Our Province

  Journeying to the East

The first Dominican to arrive in the East was Domingo Salazar. In 1577, he went from Mexico to Spain to recruit friars from the Dominican convents of the Iberian Peninsula for the purpose of evangelizing the Philippines and preaching the gospel in the East. In July 1580, 18 missionaries embarked with him for Mexico (the route to the Philippines). Of these, seven died due to sickness before reaching Mexico, while some others died in Mexico. The rest stayed in Mexico and only two, Domingo Salazar and Cristobal de Salvatierra, reached the Philippines on September 17, 1581.

 Father Cristobal returned to Spain to recruit twelve more religious to join him in the new mission. On July 17, 1582 the Master General, P. Pablo Constable de Ferrara, approved the foundation of a new Province, appointing Father Cristobal the Vicar General with all the attributions of a Provincial. He also authorised him to recruit 40 more Dominicans from the Provinces of Spain, and 10 more from Mexico and Chiapas. Four years and three days later (July 17, 1586) 40 Dominicans set out from Cádiz to Mexico. Again, the trip to Mexico took its toll: many fell sick and three died in Mexico. Many remained there and others returned to Spain. Only 15 set off for the Philippines. On July 25 they arrived in Manila. The Province grew and in 1592 could already qualify as a separate Province under the name Province of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary “for the purpose of evangelizing”.

 In Manila they soon founded the University of Santo Tomás and the school of San Juan de Letrán. The Dominican missionaries concentrated in the north and centre of the main island of Luzon, founding villages and building churches, roads and ‘watering canals’, as well as introducing new forms of soil cultivation. They learned the numerous dialects of the region and wrote catechisms, grammars and dictionaries to accelerate the evangelization.

 However, the new Province was not satisfied with the prosperous mission in the Philippines and soon had its eyes set further north. Expansion there proved difficult. In 1588 there was an attempt to found a house in Macau but the three Dominicans there were expelled by the Portuguese. In 1590, two Fathers went to China but failed to establish themselves there.  In 1592, Father Juan Cobo went on a diplomatic mission to Japan but died in shipwreck off the coast of Taiwan. In the following years two more missions to China would fail, as did two others to Cambodia with tragic loss of life.

 The mission in Japan, as brief as it was intense, began with nine Dominicans making their way there from Manila. Soon they were persecuted by the Japanese authorities. Seven of them left and only two remained secretly, risking their lives. Other Dominicans from the Philippines continually risked their lives as well in going to Japan to attend to the needs of the Christians there. Of these practically all were arrested, tortured and killed together with a large number of native Christians. Tortures included hanging the person upside down in a ditch filled with filthy manure and tightening two wooden planks around their waists so that the martyr would die of suffocation. Another method was the water torture. The victim was forced to drink as much water as possible and wooden planks were placed on top of the stomach. Torturers would jump on the planks until the water inside burst through all the orifices of the body. A third method, involving iron needles, was commonly used. The needles would be pushed under the nails of the  victims. There were in all three groups of martyrs. Between 1617 and 1632, 205 Christians were martyred, many of them Dominicans. Some of the last batch of martyrs, 16 all told, were buried alive and cremated. Their ashes were thrown into the sea off Nagasaki. Lorenzo Ruiz is a remarkable example of these martyrs. A fugitive from Spanish justice in Manila, he eventually found himself with this group of missionaries, and although he initially apostatised, he rectified this by confessing his faith before the Japanese authorities: “I am a Christian and I shall die for God and for Him I would give many thousands of lives if I had them.” They applied the water torture on him for days on end and he finally died from the torture of the pit. These methods were cruel but not enough to deter the faithful missionaries and Christians. Persecution and martyrdom ended the mission, which was revived only in 1904. Today, it continues to exercise its ministry.

 The island of Taiwan provided an excellent trampoline to the mainland and in 1616 friars began to arrive there. In 1625 five Dominican fathers arrived at the port of Jilong and began the evangelization of Taiwan. In 1638 Father Bautista Morales and Francisco Díaz were imprisoned then exiled to Macau, forcing them to travel there on foot for two months. The Dutch invasion brought the mission to an end. Notwithstanding this, in 1858 Dominicans from the Province of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary returned, and for almost a century were alone in evangelizing the region. This changed in 1950 when missionaries from the mainland were expelled and took refuge in neighbouring Taiwan. At present, the Province has two Dominican vicariates there.

 The Order tried several times to establish the Church in China. All attempts failed until 1631. From then on a continuous presence was maintained until the Communist regime expelled all the missionaries in the fifties.

 In China the Dominicans engaged in the controversy of the Chinese Rites. Missionaries there had allowed the worship of ancestors by Christian Chinese. The Dominican Navarrete complained to Rome about such permissiveness and Rome conceded the validity of his point. Chinese rites were thus prohibited by decree from November 1704. The Chinese Emperor was upset, broke off negotiations with the missionaries and decreed that all missionaries should respect under oath the freedom of Christians to believe in and practise the cult of the ancestors or face exile. By 1710 only three Dominican fathers remained in China, living in hiding for fear of being exiled. On August 28, 1732, all the leading missionaries were summoned to Canton by the Governor, who confiscated the Church’s properties and gave them orders to embark for Macau.

 From 1632-1700 only thirty-six Dominicans had been able to enter the mission; of these one became an archbishop, five were appointed bishops and two Apostolic Prefects. They were zealous missionaries and although they lived under persecution they could engage in writing treatises on Chinese anthropology, linguistics and other matters. From 1700 to 1800, 48 Dominicans were working in China, ten of whom were native Chinese. All of them were put in prison, tortured or sent into exile; five suffered martyrdom, one died in prison and four became insane as a consequence of their tortures. Father John Feng de Santa María was a hero in this persecution. He endured 36 tribunals dragging his feet with chains and died as a result of the severe pain. Also worth naming is Father Francisco Gonzales, a great sinologist who wrote works of high scholarly value. With no priests left, the responsibility for missionary work and endeavour fell on the catechists and Lay Dominicans. Then between 1800 and 1900 one hundred Dominicans were sent to China. In this period they managed to run 63 churches, 287 Christian communities, one seminary, two orphanages and 88 mission schools; there were 40,316 Christians and 50 priests working in Fuzhou alone. From 1836 new persecutions broke out. These continued until 1949 when the Communist regime took over the nation and all missionaries were exiled. The Dominican missions in China had produced the first native Chinese bishop, Monseigneur Gregorio Luo Wenzao, the first orphanages and hospice for abandoned girls, and the first martyr of China, St. Francis de Capillas, under whose patronage the Dominican house in Singapore was erected.

 Meanwhile, in Vietnam, the Dominicans established what they came to consider the ‘model of missions’ because of its success and organisation. The first two Dominicans arrived in 1676. The Order flourished so well in this country that it would be impossible to enumerate here all the activities they undertook. They also suffered persecution due to xenophobia, and political and religious interests. There were 3 regional vicariates. The development of the Lay Dominicans was especially strong and still is today. They lived in communities in houses called ‘Houses of God’ and were dedicated to evangelization under the authority of Apostolic Vicars. The women were also well organised. They were called Sisters and were consecrated to works of charity such as caring for abandoned little girls in Nurseries. Lay Dominicans and members of the Confraternity of the Rosary were also numerous. The Dominicans founded seminaries, schools, colleges, hospitals, asylums, leprosaria and workshops. Today, still persecuted, they form a separate Province, the Province of the Queen of Martyrs (1967), made up completely of native Dominicans.

 Pope John Paul II has canonised our martyrs on several occasions: 16 martyrs of Nagasaki (October 18, 1987); 60 martyrs of Vietnam (June 19, 1988); and 6 martyrs of China (October 1, 2000).

 Today, the Dominicans are spread throughout Asia in Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Vietnam, the Philippines and Singapore, distributed throughout 3 Provinces and a General Vicariate in Taiwan.