A seminary in Dulag

Part of the ruins of Dulag church

With the church finished, they made a preliminary census of the population, and started catechism classes, then organized a school following Chirino’s model in Tigbauan. Some 60 boys, mostly sons of datus, were selected from three encomiendas of eastern Leyte – Palo, Dulag and Abuyog. Classes were held in Christian doctrine, reading, writing and music. However, Humanes improved on Chirino’s idea by having the boys live in the Jesuit compound itself. The school at Dulag was thus the first seminario de indios or boarding school for natives to be established by the Philippine vice-province. It was a completely free school, the living expenses of the boys and the salary of the school master being paid for out of the annual stipend received by the missionaries.

‘The success of this school is due to the exact observance of the regulations and the disposition of everything. They have their house and dormitory in fine order, and a chapel in which they meet for prayers and reading. When the signal is given they rise and go to the chapel under the supervision of the older ones who are 17 or 18 years of age. Then they go to Church to hear Mass before which something about our Lord is told to them. They have classes of reading, writing, singing and drawing. Their food is ample and they have time for play. They have classes again in the evening, sing the Salve and recite the rosary. Before going to bed they recite the litany and have some reading. It is the frequentation of the sacraments that transforms their hearts. The feasts of the Blessed Sacrament have been celebrated in the pueblos and in Dulag with special solemnity at which four seminarians gave declamations on the Sacrament. At Christmas one of the brothers made a belen which aroused the admiration of all, and one of the seminarians explained the meaning of the feast.’ So wrote Fr. Francisco Vaez, the Jesuit Provincial in Mexico after visiting the school.[i]

  

He said the seminarians of Dulag ‘were imbued with good morals and solid virtues, and gave their aid to Ours in explaining the Catechism to the more ignorant people and those of the lower order… for whenever Ours went where these people exerted the diligence, they found all the people prepared to receive baptism.’[ii]

Explaining the usefulness of the boys, he wrote that ‘wherever Ours go where these pupils have exerted their diligence, they find all the people well prepared  to receive baptism, to be initiated into it by baptism. In advent and at the feast of the nativity, we baptized more than 700 persons. We have baptized in all from last year to the present date, 2,020 or more.’[iii]

Otazo, the superior of the residence in 1601, expressed great satisfaction with the progress the seminarians were making. ‘I am amazed,’ he told the Jesuit Superior Garcia, ‘at their ability to absorb what they were taught. I have often considered how they would measure up to Spanish boys, and it seems to me that European children are by no means their superiors in understanding and judgment.’ Two years later, he began sending them to the villages to assist in the post-baptismal instruction of neophytes. They gave a very good account of themselves.[iv]

After Jesuit Vice-Provincial Diego Garcia made his first visit of the Visayan missions in October 1601, he was also impressed by the boarding school in Dulag. So he asked his friend Governor Francisco Tello for a government subsidy for it, and had no difficulty in getting what he asked for, subject to the royal confirmation. The grant, signed on October 13, provided that ‘100 pesos, oro comun, and 200 fanegas[v] of unhulled rice be disbursed each year to the fathers of the Society of Jesus. If at the end of four years, royal confirmation is not received, it shall cease.’  The grant enabled Garcia to place the Dulag boarding school on a firmer footing and to reorganize it along the lines he had founded at Antipolo.

Wired stereo in-ear earphones

The building was enlarged to include dormitory, refectory, and private chapel  for at least 30 boys. These were chosen from among the ruling families of the region and given an intellectual formation which would fit them to be teachers and leaders of their people. The length of time they spent in the institution apparently was not fixed though it took several years. The annual Letter of 1605 mentions a few 17- and 18-year olds, but the majority must have been younger than that. New boys made a general confession of their past life and received Holy Communion on the day of their entrance.[vi]

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[i] For further readings on this, see Leyte, 400 years…

[ii] 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, pp. 217-220

[iii]  Ibid

[iv]  Op cit, de la Costa, pp. 287-289

[v] Equivalent of 1 fanega

[vi]  Op cit, de la Costa, pp. 287-288