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| Dulag church ruins |
Chirino
and Pereira had found Dulag, an important village in the eastern coast, a
suitable location for their second mission station. Thus, just more than a
month after the establishment of the mission in Carigara, on August 20, 1595,
Frs. Alonso Humanes and Juan del Campo sailed to Dulag to set up a new mission.
Like Carigara, the natives of Dulag
lived far from each other in their small farms because that was how they made a
living. Their farms dictated their lifestyle.
In a bid to attract the natives to live in a common settlement, the
Jesuits constructed a church with the help of Spaniards who lived in the area
and were presumably part of the encomienda structure there. It was completed on
September 8, the Feast of the Nativity of our Lady, to whom it was dedicated
with pomp and festivity. But while natives crowded the church on the day of its
inauguration as well as on subsequent Sundays and other feast days, they
ultimately drifted away and returned to their farm settlements.[i]
Humanes
did not lose hope. To cover the expansive territory, he and del Campo went on a
series of methodical tours to cover their extensive territory, which had a
population of around 10,000. In every
village and settlement, they set up a cross and a chapel and gathered the
people together for instruction. ‘If they were concentrated in larger
communities near Dulag, he could devote to their instruction the time he spent
in travelling. He picked out eight possible town sites and proposed the idea to
the encomenderos. They opposed it vigorously, for such a shift in population
would mean that some would lose tribute payers to others, since the tributes
were collected on a territorial basis. Humanes had to desist from his plan, at
least for the time being, but this question of gathering people into towns was
to remain a major issue between the missionaries and the encomenderos of Leyte
for some years to come.’[ii]
‘They
baptized no one, even if he asked for it, because Humanes did not believe in
mass baptism. He wanted to wait until they knew the language better so that
they could assure themselves that the catechumens had the proper disposition.
It was not until Christmas eve of 1595, three months after their arrival, that
they baptized their first converts in the church of Dulag. Of the 45 who
received baptism, many were children, and most of the adults were servants and
bearers attached to the mission. Before baptizing them, the fathers made it clear to each one that they
were not to ask for the sacrament unless they understood what it meant and
really wanted to receive it.’[iii]
In
1596, Brother Denis Marie joined the mission and Father del Campo left. Humanes
continued to insist on a long and thorough catechumenate. In 1597, he baptized
only 190 altogether, and of these 80 were children and sick people in danger of
death.
#dulag
#dulagmission
#dulagruins
#dulag
#dulagmission
#dulagruins
[i]
“Dulag: The Cross Over the Fort of Virtue,”
Leyte 400 years of Evangelization, A
souvenir program published by the Archdiocese of Palo in July 1995
[ii]
Op cit, de la Costa, p. 159-160
[iii]
Ibid
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