There are documents to prove that Spanish friars were
treated better in Pampanga than in other regions in the Philippines.
Eighteenth-century chronicler Fray Gaspar de San Agustin wrote that
Kapampangans were "very good Christians, most respectful of their ministers."
But still some frailes met unspeakable deaths—occupational hazards of their
mission work. Also, because “ya ing pari, ya ing ari ("he is priest as
well as king"), some curas parroco tended to abuse their authority and
exploit the parishioners' subservience—leading to their doom. Still others
became collateral casualties of the bloody Revolution, victims of strong
anti-Spanish sentiments in those tempestuous times.
* * * * * * * * *
BLESSED FRAY PEDRO DE ZUÑIGA OSA
Assignments:
Sasmuan, Porac
Manner of Death:
Tortured and burned.
The future saint was born and educated in Sevilla, Spain,
where he completed his priestly studies. The newy professed Agustino was
shipped off to the Philippines in 1609 and became the first prior of Sasmuan.
His arrival resulted in the separation of Sasmuan from the parish of Lubao,
reverting back in 1642 due to the scarcity of priests. He ministered in Sasmuan
from 1615 to 1618, until he was transferred to Porac. In 1620, Fray de Zuñiga
sailed for Japan with a stop in Taiwan
in June. He, along with other missionaries of different orders, were tasked
with propagating the Catholic faith among the natives. The ship captain was
Catholic Japanese, Joaquin Hirayama Diaz,
and the crew all were members of the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary. En
route, the ship was intercepted by Dutch pirates who surrendered the passengers
and crew to pagan Japanese officials in the port of Hirando. They were kept in
prison for two years, until Fray de Zuñiga,
his Dominican companion, Fray Luis Flores and the captain, were tortured and burned to death in Nagsaki
on 19 August 1622. Fray De Zuñiga and his companions were elevated as “beatos”
(Blessed) on 7 May 1867 by Pope Pius IX, just one step away from sainthood. His
ashes were brought back by Augustinian fathers to the Philippines where they
are interred at the San Agustin Church.
FRAY BALDOMERO
ABADIA, OAR
Assignment:
O’Donnell, Capas
Manner of Death: Killed
in an attack by Revolucionarios
The saintly Fray Baldomero Abadia was another tragic victim
of circumstance, who died a valiant, albeit, violent death. From Jarque del
Moncayo, Baldomero entered the Recoletos community of Monteagudo, Navarre
province, where, on 4 October 1887, he
professed his vows. During his stay at
the rectory, he became acquainted with two future holy men—St. Ezekiel Moreno,
who had just returned from the Philippines, and Blessed Vicente Pinilla, one of the martyrs
of Motril, who became his fast friend. In fact, the two would make a trip to Philippines
together, arriving in Manila on 18 September 1892. Sometime in January 1896, Fr.
Abadia was made parish priest of a newly created O’Donnell town in Tarlac (named
after the Spanish Gen. Leopoldo O’Donnell, who coincidentally had given his
name to the priest’s brother, Leopoldo Abadia). Fr. Abadia fulfilled the functions of his sacred ministry
with great apostolic zeal. But at the
end of August 1896, the Philippine revolution had exploded, spreading quickly from Manila to the border provinces. Several
Recoletos were murdered, and Fray Baldomero found himself in the danger zone. In
his last letter to his family dated Oct. 27, he calmly reassured them that, for
his safety, he was sleeping in the soldiers' barracks. But he was not safe at
all—he could not trust even his own parishioners. On October 31, Filipino
insurgent troops entered O'Donnell and, as historiologist Francisco Sadaba put
it-- "inhumanly sacrificed him in hatred of Religion and Spain." Fray
Baldomero Abadia was not even 27 years old.
FRAY GREGORIO BUENO DE LA VIRGEN DEL ROSARIO, OAR
Assignment:
Mabalacat
Manner of Death: Executed
by firing squad, Boloed to death
The Spanish fraile
known for putting a curse on Mabalacat, saying that the town will never
prosper, was Fray Gregorio Bueno de la Virgen del Rosario. Born in Taragona in Aragon,
Spain, he was first assigned to Iba and Masinloc in Zambales, then moved to the
Recoletos convent in Manila. On 30 November 1885, the Padre Garigu was named
cura of Mabalacat. He was the last Recollect priest to serve and his was also
the longest term, staying on for 23 years until his untimely death. The popular
belief was that he incurred the wrath of town head Don Marcelo Tiglao, for
harassing a female member of his family. The truth was, by 1897, the fervor of
the Philippine revolution had reached Pampanga and Tarlac, which resulted in
the closing of some Recollect missions. When Filipino revolutionaries succeeded
in taking Tarlac from the Spaniards, word reached Mabalacat about Spain’s
surrender at the Makabulos headquarters in San Miguel. A horde of angry,
impassioned locals, incited by the Tiglao, stormed the parish and dragged Fr.
Bueno outside. The 66 year old priest
was paraded on the streets in a bullcart, publicly humiliated and charged with
espionage. On 10 July 1898, he was shot dead by a firing squad, although one
other version had him boloed to death while in a pit that was to be his grave. Before
Padre Bueno died, however, it was said that he managed to utter his famous
legendary curse on Mabalacat: the town
will only be freed from the spell if it can produced fourteen native priests—a
number that has since been exceeded.
FRAY JUAN HERRERO,
OAR
Assignment: Mabalacat
Manner of Death:
Cornered and shot to death
The Recoletos were already firmly established in Pampanga
and Tarlac when Fray Juan Herrero OAR, assigned in Dagami, Leyte, was called on to help the thriving mission
center in Mabalacat from where Recoletos fanned out to neighboring places to
evangelize. In 1885, he was named as a compañero or assistant priest to
long-serving Fr. Gregorio Bueno de la Virgen del Rosario.. Fr. Herrero stayed
for just 5 months—from July 11 to December 10, but long enough to be facile
with the Kapampangan language, a talent which earned him an amount of respect
among the natives. On 30 April 1891, a new assignment took him to Imus where he
was named as the Prior-Administrator of the order’s hacienda. But the looming
revolution would change the course of the padre’s fate. By 1896, violent
attacks against Spaniards were waged in many towns, Imus included. In the last
days of September 1896, the Recoletos’ hacienda became the scene of a bloody siege.
Advancing revolucionarios managed to corner Spanish soldiers and Recoleto
priests--led by Fr. Juan Herrero--who bravely rallied around their country’s
flag. Holed up in the hacienda without any hope of escape, Fr. Juan Herrero and
9 other Recoletos were killed in the crossfire by impassioned Filipinos. In an
eerie twist of fate, a similar drama would unfold two years later in the same
Pampanga town that he once served and involving the parish priest that he once
assisted-- Fr. Gregorio Bueno.
FRAY JUAN TARRERO,
OSA
Assignments:
Arayat
Manner of Death: Executed
by Gen. Maximino Hizon
Fray Juan Tarrero was assigned as a cura of Arayat,
succeeding Fr. Jose Torres in 1858. Fr. Torres had started rebuilding the
church, a project which Fr. Tarrero continued from 1858 to 1892. The work
remained unfinished for two reasons—the stirrings of the Revolution had begun,
and the poor padre found himself in trouble with the Alejandrino family of
Arayat. The Spanish friar had ordered the patriarch, Mariano Alejandrino,
exiled to Kiangan in the distant Ifugao province for allegedly being a Freemason.
The last straw was when he supposedly abused a girl belonging to the
Alejandrino family. By the time of the Revolution, the sons of Mariano—Jose,
Joaquin, Manuel, Anselmo and Pastor-- had ascended into power as
military leaders. Fearing for his dear life, the priest fled to the neighboring
town of Mexico, only to be intercepted and apprehended by the troops of the
gallant Kapampangan Gen. Maximino Hizon. He was dragged in front of the church
where he was promptly executed. Curiously, Fr, Tarrero’s sorry tale has
striking parallels with that of Fr. Bueno in Mabalacat, which is why old folks
in Mabalacat and Mexico still believe that their towns have been cursed by
executed friars.
FRAY ANTONIO
REDONDO
Assignments:
Bacolor, Sasmuan, Sta. Ana, Apalit, Minalin, San Fernando, Tarlac
Manner of Death: Illness
while in captivity
Born in 1835 in Ceceda (Oviedo), Fr. Redondo took his
solemn profession in Valladolid in 1854 and sailed to the Philippines in May
26, 1858. Initially assigned as presbitero in Manila, he was later appointed as
cura interino of Bacolor. He served in parishes
in Tarlac (1861) and Pampanga: Sexmoan
(1862), Sta. Ana (1866), Minalin (1871), Apalit (1873) and San Fernando (1886-1898).
He served in various capacities: prior vocal (1871 and 1889), Definidor de
Provincia (1881) Vicario Provincial and Examinador de Idioma (1893 and 1897). The
convents of Sta. Ana and San Fernando (including the church’s painted ceilings
and dome) , and Apalit church are some of his accomplishments. During the
Revolution, he escaped via Macabebe together with 13 Augustinians and one
Recollect through the help of Gen. Ricardo Monet. He was captured by the
revolutionaries in Hagonoy on 30 June 1898, as he was en route to Manila to
board a ship for Spain. He was held captive in San Fernando where he contracted
a disease; and was transferred to Mt. Arayat in 1899. He was moved back to San Fernando, then to
Angeles and finally forced to walk to Magalang. Fr. Redondo was supposed to
have been brought to Magalang church, but his conditioned worsened and died on
30 March 1899, after receiving his viaticum from his fellow Franciscan captive,
Fr. Francisco Sta. Olalla.
FRAY VICTOR
BALTANAS, OAR
Assignment:
Mabalacat
Manner of Death: Hacked
to death on the head
There has been so much focus on the gruesome murder of
Fr. Gregorio Bueno, that it all but overshadowed the cases of his two other
Mabalacat compañeros, who died in the
same terrible and controversial manner. The first, was the aforementioned F.
Juan Herrero who was killed in Imus, and the second, the good padre, Fray
Victor Baltanas de laVirgen del Rosario. Born on on 17 November 1869 in Berceo,
La Rioja, Spain, he became a Recoleto on
24 October 1886. Five years after, he was given a Philippine assignment, and
just a few days after his arrival on 21 October 1891, the young deacon was sent
to Mabalacat to assist Fr. Bueno and to learn, strangely enough, Tagalog
basics. His stay was temporary, for he
was shuffled from Mabalacat to Manila, then Palawan (1894-1895)
to Intramuros (1899-1902), and then finally to Valencia, Negros Oriental where
he served as coadjutor. In October 1907, he became the cura of the Catholic
Church of Escalante town. It was here that he was hacked to death in the head
by an Aglipayan assassin, Mauricio Gamao, on the night of 15 May 1909,
succumbing to his wounds the next day. The murder, motivated by the schism between
Aglipayans and the Roman Catholic Church involving church property, was planned
in connivance with the town head, Gil Gamao—Mauricio’s relative, who was
subsequently convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. The martyr of
Escalante was interred in San Carlos, but his bones were exhumed in 1995 due to
acts of vandalism and robbery in the cemetery. These were then kept at the
Colegio de Santo Tomas-Recoletos
BONUS: The Prisoner of War Who Survived.
FRAY FERNANDO
GARCIA, OSA
Assignment: Macabebe,
Betis
One Spanish priest who went through a harrowing
experience and lived to tell his tale was the Augustinian Fray Fernando Garcia.
He came to the Philippines in 1875, and was assigned in Ilocos, until 1889,
until he was recalled to Spain to serve at the Augustinian College at La Vid at
El Escorial. In 1896, he returned to the
Philippines, and was assigned in Macabebe, only to be overtaken by the events
of the Philippine Revolution. As Gen. Antonio
Luna and his forces advanced towards Pampanga,
he took Spanish officials and friars prisoners—including the poor Fr. Garcia.
He and other friars were hauled off from town to town across Central Luzon, forced
to walk barefoot, tortured, beaten, starved and publicly displayed like animals
as war booty. When Aguinaldo's troops fled to Cordillera mountains to elude
pursuing Americans, they took with them the hapless friars hoping to use them
later as bargaining chips. A gunfight that killed Gen. Gregorio del Pilar gave
the friars a chance to escape via a boat in Ilocos to Manila, where they got
safe passage back to Spain. Fr. Garcia recovered to write an account of his
18-month ordeal, Ing Pangatimaua ning Metung a Mebijag, published in 1901. In
it, he wrote: “The townspeople secretly gave us coffee to drink as well as
bread, cigarettes and clothes. And others sent us money and all forms of
sustenance. There were the more daring ones and truly kind who washed our
miserable clothes for free." In 1913, he was named prior of the
Augustinian Monastery in Manila in 1913. After two years, he returned to
Pampanga as párroco of Betis. He died in 1924 and is buried in the side chapel
of San Nicolas in San Agustin.
CREDITS:
Singsing Magazine, AUGUSTINIANS IN PAMPANGA
Entry of Fr. Antonio Redondo, by: Louie Aldrin L. Bartolo
Perez, Elviro Jorde, Catalogo Bio-Bibliografico de los
Religiosos Agustinos Provincia del Santissimo Nombre de Jesus de las Islas
Filipinas (1901), Establecimento tipográfico del Colegio de Sto. Tomas pages
509-510.
Alcubierre, Casimiro España el Filipinas Los Ultimos Años
Su de Dominacion en el Archipelago (1910) Establecimiento tipográfico de El
Imparcial, 25 de Mayo 1910 pages 54-57
Orejas Tonette. "Showing the Human Side of Heroes", Fr.Juan Tarrero
Tantingco, Robby P., "The Friars' Fate in Pampanga"
Photo Credits:
Photos of Frs. Bueno, Herrero: Order of the Augustinian
Recollects Archives, c/o Fr. Rommel Rubia OAR
Singsing Magazine
http://catholicsaints.info/blessed-pedro-de-zuniga/Bl. Pedro de Zuniga
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