The arrival of one of these bands of young religious, the cream
of the Spanish convents, excellently disposed, and burning with zeal for the
salvation of souls, was always a source of great joy in Manila. At the
Provincial Chapter held at Manila in the month of April following the arrival
of Father Gil and his companions, the Fathers assembled in chapter manifested
in their announcement of this good news to the whole province a very special
satisfaction. “This important
reinforcement,” they say, “has come
to us by an extraordinary providence of God when we were not expecting it” —
extempore et praeter opinionem. The
very Rev. Father Bernard fiasco was Provincial when Blessed Gil de Federich reached
Manila.
As soon as he was installed in the very strict convent of St.
Dominic, Father Gil requested his Provincial to be kind enough to send him to
one of the missions in China or Tonkin. He stated that his sole intention in
leaving his convent at Barcelona was to devote himself to the conversion of the
infidels.
But as he had come to Manila with the title of Lector in Theology
and the reputation of being a learned man as well as a holy religious, Father Basco
replied that it was his intention to utilize him as a professor in the
University. This decision was a source of the deepest disappointment to Father Gil
but he submitted like an obedient religious without a word of reply, thinking
that if it were God’s will that he should labor among the infidels, He would
find means to have him sent there.
The personnel of the Philippine province was distributed
according to its needs and the aptitude of each member. Some were assigned to
the work of teaching in the colleges and the University of Manila; others were
employed in the parochial ministry; others still ministered to the missions among
the infidels of the Philippine Archipelago, while a fourth contingent labored
among the infidels of China and of Tonkin. Since that time the Holy See has
also entrusted to this province the evangelization of the Japanese islands of
Formosa and of Shikoku.
The province moreover, still needed a certain number of religious
to form the community of regular observance at the convent of St. Dominic in Manila.
It had also the care of a number of missions in the different islands of the
archipelago, the inhabitants of which, though they were not infidels, had not
yet been organized into parishes — such places were called doctrinas, and the religious who ministered to them were called doctrineros.
Of all these ministries those which appealed to all as being the
most excellent and the most meritorious and most eagerly sought for by heroic
souls were those of China and Tonkin which were called live missions, not indeed that the others were to be regarded as
dead, but their meaning was, as it would seem, that these missions among the
infidels were directed against the very heart of paganism and that it was necessary
to bring to them more life and strenuosity and to be ready at all times to shed
one’s blood for the Faith. Indeed, at that very time persecution was raging in
China and Tonkin. Many Christians had already shed their blood and there were
unequivocal indications of more grievous trials in store for those afflicted churches.
In the Dominican Order authority is not exercised in a
tyrannical manner. It studies the aspirations of the souls of its subjects, and
whenever higher considerations do not intervene to prevent, above all, whenever
a manifestation of the will of God seems evident, it loves like Him whom it
represents to do the will of the inferior. Accordingly in order to satisfy in
some measure the pious desires of Father Gil who felt drawn towards the care of
souls rather than to the professor's chair, Father Basco sent him as a doctrinero to the district ofAlbucay in
the province of Bataan. A little later the chapter of 1731 transferred him to
the province of Pangasinan as vicar to Father John Salinas who had been placed
in charge of the district of Binalatongan.
Meanwhile the superiors were delighted to behold the
confirmation of the hopes they had entertained concerning the Blessed de
Federich. He, himself, on the contrary, though resigned to the will of God was
filled with a holy sadness inasmuch as his desire to be sent among the infidels
was not being fulfilled. The proof of this is to be found in a letter which he
wrote at this time from Pangasinan. “My
comrades, Liciniana, Ponsgrau and others have been sent to live missions while
I, a poor, weak soldier, have been sent to this completely Christian village where
there are neither dangers nor painful labors.”
He seems, however, to have had enough to do, for his duties
required him to learn two of the native languages, to preach and teach
catechism to a multitude of ignorant people, to administer the sacraments, etc.
His superior and the other religious who had occasion to witness it were
extremely edified; but all this was far from satisfying him. His heart yearned
for the missions of Asia.
An event which happened eighteen months after his arrival in the
Philippines seemed to point out for him a very different kind of life from that
of the live missions. Rev. Father
Diego Saenz, Provincial, who had appreciated the remarkable qualities of Father
Gil, petitioned the intermediate Congregation of 1733 for him as his socius and secretary. The Fathers of the
Chapter gave their consent, and this newly arrived religious who was only
thirty-one years of age was to take his place among the ancients of the
Province. According to custom he had still to fulfil the functions of secretary
for the provincial council. (1) This honorable and important function which
might have flattered him was, on the contrary, a severe blow to him. It
occasioned no feeling of self-love in him, and he never ceased to pray and beg
his superiors to assign him to the missions among the infidels.
---
Notes:
(1) The general chapter of the order held at Barcelona in 1574
had declared: “We admonish and exhort the Reverend Fathers Provincials,
reminding them of the account they must render to God, not to allow themselves
in asking for a religious as their socius
to be influenced by natural affection, but that they have in view only the
honor of the order and the advantage of their provinces. Let them therefore
choose as their companions men who are eminently religious, prudent and
learned, having a good reputation, able and skilled to aid them with zeal and
the gift of counsel in the fulfilment of their charge. (Const. S. O. Praed; D. II, C.Ill, Declar. XI, No. 691.)
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