umanes

Updated: April 30, 2025

The superior, Father Alonso de Umanes, writes as follows: "As soon as we had returned from Sebu in last year, ninety-nine, as it was the season of Lent we busied ourselves in hearing confessions; and with remarkable devotion and promptness all this new band of Christians, without any reward, repaired to the sacraments even those coming to us who lived very distant from the village where we ordinarily reside.

- The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 13 of 55 : 1604-1605 : Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of The Catholic Missions, As Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Close of the Nineteenth Century

The account of Father Alonso de Umanes ends here. Father Gabriel Sanchez, in another letter to the father-visitor, writes thus: "Glory be to our Lord, Christianity in this island is receiving much increase. They all frequent the most holy sacraments with great fervor at Christmas, Epiphany, and other leading feasts.

- The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 13 of 55 : 1604-1605 : Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of The Catholic Missions, As Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Close of the Nineteenth Century

In order to give a more detailed account of what took place at that time in the island of Bohol, I shall avail myself of two letters from Fathers Alonso de Umanes and Gabriel Sanchez, who were in that region; for in my opinion their account is given minutely and with pleasing and enjoyable simplicity.

- The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 13 of 55 : 1604-1605 : Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of The Catholic Missions, As Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Close of the Nineteenth Century

Father Alonso de Umanes, superior of the residence, Father Manuel Martinez, and Father Juan de San Lucar formed six principal missions, each father with his companion being assigned to certain villages. Father Alonso de Umanes writes that in the first mission two hundred and sixty-nine persons were converted to Christianity, eighty of whom were children, and the rest adults.

- The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 13 of 55 : 1604-1605 : Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of The Catholic Missions, As Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Close of the Nineteenth Century

In a letter to the father-visitor, dated in November of the year one thousand six hundred, he writes thus: "The archdeacon of Sebu, who holds the benefice of Tanai a venerable and meritorious man, as your Reverence well knows went in person to the island of Bohol, twelve leguas away, to beseech Father Alonso de Umanes, our superior, to send, for God's love, a father to teach his people the law of God, since he himself did not know their language.

- The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 13 of 55 : 1604-1605 : Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of The Catholic Missions, As Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Close of the Nineteenth Century