The King disapproved of this order and wrote to Fr. General to withdraw it, saying that “trade between Macao and the Philippines is not allowed; and that no Spanish religious may go from the Philippines to Macao or Malacca without the royal consent. The Viceroy should give order to the Dominican Superior of Macao not to hand over the convent to the Spaniards; and if any Spanish religious dare go to Macao, they should not be allowed to land, and the Captains and pilots of the ship should be punished for bringing them.” (Documentos remitidos, vol 2, doc. 370, p. 423)

This would be the convent referred to in 1627 by Cacegas-Sousa OP in their “Historia de S. Domingos” when they say: “One thousand leagues from Goa in the coast of China, in the province called Canton, the city of Macao is situated in a small island of the same name. Here we have a convent of six to eight religious who live from alms and without any royal endoubtment. It was founded, now many years ago, by religious of our habit who arrived there from the Philippines: Frei Antonio Arcediano, Frei Alonso and Frey Bartolome.” It is affirmed that Fr. Arcediano “informed the Vicar General of India” (the superior of the Congregation of the Holy Cross of the East Indies, of the Portuguese Dominican Province) “to send religious there and take over it for the Congregation,” because “the people of Macao had shown love for and cordial acceptance of the Order of St. Dominic.”

The Spanish Dominicans continued with their attempts to enter China from the Philippines via Macao. There were no less than eight attempts made between 1590 and 1619. In one of them, “the saintly old man” and second Provincial of the Holy Rosary Province , Fr. Alonso Jimenez (1592-1596), after failing to establish a mission in Cambodia, found himself in Macao where he died “in the arms of Fr. Antonio Calderira, OP on the 25^th of December, 1599 and was buried there” (according to Fr. Teixeira). He was the first Dominican to die and be buried in Macao. The first Dominican mission in mainland China was established in 1632, with the missionaries entering this time via Taiwan (Formosa).

4. A Dominican-Jesuit conflict

The ecclesiastical situation in Macao was always conflictive among the religious Orders. Fr. Aduarte seems to hint at the possibility that there was religious interference preventing the Spanish Dominicans to settle in Macao when he claims that “they were not allowed to remain in Macao due to the opposition of those who should have been the very ones to help them.”  The following is but one of the many incidents among the religious Orders in Macao, and this one affected the Jesuits and the Portuguese Dominicans. Fr.Antonio do Rosario, was the Vicar of the convent of S. Domingos in Macao in 1615, when the third bishop of Macao, the Dominican Joao Pinto da Piedade, sailed for Goa and Portugal, leaving Fr. Antonio as Governor of the Diocese.

“For reasons better known to themselves, the Jesuits declined to recognize the Dominican Friar, Antonio do Rosario, acting Governor of the Bishopric in July 1623. They appointed as temporary incumbent one of their own Order, Don Diego Valente, bishop of Japan, who was residing in Macao because of the fierce anti-Christian persecution raging in his nominal diocese. In this attitude they had the backing of the Senate, possibly because Fr. Antonio was staunch supporter of Lopo Sarmento do Carvalho, whom they disliked. Dom Francisco Mascarenhas, Captain General of Macao, on the other hand stood staunchly by the Dominican Prelate, and in this he was supported by the monks of the thre mendicant Orders (Franciscans, Augustinians and Dominicans). Not for the first, not for the last time, the rival religious factions resorted to temporal weapons, and artillery was used against the convent of St. Dominic.  The unedifying dispute dragged on for about a year, until the ecclesiastical authorities of Goa , to whom the matter had been referred for decision, pronounced in favor of the Dominican candidate.” (Cf. M.Teixeira, op. cit. quoting C.R. Boxer, “Fidalgos in the Far East”). Fr. Antonio do Rosario himself was eventually promoted to the see of Malacca in 1636, but he died in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) on the way to Goa (India) to be consecrated.

5. A new Dominican Convent

According to Fr. Arnaiz, the (Portuguese) Dominicans built a new convent/church in Macao in 1638. It may well be the one described by Frs. Cacegas-Sousa, OP c. 1706 in the work mentioned above: “Five hundred (500) leagues from Malacca is the city of China (Macao) where the Congregation has a sumptuous house, perfect and finished, with the title of Our Lady of the Rosary. The church has three aisles, with the roof and the columns gold plated, cloisters and large dormitories well ventilated. There are some Confraternities, administered with great devotion and at great expense… There are in this house more than 20 Religious.”

It should be remembered that in 1580, King Philip II of Spain became also King of Portugal and this situation lasted till 1640 when Portugal recovered its independence, even if Spain did not recognize it till 1688. For many Portuguese those were “Sixty years of Spanish captivity!”). In his days, the Dominican bishop Joao da Piedade (1604-1623) is reported to have “favored the Castilian (Spanish) domain.” According to Fr. Arnaiz in the Acts of the Leal Senado of Macao the names are kept of the Dominican Priors (as well as those of the Franciscan and Augustinians) who defended “the common good.” And, of course, of the Jesuits, too, “who exercised an insuperable hidden power” in Macao.

It was in this new church where a dramatic incident took place in 1644, when the Dominican convent was attacked by those Portuguese who were contrary to the political unification of Portugal with Spain, with shouts in favor of the house of Braganza. The Governor, Lobo da Silveira, and the Major Sargent (“outro partidario dos Castellanhos”) were killed, the latter on the altar, during the High Mass!” (I have not found any mention made in these historical sources of a Dominican Prior who was supposedly killed by his own Friars. If it was true, it might have been also due to political motivations!)

The Dominicans, as well as the Augustinians, were affected by the political turmoils which agitated the city in the first years of the XVIIIth century, having to weather out “popular and political storms.” It is said that “in 1723, force was used against the Dominicans and violent and sacrilegious hands were placed on one of them.” (Or it might have been at this time that the Dominican Prior may have been killed, with the connivance of some of the members of the community, if it happened at all).

The Dominican convent and church suffered greatly in the fire of 1807 and, much later, when the Dominicans were not longer there, it suffered greatly again in the great typhoon of 1874.

6. Dominican Apostolate in Macao

The Portuguese Dominicans in Macao attended fundamentally to the preaching of the Word of God to the local population. They limited their activity to the colony, except for some help given to the missions in the South (Indonesia), even if not in the measure their Brothers did from Malacca to the missions in Siam and Cambodia and the Islands (Indonesia). But it also had its moments of glory.

In 1640, though, they sent a delegation to Japan, here great persecutions had raged and many missionaries had been killed in the previous years, trying to help the tormented Japanese Christianity. It is said that some of the members of this delegation, “a glory of the Dominicans,” also suffered martyrdom.

After the fall to Malacca to the Dutch in 1640, the Christianity of Siam “founded and cultivated by the sons of St. Dominic and confirmed with the blood of some martyrs.” But God came to its rescue. A tyrant ruler wanted to do business with the Portuguese and sent a delegation to Macao to that effect. The terms were acceptable and permission was granted for missionaries to be sent there and look after that Christianity which was diminished and almost extinguished.” Fr. Antonio de S. Domingo, who was the vicar in Macao , was chosen to go there and took along with himself Fr. Jacinto Jimenez, in order to rebuild the Church and gather the few Christians that could be found, while at the same time, in the old style of our missionaries, they could try to make new ones.” In spite of some strong opposition and the internal turmoil caused by the local political situation “the Siam Christianity was growing till the year 1662, when the latest news arrived here from there.”

The influence of the Dominicans in the colony was evidenced by the fact that in 1646 St. Catherine of Siena was declared co-patron of Macao, together with the Immaculate Conception and St. Francis Xavier. In 1822 the Dominicans began the publication of the weekly “La Abelha de China” of great acceptance, being the first newspaper of its character in the colony, which later on was called “Gaceta de Macao.”

By the beginning of the XIX century, Masonry was very active and influential in Portugal and was planning a mortal blow against the Religious Orders in the Metropolis and the Overseas Possessions, as it happened also in Spain. The decree of exclaustration and confiscation of the properties of the Religious Orders was signed in 1834 and executed in Macao the following year. This brought to an end of the influential presence of the OFM, OP, OSA, Clarisian Monastery, etc. in Macao.

7. Supporting the Dominican Missions in China/Vietnam

The Spanish Dominicans from the Philippines continued to try to enter China for many years, this being one of the original purposes of the foundation of the Province. And, naturally, they tried to do it through Macao. It was only in 1626 when they found another entry point to the Chinese mainland, and that was Formosa (Taiwan). It was from Taiwan that they were able to enter and establish the permanent foundation of the Chinese mission in 1632.

Yet, Macao continued to be the natural door to enter China. Even if some did it through Formosa, many of the Spanish Dominican missionaries entered China through Macao. That was, for instance, the case of the proto-martyr, St. Francis Fernandez de Capillas in 1642, and many others after him. Sometimes they had to remain there for a shorter or longer period, enjoying the fraternal hospitality and the generous services of their Portuguese confreres of the convent of St. Domingos (or of Our Lady of the Rosary).  That would be also the case, later on (from 1676 onwards), for The Spanish Dominicans going to Vietnam (Indochina). From 1631 to 1745 the number of Spanish Dominicans who for one reason or another visited Macao and were guests of their Portuguese Dominican brothers, staying there for a shorter or longer period, was not less than sixty six (66).

Macao was not only the natural door to enter China, but also the natural shelter and refuge for the exiled missionaries in times of persecution, as it happened, for instance, in the years 1707 and 1730. There were seven Spanish Dominicans who were exiled in Macao in the persecution of 1707, including Fr. Pedro Munoz who later on would establish the Procurement house of St. Pius V in Canton for the Dominican Missions in China and Vietnam. During the persecution of 1730 there were five Spanish Dominicans who took shelter in Macao for six long years until things were more favorable and were able to reenter the Fukien mission. Eventually the five of them would suffer martyrdom there (1747-1748), and are now canonized, namely: Sts. Pedro Martyr Sans, Francisco Serrano, Joaquin Rojo, Juan Alcover and Francisco Diaz.

9. The return of the Spanish Dominicans

It was precisely the long stay of Fr. Pedro M. Sanz and companions in Macao that prompted the idea of establishing a Spanish Dominican Procurement House in Macao under the protection of the Portuguese Padroado. For several years, the Holy Rosary Province had operated a Procurement-house (“Procuracion”) in Canton for its missions in China and Vietnam under the patronage of St. Pius V. The last Dominicans to be assigned in this house were Fathers Eusebio Oscot, later on Vicar Apostolic in Fukien 1739-1743, and Francisco Sanz in 1735. This house was lost during the Chinese persecution which started in 1729, when most of the missionaries had to take refuge in Macao .

When the Spanish Dominicans were able to return to China after the long persecution which started in 1629 and reestablished the mission, they experienced great difficulties in having their needs taken care of through third parties. The Dominican missionaries realized that “a Procurrement house was needed in Macao, where new missionaries would be received, the sick would be cared for, and the exiled would be lodged in case of another persecution” and requested the Provincial Chapter of 1753 to take the necessary steps to have it established in Macao.  The Master of the Order, Fr. Boxadors (1756-1777) welcomed the idea and ordered the establishment of such house on December 13, 1757. The Province appointed Fr. Vicente Ausina in 1759 to be “the Procurator in Macao for the Dominican Missions of China and Tonkin”, residing in Macao with the Portuguese Dominicans. Fr. Feliciano Alonso, a missionary and later on Vicar Apostolic in Vietnam, was the also Procurator in Macao.

Eventually the Spanish Dominican missionaries of China and Vietnam requested that the “new arrangement” in Macao be given a permanent and “independent status.” For this purpose a house was bought (near the Cathedral, with another lot at the back of the Dominican convent of San Domingos or Holy Rosary). In 1778 the Portuguese authorities presented some difficultities to the existence of a Spanish Dominican Procurement house, but, finally, towards 1786 a new house, independent from the Portuguese Dominican convent was purchased by the Province “em frente da igreja de S. Agustinho,” (in front of the church of St. Augustine), where the Procurator for the Dominican Missions lived with his assistant and some missionaries on transit.

Among the missionaries who stayed at this new house as Procurators the following can be mentioned: Fr. Manuel Corripio, Fr. Juan Molano, Fr. Benito Anglada, Fr. Juan Alvarez del Manzano, Fr. Domingo Serrador, Fr. Raymundo Barcelo, Fr. Juan Ferrando with Fr. Jose Fuixa as assistant, Fr. Fr. Ramon Rodsriguez with Fr. Francisco Roy as assistant, and Fr. Mariano Martin with Fr. Julian Velazquez as assistant. Among the visitors and guests of this house in Macao can be numbered 6 Dominican Bishops Martyrs of Vietnam, now canonized (Sts. Ignacio Delgado, Domingo Henares, Jeronimo Hermosilla, Diaz Sanjurjo, Garia Sampedro and Valentin de Berrio-Ochoa), as well as other 3 Spanish Dominicans martyrs in Vietnam and now canonized (Jacinto Castaneda, Jose Fernandez and Pedro Almato), and 11 Spanish Dominican Bishops, with other 33 Spanish Dominican Priests for a total of 53 Spaniards, and 10 Vietnamese Dominicans.

It is important to note that the Dominican Procuration in Macao, as well as that of the “Ad Exteros,” was not affected by the draconian Masonic exclaustration laws of 1834, and were permitted to exist since they were not considered “religious communities!”  It is also interesting to note that the Spanish Dominicans, like all the Religious Orders with missions in China and other places, were granted exemption from taxation in Macao for all the objects sent through its port and which were destined to the divine worship or to the maintenance of the religious, as well as the silver or gold which was destined to the propagation of the Kingdom of God.

This arrangement continued till 1860, when, at the request of the Missionaries in China, Vietnam and now also Taiwan (since 1859), the Procurement-house was transferred to the British colony of Hong Kong which seemed to offer better facilities. The transfer of venue was approved by the Provincial Council of September 3, 1860, and was carried out by the last Procurator in Macao, Fr. Francisco Rivas. The former facility in Macao was sold on the first of October of the same year and a new one was bought in Hong Kong located at Caine Road “on the left of the Convent-School of the Canosian Sisters.” In the Acts of the Chapter of 1861 the new house of Hong Kong is “accepted,” and the first religious to be assigned to this house in the British colony were Fr. Pedro Payo, as procurator, and Fr. Joseph Pages, as his assistant. Years later Fr. Payo was promoted to archbishop of Manila. Fr. Pages was the fist Dominican to die in Hong Kong on July 29, 1864.

Years later, Macao saw a new, though temporary, foundation of the Holy Rosary Province . It happened in 1898 when a house was acquired in Macao to house 22 Dominican Fathers who had worked in the Philippines and managed to avoid falling into the hands of the Katipuneros during the insurrection against Spain. The house was part of the big property of the Remdedios family and was located “em frente da porta de saída do Seminario de S. Jose, dele separato unicamente per la rua” (in front of the exit door of the Seminary of St. Joseph, separated from it by only the street). The Fathers lived there for a little over a year, until the situation in the Philippines improved and they were able to return to the Islands or were assigned to other ministries of the Province. This house was sold in 1906.

Once again Dominican habits were seen in the streets of Macao, this time during the War of the Pacific, when the professors and students of the Dominican Priory of St. Albert the Great -which was established in Hong Kong in 1935- moved to Macao in 1945 and there, thanks to the generosity of bishop Ramalho SJ, governor Texeira and some Portuguese families, they were able to continue the religious and academic life for a period of four months (July-November), returning to Hong Kong afterwards. It was in Macao where, on the 29^th of October, 1945, died and was buried the venerable Fr. Francisco Noval, for many years Procurator for the Dominican Missions in Hong Kong, a well known person in the life of the Church and of the Order in the British Colony.

It was not only the Dominican Fathers, but also the Dominican Sisters who found a shelter in Macao. When the Missionaries were expelled from Continental China in 1950-1952, the Dominican Sisters of the Holy Rosary (Pamplona, Zamboanga) – who had been brought to China by Mons. Teodoro Labrador a few years earlier to train the Dominican Sisters of Funing – established themselves in Macao, where they continue at present doing educational and charity work.

Finally, the Dominican Fathers of the Holy Rosary Province have returned to Macao “in force” in the last few years (1996-2006). First they accepted the responsibility for running the Diocesan school of St. Paul (at Rampas dos Cavaleiros, n.12-14) and, then, they opened a house (erected in 1996 and elevated to convent in 2008)), St. Dominic’s Priory (at Avenida de Sidonio Pais, n. 39-41), which houses the Center of Institutional Studies of the Province of Our Lady of the Rosary. At present (May 2011), 23 Dominicans make up the community: 6 priests and 17 theology students coming to the Priory from different countries in Asia and after they finished their novitiate at Rosaryhill in Hong Kong

10. A Relic

Of the famous Dominican complex of the church and convent of S. Domingos only remains the church (now beautifully restored). It was right in the heart of Macao and for many years served as the Cathedral. It is popularly known as the church of St. Domingos, though the Chinese call it the Rosary Church. Together with the ruins of St. Paul’s, it is one of the main tourist attractions of the old Macao. According to Fr. Araniz “the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary, so dear to the people of Macao, is still established there and the feast day is celebrated each year with great solemnity and devotion.”

It is in this church that we can visit an interesting Museum (with Dominican and Holy Rosary memorabilia) and, in the presbitry, the sepulchral tombstone of the Dominican bishop Tomas Badia (1807-1844), of the Holy Rosary Province, a missionary in China for nine years, who was consecrated in Singapoure as second coadjutor of the Vicar Apostolic of Fukien in 1843, but with the secret intention of sending him as coadjutor to the archbishop of Manila. Unfortunately he died in Macao on September 1, 1844 before his 37h birthday. The Acts of the Provincial chapter of 1845 dedicate to him a very laudatory necrology. He received the last sacraments from Fr. Raimundo Barcelo, the Procurator of the Dominican Missions in Macao, and the funeral was attended by all the civil and religious authorities and a great multitude of people. At the request of the Bishop of Macao Pereira de Borja CM, the Governor granted that he would be buried in St. Dominingos’ church. The Acts add that “he was buried, with great solemnity and amidst the tearful lamentations of all present, in the Cathedral church, which formerly used to belong to our Order.”

Fr. Eladio Neira, OP

San Juan, Manila, 2011