Today in the Past

Today, November 8, 1616, Fr. Bernardo de Santa Catalina, one of the first Dominican missionaries who arrived in Manila, dies in Lalloc, Nueva Segovia.

It should be recalled that the first Dominicans to reach the Philippines - Bishop Domingo de Salazar and a companion - came with the pioneer Jesuits in September, 1581.

The first regular Dominican mission, however, which consisted of 15 members, landed at 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 of O.P., meaning Order of Preachers.

The early Spanish missionaries of the different religious orders were the pioneer builders of Christian Philippines. They were men of God, imbued with the gallant courage of crusaders, the fervent faith of martyrs, the noble virtues of saints.

Without other arms than their rosaries and crucifixes, they penetrated unexplored jungles and crossed uncharted mountains to bring the torch of Christ to the Filipinos; in so doing, they suffered untold misery, and even came to untimely death.