Today in the Past

Today, October 20, 1582, a papal decree is issued for the foundation of an ecclesiastical province of the Dominican order in the Philippines.

The first three missionary orders to arrive in the Philippines, one after the other, were the Augustinians (1565), the Franciscans (1577), and the Jesuits (1581). And the first Dominicans to reach the Philippines - Bishop Domingo de Salazar and a companion - came with the pioneer Jesuits in September 1581.

While the Jesuits founded the first college for boys in Manila in 1589 and the first university in 1621, yet, not to be outdone by their Jesuit rivals, the Dominicans who were equally good educators founded in Manila the College of Our Lady of Rosary (1611), whose name was later changed to College of Santo Tomas and still later to the University of Santo Tomas in 1645.

A papal decree was issued, as noted above, to create the province of the Dominican order in the Philippines. The first regular Dominican mission, however, consisting of 15 members, landed in Manila in July, 1587.

From that time up to 1898, it is estimated that 1,755 Dominicans had come to the Philippines, of whom 112 died as martyrs in the mission fields of the Far East.

Before the outbreak of the Philippine Revolution in 1896 the Dominicans "were in charge" of 90 towns with an aggregate population of 672,812 souls.

The Dominican organization in the Philippines is called Provincia de Santisimo Rosario (Province of the Holy Rosary), and its members bear the title O.P., meaning Order of Preachers.