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| Pre-war church of Palo |
IN October 1596, Frs. Cristobal Jimenez[i]
and Francisco Encinas set out on foot from Dulag to Palo by way of the eastern
shores, escorted by one of the leading principales, Don Alonso Ambuyao, and
four others. By nightfall the party was
in the Tacoranga (the present-day San Joaquin) River. A boat took them to
Ambuyao’s house where they were warmly received. The next morning the
missionaries continued their trek until they reached Palo, a settlement located
on the bank of a beautiful river, on October 20, celebrating their arrival with
a mass.
A
number of natives were on hand to welcome them, but the priests soon realized
that only two houses, both owned by servants of the encomendero, made up the
whole settlement. Soon, the welcome party left the priests and went their
separate ways back into the hinterlands where they lived. It was like Dulag all
over again, only that its population seemed to be even more dispersed. Some
boys who had been to the Dulag school for boys offered to help them and teach
them the language.[ii]
Encinas
was called to Carigara soon afterward, to be replaced by Brother Gomez as Jimenez’ companion. When he had learned enough Visayan to make
himself understood, Jimenez started on a tour of his mission. At first, the
people suspected him to be a tribute collector, and so refused to open their
doors or invite him inside their dwellings.
When an epidemic struck the village, a lot of people got sick, giving
him an idea. He looked for the best herbal medicine practitioners in the area
and paid them to learn their craft. He knew they were not quacks. They had
found effective remedies by trial and error. But their fees were high. If they
cured a person of a fatal disease, they charged him his rate as a slave. They
charged comparable fees for instructing anyone in their craft. After he
acquired native healing skills, he did not charge any fees. That was his entry.
He baptized only a few, mostly infants, but he made a lot of friends.[iii]
After
the epidemic, a church was constructed and the natives were gradually persuaded
to live in the designated settlement. Palo began to grow. On August 15, 1598,
the new church was inaugurated and dedicated to Our Lady. Many Spaniards who
were in charge of tax collection attended the inauguration. As main celebrant,
Humanes, the superior of the Leyte mission, solemnized the baptism of the most
influential man in the region, Don Juan Kanganga, whom the Spanish government
had appointed petty governor of Palo. Don Francisco Rodriguez de Ledesma, the
Spanish alcalde mayor of Leyte, stood as baptismal sponsor. All the datus of
the surrounding country came with their retainers to see the neophyte
christened Don Juan Kanganga, and afterward performed a ceremonial dance in
front of the church to celebrate the occasion.
Don Juan was of great assistance to the missionary in choosing suitable
town sites where the clans could be brought together. But here as in Dulag, the
opposition of the encomenderos made it slow and difficult work.[iv]
In
Chirino’s report, the mission was ‘one of the finest and best regulated in all
the island, thanks to the labors of one of our fathers who helped the natives
construct good houses. The Christian doctrine is taught every day to the
children in all the villages; and so many of them attend this exercise. ‘[v]
When
Jimenez left, Fr. Alonso Rodriguez took his place. In one of his letters, he
wrote: ‘We held a mission at Paloc; and
the method of teaching the doctrine by decurias[vi]
so aroused the enthusiasm of all that within 10 days many learned the prayers
and gained all the necessary knowledge for baptism. Such was the emulation
among them.’ Fr. Melchor Hurtado wrote
that in San Salvador (Palo) , during the celebration of the Christmas feast,
almost 800 infidels were baptized, and that the confessions and communions were
such as might be expected back in Spain
– ‘so many that the fathers could not attend to them all.’[vii]
[i]
Christoval Ximenes (Cristobal Jimenez)
was born in 1573, and entered the Jesuit order in 1588. Coming to the
Philippines in 1596, he spent 32 years in the Visayan missions; he died at
Alangalang, in Leyte, December 3, 1628 at 57 years old. He was noted as a
linguist, and composed various works, religious or poetical, in the Visayan
tongue’ one of these was a translation of Bellarmino’s Doctrina Christiana
(Manila, 1610) [From letters of
Fr. Francisco Vaez, June 10, 1601, to
Rev. Fr. Claudio Aquaviva, SJ General , Emma Helen Blair and James Alexander Robertson, The Philippine Islands, 1493 – 1803, Volume XI, p. 211]
[ii]
“Palo: Towards the vast Pacific,” Leyte 400 years…
[iii]
Op cit, de la Costa, p. 160
[iv]
Op cit, “Palo…” Also see De la
Costa’s The Jesuits in the Philippines, p. 161.
[v]
Op cit, “Chirino’s Relation, 1604-05,” p 59
[vi]
Decurias: alluding to a custom in
Spanish schools of placing the pupils by tens, or sometimes smaller numbers,
under the charge of the most competent of the older students, under the
supervision of the master of the school. [“Baptisms in Paloc,” Emma Helen Blair
and James Alexander Robertson, The
Philippine Islands, 1493 – 1803,
Volume XIII, p. 98]
[vii]
Ibid, p. 164
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