{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_27863/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_27863","id":"gutenberg_27863","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/27863","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: History - Other","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Category: Teaching & Education","Church and education -- Philippines","Education -- Philippines"],"text":"Produced by Jeroen Hellingman and the Online Distributed\nProofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was\nproduced from images generously made available by The\nInternet Archive/American Libraries.)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n                       The Legacy of Ignorantism\n\n                             (Ignorantismo)\n\n                An address delivered before the Teachers\n                    Assembly, Baguio, April 23, 1920\n\n                                   By\n\n                       Dr. T. H. Pardo de Tavera\n\n                         [English and Spanish]\n\n\n\n                                 Manila\n                           Bureau of Printing\n                                  1921\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE LEGACY OF IGNORANTISM [1]\n(IGNORANTISMO)\n\nBy Dr. T. H. Pardo de Tavera\n\nAn address [2] delivered before the Teachers, Assembly, Baguio,\nApril 23, 1920\n\n\n                        Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken\n                        away the key of knowledge; ye entered not in\n                        yourselves, and them that were entering in\n                        ye hindered--Luke 11:52.\n\n\nI have the honor to appear before you accepting with great pleasure an\ninvitation which the Assistant Director, Mr. Osias, kindly extended to\nme. Having left the choice of the subject to my discretion, I deemed it\nworth while to speak on the Lay Education which has been in operation\nin our public schools since the implantation of the new regime which\nrules the destiny of the Filipino people. I am going to confine myself\nto facts, and shall speak as frankly and as faithfully as the case\nrequires, altho in so doing I may hurt the feelings of some.\n\n\n\nSatisfying Movement\n\nFor some time in our society there has been a growing concern against\nimmorality, against vice, against idleness; in short against those\nwhich can rightly be called social ills. Such a tendency is certainly\ngood and satisfying; a sign of a notable social progress altho for\nthe majority it is a cause of alarm and regret because of the seeming\nincrease of such ills. Is there a positive increase of immorality? Is\nthere real cause for alarm because of a moral retrogression of our\nsociety?\n\nAfter having asked myself these questions and after having considered\nthe bases for the public clamor and for the excited opinion before the\nsight of growing vice and immorality, I can say that this tendency\nof public opinion is satisfying--a sign of betterment, of progress\nof general morals. In other words, it is not immorality which is\ngrowing. Rather, it is the moral consciousness which is gaining\nground in individual consciences, thus forming a public opinion which\nformerly did not exist, completely awake to existing social evils and\nwhich are combatted. Not that social morals has been decadent. On the\ncontrary, a moral consciousness has been rapidly formed in our society,\na consciousness which formerly was found only among an inconsiderable\nminority, and which resulted in the new movement against vice and\nimmorality.\n\n\n\nPublic Opinion in Favor of Hygiene\n\nTo better understand this phenomenon and to explain it as it\nreally is and not as it apparently exists, it is worth while\nto compare it with the appearance of a new sentiment which was\nformed since the implantation of the American regime: the hygienic\nconsciousness. Formerly, hardly anybody spoke of the unsanitary\nconditions of Manila, and only a few in our society had a true\nidea of its deplorable state. Now that our individual education\nhas enabled us to understand what hygiene is and its importance has\nbeen demonstrated, we have not only improved our sanitary condition\nbut a collective sentiment equal to the sum total of the individual\nsentiments has been formed, and a public opinion in favor of hygiene\nhas been established. Since this opinion grows more rapidly than\nsanitation itself in Manila, we see that every once in a while the\nBureau of Health is censured to the point of attributing to its\nfault the increase of anti-hygienic conditions, when in reality what\nincreases is the clamor for hygiene by virtue of the increase of the\nindividuals who understand hygiene and demand strict application of\nits laws and principles.\n\nNow public opinion denounces hygienic shortcomings which are\nincomparably less harmful than formerly, but which we view not in a\nrelative but absolute manner. An unsanitary condition is denounced\nabsolutely as an intolerable evil; relatively speaking our censure\nwould be less severe if we bore in mind that a similar ill is not\nclose at hand; we suffered in silence when we were ignorant not of its\nexistence but of its effects upon health, so then for us it existed\nin a latent state and we did not see, feel, or notice it because of\nlack of preparation. It is identical to what happens when at the\nfoot of a post charged with electric current is placed the sign:\n\"Danger to life.\" Such a sign is practically useless and is no means\nof safety to the individual who does not know how to read. The one\nwho can read knows the danger; he who does not read does not avail\nhimself of the hygienic value of the danger signal.\n\n\n\nAnti-Cockpit Campaign\n\nAgainst the cockpit there is now a widespread campaign. This did not\ngrow out of increased passion for the vice but out of the increased\nnumber of its enemies. None can say that cockfighting has increased;\nit is easy to prove that it has decreased; the number of days permitted\nby law is now insignificant compared with what it was a few years\nago. Nevertheless, the campaign against cockfighting has increased\nprecisely because the number of cockfighters has decreased. Exactly\nthe same thing happened in card playing and horse-racing.\n\nNothing in particular would be said about this general movement in\nfavor of social morality if the attitude of public opinion would not\nhave that mistaken and dangerous bias which is given it by certain\nelements which at all times have been an obstacle to the instruction\nof the Filipino people. These elements, taking advantage of the\npreoccupation of public opinion to combat vice and purify public\nmorals, instead of simply supporting this movement and strengthening\nit justifying its usefulness by the good itself which it seeks to\naccomplish, launches a political campaign which consists in alarming\nthe people making them believe that immorality increases, that the\nsocial ills are growing, that national life itself is endangered thru\nthe fault of the reformers as a result of the new regime in vogue\nin the Philippines since the loss of the past sovereignty. They\ntake advantage of the current of public opinion in favor of public\nmorals, to make it appear that the democratic form of the Government,\nthe English language, the lay schools, coeducation, and Anglo-Saxon\ncivilization are the causes of the supposed growth of immorality:\nSuch is the program of certain people!\n\n\n\nOur Enemies\n\nThose who in a great measure are guilty to their nation for\nthe misfortunes that befell the Filipino people that resorted to\nrevolution and rebellion to free themselves from a regime opposed to\ntheir progress and happiness, forgetting their incapacity to fulfill\nthe obligations which, in the name of their country, they assumed\nhere and which were the causes of the political failure of the past\ncolonization, they to-day wish to defend their interests in our country\npursuing their policy which would only produce dissension among the\nFilipinos. Under the pretext of interesting themselves more than we do\nin our own welfare, considering us to be blind and incapable to know\nand distinguish the good from the bad, deeming us eternal indios of\ninferior mentality, they seek to take us whithersoever they will,\nwhere it suits them, thru the dark path where none see but they,\nthey who guide or wish to guide the indio, the eternal child who\nought to allow himself to be led!\n\nIn a foreign weekly published in Manila, we read the following:\n\"Dedicated to the search of the enemies of the progress of the\nFilipinos, we find them in every bucket, in every cabaret; in the\npeaceful invasion of Japanese in the Philippines; in \"panguingue,\" in\nbilliard games, in the prevailing immorality in the theaters, in the\nnovel, in the cinematograph and in the postal card; and above all and\nover all, in the lay school.\" He who thus expresses himself seeking to\narouse Filipino hatred against the Japanese, to create suspicion first\nand trouble afterwards, is a stranger, and in the language in which\nhe himself writes are written the theatrical works and the immoral\nnovels that come to the Philippines. [3] In his language, too, were\npromulgated those laws and regulations in our country instituting\ncockfighting, lottery, billiard, created as sources of revenue for\nthe State--things which we the Filipinos could not oppose in the old\npolitical regime without at the same time opposing the government\nitself which made vice a source of revenue and which, to increase\nits funds, had to encourage such vices, similar to opium in official\nsmoking-rooms. Of the lay school we shall now speak presently.\n\n\n\nThe Work of Calumny and Hatred\n\nConsidering the nature of this campaign against our present day\ninstitutions, and painfully impressed by the great harm which this\ndisastrous work of calumny, hatred, distrust and pessimism must have\nupon the progress and tranquillity of us, the Filipinos, I deem it my\nduty to speak when I am led to think that the limit has been reached\nby a document which came to my hands. It is no less than a circular\nwhich a high prelate directs to the curates of the parishes of his\ndiocese, and which deals with public instruction. [4]\n\n\n\nHell Threat\n\nThe whole document is an attack against the Government schools, simply\nbecause in them the Catholic religion is not taught, threatening with\nhell those parents who send their children to such schools. At the\nclose it says as follows:\n\n\n    As a first step, after you have let the parents see the\n    social evils which result from a Godless school, such as\n    crime against purity, murder, suicide, rapine and robbery,\n    disobedience against civil and ecclesiastical authorities,\n    in short, the corruption of customs, all the seasoned fruit\n    of those lay schools, your reverences should influence them\n    to declare, in writing or communications which they should\n    address to us, to the government without euphemisms their\n    irrevocable and decided will that Christian education be\n    given them in the schools. We, for our part, will look after\n    the sending of these petitions to the Legislature.\n\n\n\nMachiavelic Accusation\n\n\"All the seasoned fruit of those lay schools\" said the prelate\nreferring to the crimes and the corruption of customs which he\nmentions! An accusation of such nature must be proven by him who\naccuses. The worst part of it is that such accusations are made and\nlater with the recommendation that they be made to sink into heads of\nparents or heads of families. The faithful will consider as true the\naffirmations that come from the lips of their priests, so that such\npropaganda promotes in the worst manner a feeling against a government\naccused of fomenting criminality in its schools. The prelate does\nnot enjoin violence; but at such times as these, violence naturally\nresults from an adequate preparation of the popular conscience; and\nwhen a people believes that the Government, the educator no less,\nis the cause of the thieves, the murderers, the corruptors, a people\nis truly dead who does not seek to wipe out by any means such a\ngovernment, especially if it is foreign, which corrupts its citizens.\n\n\n\nColossal Transformation\n\nFortunately, it can be said without fear of erring that such\naccusations are altogether false; and if there is anything in the\nPhilippines which deserves the approval of all worthy conscience,\nsomething which merits not only the gratitude but the admiration\nof the Filipino people, it is the organization of public education\nimplanted by the American people. There is not a single Filipino\ncapable of reasoning who does not see and understand the colossal\ntransformation which our entire people experienced by virtue of that\nlay education. Not only did the Government organize an efficient\neducational system, but it extended it throughout the Archipelago\nin such a general way that some European nations which continually\ncite the annals of history, would very much like it for themselves;\nnot only do we the Filipinos find in our lay schools those elements\nnecessary for our instruction and our education so that we can be\nuseful individuals to ourselves, and cooeperate in the administration\nof our public affairs, but the private schools of the old regime have\nchanged, have improved, have been transformed, have been placed to\nthe level where they should, following the standard maintained by\nthe Government. To deny this is sheer blindness.\n\n\n\nA Dominican School in Formosa\n\nOnly he who is blinded by passion is capable of making accusation\nagainst the lay school such as we have here reproduced, and against\nwhich the first to protest will likely be the Dominican friars in\nthe Philippines whose mission in Formosa, has a girl's school for the\nChinese and Japanese in the Capitol, Taihoku, which I visited on my\ntrip to that island. Reverend Father Clemente Fernandez, a Dominican\nand the Apostolic Vicar of Formosa, did me the honor of accompanying\nme in visiting such a school, called Beata Imelda, situated in the\nbarrio of Daitelei, in Taihoku. It is a beautiful school of which\nthe Dominicans can justly be proud. But it was not the material or\neducational organization of the institution that impressed me so much\nas the absence of all religious images in the rooms, classes, halls,\nand other rooms used for and by the girls.\n\nOn my noticing the existence of so singular a case, Reverend Clemente\nFernandez made it known to me that, among the conditions stipulated by\nthe law of public instruction of Formosa, both for the government as\nwell as the private schools, is the absolute prohibition of religious\neducation and the presentation of images and objects of worship. This\nis therefore a lay school, a godless school, upon which should also\nfall the surprising accusation of a prelate who makes use of the\nliberty afforded him by our government to teach his religion in our\nschools, but abusing such right and attempting furthermore to impose\nhis will upon the Government, accusing it of teaching homicide, theft,\nimmorality, and corruption of customs in our schools.\n\n\n\nWere We To Use the Same Procedure\n\nThere is no doubt that even under the Spanish regime we already knew\nof the existence in the Philippines of criminals condemned to death\nand imprisonment for murder, theft, rape, sacrilege, and all kinds\nof crimes, and that the corruption of customs was neither unknown\nnor rare. Since under the entire period of Spanish domination,\ninstruction was under the exclusive care of the friars of the Roman\nChurch, if we utilize the same procedure of the above-mentioned\nprelate, we could also accuse all the priests of having instructed\nthe Filipinos, thru their education, in murder and in theft, and that\nthe corruption of customs was \"all the seasoned fruit of the Catholic\nschools.\" I do not propose such an accusation; I only content myself\nwith presenting it as a logical consequence which could be deduced\nfollowing the method used by the prelate in speaking to no less than\nhis priests in a circular designed to orient the mentality of his\nclergy and of his parishioners. Pondering over the accusation of the\nBishop, it occurred to me that it would be beneficial to recall the\npublic instruction that was formerly given in the Philippines by the\n\"godly schools\" and consider the results obtained. Confident in the\nrespectable character, and, to many, the sacred character of the\npriests, I must resort to their testimony to know what that education\nwas and what results it gave to the Filipino people.\n\nWe should not conceal the truth when the truth portrays things that\nmay not be pleasing to us. None like those who are dedicated to\ninstruction have such an interest in knowing the mentality of the\nsociety in which they live and which it is their duty to educate. An\nexact knowledge of the moral, intellectual, and physical defects\nof a people is the most important factor to orient its education,\nand it would be absurd to close one's eyes to what is bad, because\nthe principle of correcting a certain thing is to know if it is a\nmistake or not. One cannot correct an evil of which he is ignorant.\n\n\n\nThe Education of the Filipino People under Religious Direction\n\nBefore attacking or defending the lay education of the public schools\nit would seem useful to know what the education of the Filipino\npeople was under religious direction, and then know what results were\nobtained; that is to say, how a man subjected to such a system was\ntransformed after more than three centuries of such a practice.\n\nI must secure the data which I here present from ecclesiastical sources\nbecause, altho they contain a certain exaggeration, in speaking of its\nown work which, as it is natural, they defend, magnify, and praise,\nthey are after all the most useful in knowing the defects themselves\nwhich, under the circumstances, constitute real confessions.\n\nFather Santiago Paya, Rector of the University of Santo Tomas, said\namong other things the following to the Philippine Commission on July\n1, 1899:\n\n\n    All secondary instruction in the Philippine Islands was under\n    the University of Santo Tomas. Besides the private schools\n    in Manila there were also some in the provinces, but all the\n    colleges of secondary instruction were subject to Santo Tomas.\n\n    There were primary schools in almost all the towns supported by\n    the Government in which a very elementary instruction was given\n    * * * reading, writing, catechism, and a little arithmetic.\n\n    The Filipinos, as a general rule, have good memory but without\n    great talent; they have no good talent.\n\n    Almost all education in the Philippines was given by the\n    religious orders, that is to say, the secondary and university\n    instruction was maintained by the religious orders, and\n    primary instruction by the curates of the towns.\n\n    Among the Filipinos all is imitation. They lack\n    originality. They were taught how to read and write Spanish but\n    the majority of them learned it in a purely mechanical manner.\n\n    The Indios were very averse to the Castilian language; those\n    who knew how to speak it did not like to speak it. This was\n    true in Manila as well as in its suburbs. Those who know\n    Spanish prefer to speak their own language in their homes.\n\n\nFrom Fray Jose M. Ruiz in his Memoria presented to the Philippine\nExposition in Madrid in 1887, we take the following:\n\n\n    The curate is a local inspector of public instruction, adviser\n    of the gobernadorcillos, and president of the various local\n    boards. The Indios see in them a father, a pastor, and a\n    protector, and as such they have always been recognized by\n    the Government of these Islands (p. 239).\n\n    A great part of the Philippine inhabitants, that is to say,\n    that which lives in the barrios and places more or less\n    isolated and inaccessible, is about to be civilized (esta\n    casi por civilizar) (p. 247).\n\n\nReferring to the mass of the people the same father says:\n\n\n    The masters devoted as they are, save in a few honorable\n    exceptions, to their proper interests, have ignored completely\n    the instruction of these unhappy ones in their religious duties\n    * * * and their children, given over to the pasture of work\n    animals, are reared in the midst of the most stupid ignorance\n    (p. 254).\n\n\nLater the author adds:\n\n\n    To give the Indio means of instruction and to place him in\n    condition to benefit from it, and while this is not done,\n    and until now this has not been done as we shall later show,\n    is to concede rights to him who does not know how to appreciate\n    what he deserves to the disgrace of the Spanish name and to\n    the shame of the Spaniards in these Islands (p. 288).\n\n\nSays the same Friar Ruiz:\n\n\n    And altho they are inimical to going to schools (the Indios)\n    and to sending their children, it is because it is nothing but\n    for wasting time since they learn nothing * * *. Furthermore,\n    the towns are so crowded with ignorant teachers that without\n    consulting anybody they establish private schools paid for\n    by the parents of the children. Thus they learn what little\n    good and a great deal of bad which they possess, to whom\n    they teach Cartilla, and something of reading and writing,\n    utilizing as texts for both the books called Corridos, which\n    are full of anachronisms, errors, and absurdities of all kinds\n    * * *. They also learn something of the Catechism (p. 337).\n\n    The places for the schools besides being bad are completely\n    abandoned, and many are in ruins (p. 339).\n\n    There is no order in the school, and each one goes in and\n    out without permission whenever he pleases (p. 440).\n\n\n\nRecognition of a Dominican\n\nFray Jose M. Ruiz very faithfully recognizes the lamentable state in\nwhich the so-called public instruction in the Philippines was found\noutside of Manila where things were not so bad. From his standpoint it\nwas necessary to teach Spanish and at least to give to the Filipinos\nbooks in the dialects, from which they would learn the most elementary\nthings of which they were ignorant, and Religion and Moral. The Rueda\n[5] translation would be better adding something about the Philippines\nand the grammar of his dialect in Spanish. Undoubtedly he wanted to\nsay that the Spanish grammar should be translated into the dialects.\n\n\n    If this is not done we believe that we would only lose\n    time. With such measures in thirty years the Spanish language\n    would be diffused among the children (pp. 440-441).\n\n    For the same reason (distance and lack of roads) the boys and\n    girls do not attend schools, and what little they know they\n    learn from some ignorant teachers (maestrillos). People,\n    ordinarily of bad life, escaped from other towns, some of\n    whom are also quack doctors and bone-setters who at the same\n    time that they are teaching the Cartilla and a little bit\n    of the Catechism imbue the children with a thousand and one\n    superstitions and all kinds of vices. The priest who at times\n    goes, out of necessity, to attend to some one who is seriously\n    ill, and very seldom visits them (the Indios) ex-profeso,\n    the parochial districts being generally very large and their\n    duties so numerous and urgent, can only in part remedy some\n    of these evils.\n\n\n\nThe Filipino People\n\nNow let us see what kind of people the Filipinos were. It is essential\nto know the psychology of the community. No opinion is so valuable\nfor the present case than that of the missionary above cited, who\nsays the following about the psychology of the Filipino.\n\n\n    As a people who are ignorant and with but little culture, the\n    Indios are bound to have considerable superstitious beliefs\n    which they practice, unconsciously deceived by medicine men,\n    who are the ones who keep alive these ridiculous traditions of\n    their ancestors, without knowing the reasons for what they do\n    (p. 261).\n\n    They (the Indios) are deeply superstitious, a thing which is\n    revealed in all their acts.\n\n\nCiting the words of Dr. Lacalle, Father Ruiz says:\n\n\n    To pretend that a people taking the first steps on the road\n    of civilization, and that in their religious acts manifest\n    themselves in their acts as religious, severe, cultured and\n    real thinkers, is absurd in the extreme (p. 348).\n\n\nAnd he adds what follows:\n\n\n    We should not lose sight of the fact that the Indio is a\n    child badly educated, but a big child completely developed\n    in his passions. He acts not from conscience but from fear;\n    he is moved not by reasons but by impressions; a friend of\n    novelties and spectacles, he acts to the tune of the various\n    impressions which he receives. Naturally he is inconstant and\n    flighty, desiring one thing and another, now liking what he\n    formerly disliked, without firmness nor stability in anything,\n    without knowing many times what to like, nor what befits\n    him. Such is the Indio briefly sketched.\n\n\n\nThe Filipino Spaniards\n\n\n    The Filipino Spaniards (espanoles filipinos) are of two\n    classes: some are immediate descendants of Spaniards,\n    descendants of Filipino Spaniards, or also children of a\n    Filipina mother and a peninsular father (p. 288).\n\n    Unfortunately, they have all the bad qualities of the Spaniard\n    and the Indio, and lack that docility of character observed\n    in the latter and the nobility and greatness characteristic of\n    the former. They are of little heart, coward and mean besides\n    being arrogant and choleric and are very rude with the Indios,\n    whom they usually despise and maltreat in words and in deed,\n    and frequently are stupid and troublesome.\n\n    From the Indios they learned all the superstitions, numerous,\n    untrue, absurd fables which are traditional among them, and\n    in a word, all their habits and customs. Thus they eat rice\n    with their fingers and have marked fondness for the sweets\n    and dirty foodstuffs of the Indios.\n\n    Since they are brought up with much petting and are not\n    strictly punished, they make bad servants, disobedient,\n    capricious, insolent, and foul-mouthed. The women are so\n    lacking in modesty, and, since they have been reared in the\n    atmosphere of abandon and laziness, they are useless for the\n    management of the home and the family (pp. 289-290).\n\n    * * * Thus the men as well as the women, altho religious,\n    are credulous and superstitious as the Indios themselves.\n\n    Such is the idea that can be given about the Filipinos\n    (p. 290).\n\n\nThe Chinese half-breed is described in the same manner.\n\n\n\nLiterature for the Filipinos\n\nThe only literature accessible to the Filipinos of little culture\nand also to those of the better class consisted of Corridos which\nconstitute the profane literature, and the Pasion and the Novenas\nwhich formed the religious reading. Corridos, Pasiones, and Novenas\nwere printed in abundance, in cheap editions, in Spanish as well as\nin the dialects of the country.\n\nThe Corridos are stories in verse about historic events, falsified and\nfanciful, and love tragedies full of wonderful events mixed with divine\nprodigies and diabolical magics--all lengthy, exaggerated, puerile, and\nabsurd in the extreme. None of the characters is native. All are Turks,\nArabs, knights, errants, ambassadors, dukes, warriors in armor provided\nwith magic arms and with balsams like the famous one of Fierabras,\ngood Castilians and bad strangers. All the characters are antipodal\nto Philippine realities and with the semblance of the real and true\nbeing from unknown lands and prodigious races. The same is true with\nthe scene of activities; wonderful lands, Palestine, the kingdom of\nNavarra, the Empire of Great Kahn, the Palace of Macedonia, and not\nonly are they ignorant of, and do they falsify, the face of the earth,\nbut the planetary system itself suffers a radical change. Palms and\ntamarind grow in the vicinities of Moscow; Palestine and Macedonia are\ncovered with prairies like Norway and Switzerland, and whales appear\nin the Mediterranean. Events which begin in the morning in Macedonia\nand in the most natural manner in the afternoon of the same day in a\npalace of Babylonia, and a princess of Aragon captured early in the\nmorning in Sicily discusses at midnight and without an interpreter\nwith a Moro of Samarcanda.\n\nThe Pasion, a work in verse in the different Filipino dialects, is\nnot only the passion of Christ, but it consists of a sort of abridged\nedition of sacred history.\n\nThe Novenas are religious booklets dedicated to a saint whose favor\nis invoked in order to obtain from God such and such favors. They\nconsist of a system of prayers in relation to certain miracles with\nreflections about the saint, which are said every day for a period\nof nine consecutive days. To Virgin Mary is attributed the origin of\nthe Novenas because she venerated the number 9 in memory of the fact\nthat nine days it was when she was apprised of the incarnation of\nthe divine Messiah, and also because of the nine months in which she\ncarried Him in her virgin womb. (Novena to Jesus, Maria, and Jose,\nManila, 1903, in the Exordium.)\n\nThe Novenas offer a very simple way of obtaining from heaven what\nis asked in them from a protector saint. If the sympathy and aid\nof a patron or a patroness whose mediation is implored is won, one\ncan obtain everything, be it appertaining to earthly life or future\nlife. It is a very easy means. It is like a magic ceremony with\nits ritual composed of praises and acts of humiliation, devotion,\nsubmission, admiration, and other propitiatory manifestations looking\ntoward gaining the sympathy and the protection of the saint. This\nfollows an enumeration of favors which may be requested and which are\nalways attended to by God as demonstrated by the numerous examples\nwhich are mentioned with scrupulous care in the Novena. All the\nNovenas are published with ecclesiastical permit after the censorship\nof the prelate who examines scrupulously the writings to see if there\nis anything that is contrary to morals, good customs, and absolute\northodoxy. In a word, all are printed with the necessary licenses.\n\nThe prodigies mentioned in these Novenas compare very well with\nthe enchantments, magics, and sorceries of the primitive Filipinos\nwho invoked the propitiation of their divine spirits by means of\nceremonies, sacrifices, charms, and incantations performed by their\nmangkukulam (witch), babailanas, and other prestidigitators, priests,\nmedicine men, charmers, and fortune-tellers, which are referred to\nand are enumerated in the old chronicles written by the missionaries\nin the Philippines.\n\n\n\nSubstitution of \"Unseen Powers\"\n\nAll the fear of the mysterious as well as the belief of the Filipinos\nin unseen powers which took away life, attracted misfortunes, gave\nvictory, or conduced to disaster was conserved, changing only the\nconcepts that they had about the spirits that governed the affairs\nof life and the phenomena of nature. The patron saints recommended\nby the missionaries came to take the place of the ancient anitos\nrepresentative of their past which they gave intervention in their\nidolatry in all the affairs of life.\n\nWhen the missionaries preached their religion, they condemned the old\nPagan superstitions but they taught new superstitions more powerful\nthan the original, not only because of the prestige of the new patrons\nwho are all members of a Celestial Court organized as an earthly\naristocracy and headed by the same God, Creator of the Universe,\nbut by communicating with God in the same tongue, which the ordinary\nman supposed was spoken by Him, which is the Latin tongue, in which\nthe priests said their prayers and sang their hymns.\n\n\n\n\"Ensalmos\"\n\nThe Oremus, the Laus Deo, Agnus Dei, Deo Gracias, Nos cum prole pia,\nBenedicat Virgo Maria, Per omnia secula seculorum, Kyrie eleyson,\nChriste eleyson, came under the category of enchantments (ensalmos)\nknown by the terms bolong and mantala of the primitive mangkukulam,\nmanghihikup, mananangisama, etc. etc., of Philippine paganism. All\nof these Latin phrases acquired so great a prestige that they were\nlooked upon as a form of irresistible invocation for conquering the\ndivine will, and a certain ridiculous sect came to be known as the\nColorum, which term originated from the wrong pronunciation of secula\nseculorum with which many Latin prayers ended, prayers which were\nincomprehensible but used due to the ignorance of many.\n\nThe phrase agnus dei qui tolis pecata mundi is used as an incantation\nin which every word more or less incomprehensible has a sacred\ncharacter so that if one should say that he despises qui tolis, it\nwould be considered a blasphemy because the Qui Tolis is something\nsacred or divine. A child after saying the trisagio said by way of\nprotest: \"I am tired of saying kirileson (Kyrie eleyson).\" His mother\nthen punished him for playing with the name of God. Another child who\nhappened to name a dog Qui Tolis was corrected by his aunt, saying:\n\"The name of God is never used for naming an animal.\"\n\n\n\nMagic Invocations\n\nAll this constitutes a real array of magic invocation in the efficacy\nof which there is great confidence to avoid evil, ridding of danger,\nsecuring more good, and attaining some grace. As an example of the\npower of the invocations and what can be obtained by merely saying\nfrequently \"Jesus, Maria, y Jose\" (Jesus, Mary, and Joseph), which\nconstitutes the most \"divine trinity on earth,\" the following cases\nare related: (Novena a Jesus, Maria y Jose, Manila, 1903).\n\nA bad man walking in the middle of the night in front of the church of\nSan Francisco in Cuzco, Peru, saw lights in the cemetery, and knowing\nit to be a funeral, went to the place to witness it. Presently he\nnoted that there was a throne where Jesus Christ was found seated\nbetween Mary and Joseph. Then several demons appeared, each one with a\nbook in his hand. One of them began accusing a bad woman from Buenos\nAires. \"Jesus,\" says the Novena, \"pronounced a sentence against her\nof instant death and with it eternal perdition\" (p. 7). The demon\ndisappeared in order to execute the sentence. Another devil read from\nhis book that in Chile there was another bad woman. \"Jesus sentenced\nher to death and condemnation\" (p. 8). The devil ran to carry out the\nsentence. Another one appeared accusing a bad man of Cuzco, and this\nman was precisely the same who tarried to witness the scene at the\ncemetery. \"When the just judge was about to sentence him to death and\ncondemnation, Blessed Mary and Joseph knelt before the divine Master,\nasking mercy on behalf of the accused, alleging that many times he\ninvoked the holy names (Jesus, Maria y Jose). Jesus having denied\npardon, his parents begged him anew, and seeing that they were not\nmaking headway toward securing pardon, the Blessed Virgin showed to\nher Blessed Son the breast from which He sucked, and the Patriarch\nSaint showed him the hands that maintained him thru his labors\"\n(p. 8). Then Jesus conceded the pardon as a matter of grace which can\nonly be characterized as material gratefulness (estomago agradecido).\n\n\n\nGreat Incentive to Crime\n\nThe invocation \"Jesus, Maria y Jose\" working as a magic formula saved\nthat man who had no more merit than his ability to mention the names\nof the \"trinity on earth.\" In the same novena there is a consideration\nof this most marvelous favor, and that is, that in order to obtain\nsome reform in our lives in view of the favor conceded by Jesus, Mary,\nand Joseph to their devotee, tho he be a confirmed sinner, it was only\nnecessary to imitate an invocation so frequently repeated in all his\ndays of malice, the words \"Jesus, Maria y Jose\" (p. 10). The man in\nquestion had no other merit nor is he enjoined to have one. It is\nenough that he utters the magic invocation and that he does as he\npleases in the belief of being free from punishment. What a great\nincentive this is to crime!\n\n\n\nAnother Notable Case\n\nAnother notable case of the effect of the same invocation is that of\na Dominican friar called Fray Juan Masias, who for more than twelve\nyears stayed in his dark cell in prayer. He was visited by many devils\nwho pulled and pushed him, treating him very badly in words and in\ndeed. But he was freed from them by saying \"Jesus Savior, Mary, and\nJoseph, be with me.\" \"On other occasions the devils entered hurriedly\nand noisily catching him by the legs and dragged him from his room\nto the cloister. Some hit him and slapped him, others stepped on his\nstomach and on his head, still others scratched his face and sought\nto pluck his eyes, but invoking the names of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,\nthey (the devils) vanished and left him (p. 14). And the strangest\npart of it is that the friar made the invocation after suffering the\nconsequences of the punishment above mentioned; so that, in other\nwords, he condescended to allow the devils to have some fun for a\nwhile at his expense.\n\n\n\nAn Economical Diversion\n\nThe same friar \"at other times while going to church in prayer,\nwas caught by the devils and was taken; and they threw him up in the\nair so high that, passing above the roofs of the capitular hall which\ndivides the first cloister from the next, he fell in the latter. There\nother devils were awaiting him and receiving him they threw him\nanew in the same manner so that he landed again in the principal\ncloister without hearing from him a word of protest or suffering until\ninvoking the sacred names of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, they left him\n(p. 15). Who on reading this would not envy a friar having a diversion\nso entertaining and so sane and economical? How can one help being\ngrateful to the demons who received him in the other hall instead\nof letting him fall on the floor? With reference to these prodigies\nmentioned one reads in the same Novena the following considerations:\n\"What trouble is there for us to habituate ourselves in repeating in\nour invocations the sweetest names of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph? (p. 27).\n\n\n\nThe Infernal Power\n\nAt every step this infernal power is amplified and magnified in these\nNovenas. Not only is the devil deemed among the enemies of the soul,\ntogether with our body and the entire humanity, but at every moment\nwe tremble at his snares, we consider ourselves weak to resist him\nand even at times seemingly fearing that the self same God will not\nknow how to defend Himself from the devil because at every step it is\nsought to awaken God and place him as a sort of guard against this\ninfernal power. \"Help us Lord from heaven, our strong liberator in\nthis struggle with the powers of darkness; and as other times thou\nhast freed thy son, Jesus, from imminent peril of life, so now defend\nthe Holy Church of God from the snares of their enemies and from all\nadversity, and keep each one of us under thy eternal protection.\" (Page\n54, Ofrecimiento al Santisimo Rosario, Manila, 1905.)\n\n\n\nAnother Miracle\n\nThe following miracle shows clearly the work of the devil and shows at\nthe same time that souls cannot be condemned so easily when a mortal\nbeseeches the protection of a powerful patron. \"A certain man,\"\nit is said in the Novena of San Vicente (p. 15), \"gave his soul to\nthe devil with a certificate (cedula) signed by his own hand, and\nhearing the Saint preach, implored him to ask that the demon return\nit. The Saint fell to praying, and made the devil come and ordered\nhim to return the certificate to the man, having as witnesses of this\nmiracle many thousands of persons.\"\n\n\n\nSilliness of Some Saints\n\nThis foolish fear of the devil is a cause of many errors such as the\none mentioned in the following miracle: \"In Trayguerra, a simple lad\nhearing San Vicente preach on the ugliness of the demon, prayed God\nthat a devil be shown him in order to fight. It happened that a poor,\nold woman was passing who was dumb from birth, was very ugly and poorly\ndressed, and had sickle in her hand. The lad, thinking that she was\nthe devil, furiously assailed her, and taking away her sickle, cut off\nher hands, her ears, and her nose. The afflicted woman shouted but as\nshe was dumb she could not make herself understood and only howled, and\nthen the simpleton cut her up, saying: \"Let them come and they will see\nwhat I do with the devils!\" (p. 18, Novena de San Vicente). To believe\nthat God permitted a similar infamy is a gross insult to God. True,\nthe act is committed by a silly lad, but sillier still is the work\nof the saint in speaking of the physical ugliness of the demon,\nwhen according to the understanding of all, the demon is a spirit.\n\n\"In Taulada,\" says the Novena (p. 21), \"two Moros passed in front of\nan image of San Vicente, one of whom took off his hat and the other\ndid not. The latter paid dearly for it for in that instant, without\nknowing from whom, he was slapped, fell to the ground, and had fever\nfrom which he died.\" It was wonderful how it was known that it was a\nslap, and the miracle could not have been more cruel, not especially\nbecause of the insignificance of the fault committed, inasmuch as\nit dealt with a Moro who did not believe nor did he understand this\nChristian superstition.\n\nA devout one who was wont to go to Saint Filomena asks protection\nagainst the devil (Novena, p. 22) and says: \"Satan like a hungry lion\nmakes a round about turn; his ministers vie with one another to put\nme down. I with my frailty am also the enemy of my own soul * * *.\"\n\nAs I said the Novenas are used to implore a divine mercy, utilizing\nthe intervention of a saint or a virgin to secure some necessity or\na simple affair in life.\n\nThere is nothing more inspiring than to know the news about the\norigin of the Novena de San Antonio de Padua which \"is said to be\nrevealed by the same saint * * * and the devout ones can follow it\nconfident of obtaining thru his intermediation whatever they desire\"\n(Novena de San Antonio, p. 5). \"The same San Antonio revealed to a\ndevout woman the way of doing it\" (p. 6).\n\n\n\nHe Who Asks Shall Receive\n\nThe Novena of Maria de los Dolores, Manila, 1905, is \"for obtaining\nwhat is desired in any affair of the soul or for the good of the body.\"\n\nThe Novena of San Vicente de Ferrer \"altho it can be made in the home,\nit is much better to do it in the church because there he who asks\nshall receive and he who looks shall find, as the Lord himself said\"\n(p. 5 of the Novena, Manila, 1917).\n\nSan Ramon Nonato is: \"Patron of the work of the laborers and their\nlivestock; wonderful antidote against pestilence; universal refuge for\nthe cure of all diseases and pains; singular protector of the women who\ninvoke him in their dangerous hours of giving birth, and of the sterile\nones who seek the comfort of his protection.\" This is what is said in\nthe frontispiece of his novena, Manila 1918. \"By merely invoking his\nname or by adoring his saintly relic, and by drinking the water where\nit is passed, the saint can accomplish thousands of wonders\" (p. 6).\n\n\"I,\" says one devout woman, \"have such faith in and experience with,\nSan Ramon that whatsoever I ask God thru him was always secured or\nobtained, and for the sake of truth, I swear and confirm the same\"\n(Novena, p. 15).\n\nA form of great persuasive virtue to obtain the divine will and to win\nfrom it what is desired is to pray the Trisagio. It seems that during\na period of great geologic and meteorologic commotions experienced\nin Constantinople in the year 447 (Trisagio Serafico, Manila, 1889,\np. 7), it happened that \"a child of tender age was carried to the\nwinds, all those encamped being eye witnesses, until he could be\nseen no more. After a long time he returned to earth in the same\nmanner that he went up and stated in the presence of the Patriarch,\nof the Emperor, and of the wondering multitude, that he heard the\nangels sing this concert: 'Holy God, Holy Strong, Holy Immortal,\nhave mercy upon us.' (Santo Dios, santo fuerte, santo inmortal, tened\nmisericordia de nosotros.)\" The child immediately thereafter died. The\nEmperor ordered that all should repeat this sacred canticle and that\nmoment the earthquakes ceased and the meteorological disturbances\nstopped. Hence, \"the use of the Trisagio as a form for invoking the\nHoly Trinity in dangerous fatal times\" (p. 78). Among other things\nthe following is tacitly asked in the Trisagio: \"Of thy ire and anger,\nLord and triune free us. Of the snares, nearness of the demon; of all\nire, hate and bad will; of all plagues or epidemics, hunger, storms;\nof our enemies and their machinations free us\" (pp. 20-21).\n\n\n\nReminders of Cannibalism\n\nAltho the Trinity is composed, as everybody knows, of the Father,\nSon, and Holy Ghost, and in the Trisagio the three persons are\ninvoked and asked at the same time, nevertheless there are other\nforms of securing the divine favor, invoking separately only one of\nthe persons of the Trinity. Thus in the Novena of Jesus Sacramentado,\nthe Father is asked by means of the intercession of the Son, or in\nother words, by only a viscera of the Son or an organ of his body,\nthe heart, or more properly the Sacred Heart of Jesus. \"The eternal\nFather has complacency,\" says the Novena (p. 6), \"in that it is\nasked in the name of the Heart of his beloved Son * * *.\" \"The Father\nEternal said so directly to the venerable Mary of the incarnation\"\n(pp. 6-7). \"Ask me thru the heart of my only begotten Son, and thru\nit I shall hear thee and thou shalt obtain all that thou wouldst\nask * * *.\" Jesus said to his wife Margaret (esposa Margarita):\n\"I ask you that on Friday immediately before the Corpus festivity,\nyou particularly devote yourself to the worship of my heart\" (p. 7).\n\nThe adoration of the heart is not symbolic; it is the real heart\nthat is adored: \"they shall adore with greater frequency, to Jesus\ntranssubtantiated, and in him, to his Divine Heart\" (p. 7). \"His\nNovena will be made before an image of Jesus or to His Sacred Heart\"\n(p. 10). The devout one, carrying his adoration almost to a point\nof the revival of atavic cannibalism, says to Jesus: \"O, thou owner\nof mine! Give me thine body and with it thine heart that I may eat\nit!\" (para que le coma) (p. 12).\n\nThere is a Novena dedicated to Saint Angel Custodio (Manila, 1897),\nwho is the \"Angel delegated by God to be at our side, and exercise\nwith us the loving offices of a careful tutor, a loving governor,\na loving preceptor, a faithful conductor, and an intimate and\ntrue friend * * *\" (p. 6). \"No saint in heaven interests himself\nmore in our soul and in our business than the holy Guardian Angel\"\n(p. 6). His intervention is so useful and \"he not only transmits\nwhat is asked but modifies our petitions when he knows that some\nof our petitions might bring us some spiritual or corporal evil\"\n(p. 7). \"It is therefore the best guarantee against any error of ours,\nand naturally it makes a sense of responsibility absolutely useless.\"\n\n\n\nSecond Christ\n\nSaint Domingo de Guzman is one of the most powerful lawyers in\nheaven. In his Novena (Manila, 1913), he is called the precursor of\nChrist, altho in reality he came to the world twelve centuries after\nChrist (p. 5). \"In the chastity, color, and figure of his body, and\nin the eloquence of his spirit, he was the one most like Christ\"\n(p. 7). He was very celebrated in all manners of prodigies and\nmiracles, both on earth and in heaven, among men as well as among\nbeasts, among the living as well as the dead\" (p. 9). One day Virgin\nMary appeared to him and \"holding him by the hand said to him that\nshe loved him so tenderly, that if the Divine Lady were a mortal,\nshe would not be able to live except in his presence, and would\nhave died by the violence of the great love that she had for him\n* * *\" (p. 10). Later Virgin Mary, not satisfied with such erotic\nmanifestations, married him (le desposo consigo) in the presence of her\nhusband Christ (esposo de Cristo), and of many blessed ones in heaven\"\n(pp. 11-12), resulting that Jesus, besides being the son of Mary,\nis also her husband, so that with Saint Joseph, Saint Domingo was\nthe third husband of Mary. The Eternal Father communicated to Saint\nCatalina de Sena that Christ and Domingo were his two special sons\n* * *.\" Christ proceeded from the mouth of the Eternal Father, staying\nat his right, and Saint Domingo proceeded from the breast of the same\nEternal Father, at his right on his feet in glory\" (p. 15). With\nsuch antecedents one can readily understand how \"Christ promised\nto concede to him all that he would ask on behalf of his devotees\"\n(p. 15), so that the power of the Saints is unlimited. In verse it\nis said of him:--\n\n\n            You can do everything in heaven\n                being husband of Mary;\n            Who so confides in thee (Domingo)\n                give him health and comfort.\n            You have faithfully and unceasingly\n                defended the church (p. 35).\n\n            Pues podeis tanto en el Cielo,\n            Siendo esposo de Maria;\n            Domingo, al que en vos confia,\n            Dadle salud y consuelo\" (p. 35).\n            Fuesteis can que con desvelo\n                a la Iglesia defendida * * *\" (p. 35).\n\n\nThe can is referred to here because while the mother was pregnant it\n(the foetus, el feto) was manifested to her in the form of a dream\nand in the figure of a dog with a lighted ax in his mouth (p. 6).\n\n\n\nPromises of the Virgin\n\nThe Novena to the Virgin of the Rosary begins with an enumeration of\nthe Fifteen Promises of the Virgin to the devotees of the Rosary. In\nthe first she promises to grant whatever special grace is asked of\nher. He who prays the rosary will be converted if he is a sinner,\nand in any event will be admitted to life eternal. \"All that is asked\nof her will be secured quickly\" (p. 4).\n\nThe list of miracles performed by the image of the Virgin of the\nRosary is endless and occupies all the pages from 37 to 90 of the\nNovena. Not only does the image perform miracles but her skirt as\nwell as the oil that burns in her lamp, and the water where her hands\nare washed, or any rosary or object touched by her skirt or her image\nalso accomplish miracles (p. 9).\n\nIn the Novena of Saint Joseph (Manila, 1910), after reminding\nhim of his relation with God, it is affirmed that \"there is no\nprotection more efficacious for securing all that is asked than his\"\n(p. 7). \"Necessitating everything from the divine favor it is sure that\nnone shall fail who confident will seek the protection of Saint Joseph\"\n(p. 29). \"Saint Joseph assists the needy, gives health to the sick,\nconsoles the afflicted, sends rains, freezes ice, multiplies fruits,\nfavors in storms, on the roads, and among the drowning * * *. Finally\nthere shall be none who trusting in the same will not receive that\nwhich is asked.\"\n\nTo the Holy Child of Cebu, an image which was left in that city by\nthe companions of Magellan, went the Cebuanos before their conversion\nto Catholicism to ask rain \"carrying him in a procession to the\nseashore and submerging it in the water and thus secure the rain that\nthey needed so much.\" (Novena al Santisimo Nombre, Malabon, 1895,\np. 5). Nevertheless, the immersion in the sea water is a recourse\nwhich may be said to be resorted to only in extreme cases because a\nverse in that novena says:\n\n\n        Si acaso no conseguian\n        las aguas porque os rogaban,\n        al mar, Oh Nino, os llevaban,\n        y en las aguas os metian;\n        y asi el agua que pedian,\n        otorgaba vuestro amor\" (p. 29).\n\n        If they failed to get the waters they prayed for, to the\n        sea, Oh Child, they carried thee and put thee in the water,\n        so that thy love conceded the water they asked.\n\n\nThe better known miracles by the Holy Child took place from 1618\nto 1675. Since then nothing in the Novena that is memorable is\nregistered. Nevertheless, the novena confirms that \"the Holy Child\nperforms continually\" miracles (p. 15), and to \"him go all the citizens\nof Cebu, Bohol, Leyte, Samar, and Mindanao to kiss his sacred feet and\nvenerate him and commend to him their necessities and misfortunes,\nasking relief in their sickness, assistance in their voyages, and\nprotections in all the events of life\" (pp. 15-16).\n\nThe certainty of finding what is sought in the novenas is assured\nin reference to Saint Roque. \"The exercise of this novena,\" it is\nsaid (p. 3, Novena, Manila, 1910), \"offers us a means of compelling\n(obligar) this glorious saint to secure of God what we ask.\" To\nbe rid of epidemics--which has its origin in the corruption of\nthe air--we must have recourse to San Roque with fervent prayers\"\n(p. 3). By the side of the corpse of the saint a letter was found\nwhich was supposed to have been written by God, which reads: \"Those\nafflicted with plague who implore the favor of Roque will find health\"\n(p. 5). The intervention of Saint Roque is exclusively in favor of\nthe Catholics. Who so makes his novena says the following:\n\n\"I implore thee that by the merits of this glorious Saint, thou freest\nus all who assist to this cult and to all the Catholics of the Kingdom\nof Spain and of these Islands of all pestilential diseases which might\ntake away our lives\" (p. 13). Since the Catholics of the United States\nare not included here, the Bureau of Health ought to remember that\nsuch citizens together with those who are not Catholics who inhabit\nthe Philippines do not enjoy the anti-pestilential protection of\nSaint Roque.\n\n\n\nSuperstition and Crime\n\nIn his notable study on Criminal Anthropology of the Philippines,\nDr. Sixto de los Angeles (p. 119) says:\n\n\n    The easy credulity fomented by the over-development of\n    religious fanaticism, has constituted from the beginning to\n    this day one of the defects unfortunately so widespread still\n    among the native inhabitants of the country * * *. Devoted\n    to their inherited traditions and customs and lacking in\n    adequate opportunities to acquire proper knowledge, the mass\n    of the people have to adhere as it is logical and natural,\n    to their beliefs, which by their not requiring any effort to\n    understand are imbedded and deeply rooted in a spontaneous\n    manner in their minds. As it is shown in our annals of the\n    judiciary, superstition occupies a notable place among the\n    factors of criminality in this country.\n\n\nThe superstitions to which Doctor de los Angeles alludes are not only\nthose of the old paganism of the Filipinos which the missionaries\nafter more than three centuries have not succeeded in completely\neradicating. The superstitions referred to in this work are those\nbrought here by the same missionaries, and which they have easily\nsucceeded in implanting in the conscience of the Filipinos naturally\ndisposed to credulity by means of the efficient and generous\ndistribution of the novenas and other booklets of devotion.\n\nSince until the coming of the Americans the instruction in the\nPhilippines was always and exclusively religious, and was directed\nby the Roman priests, the persistence of these old superstitions are\nevident proofs of the failure of religious education. As an excuse\nmissionaries will perhaps attribute this to the invincible rudeness\nof the Filipinos, which we shall admit for courtesy's sake and to\navoid discussions. But what is all-important is not that they were\nunable to take out something (of the superstitions), out of the\nsupposed hardheadedness of the Indio, but the tremendous wealth of\nsuperstition which for more than three centuries these missionaries\ninculcated (han hecho penetrar) in that same head to the detriment\nof his mentality and his morality.\n\n\n\nLack of Will\n\nThe sinner lacking in will to control his evil deeds says to Jesus,\nwashing his hands in the divine intervention and giving proof of his\nlack of due sense of responsibility: \"Is it possible, sweet Saviour\nof souls, that, converting so many every day, alone in my perdition,\nthou mayest show thyself indifferent?\" (p. 13). This is a part of a\nprayer made by no less a person than His Holiness, Pope Gregory VII,\nin his Devout Exercise of the Passion of Christ, Manila, 1905.\n\nIt is said also to the Virgin: \"Cleanse, thou Immaculate Virgin, my\nheart of all sin and take away from me all that may be unpleasant in\nthy purest eyes! Purge my soul of all earthly love and affections\"\n(pp. 10-11, Corona Franciscana de la Virgen Maria, Manila, 1902).\n\nBy the intercession of Saint Francis, the devout one asks of God that\n\"I completely subdue my disorderly passions, powers, and senses,\"\nso \"that I may subject my thoughts, measure my words, and direct my\nwork to the greatest perfection,\" and \"that thou mayest soften the\nhardness of my heart\" (pp. 18, 20, and 21 of the Novena of Saint\nFrancis de Asis, Manila, 1905).\n\nFrightened by the machinations of Satan the devout one to Saint\nFilomena asks (p. 23, Novena): \"She obtains from the Lord that which\ndestroys more and more the powers of my enemies, the devils, and that\nI be saved in spite of myself.\"\n\nThe guidance of Saint Filomena is invoked by saying (p. 25, Novena):\n\"See to it that I also be chaste according to my station, and that\nmy mouth will not utter those words which according to St. Paul,\nshould not be said among the faithful.\"\n\nTo Saint Anna, mother of Mary, the devout one says: \"Interest\nthyself therefore, my Saint, that I may be granted patience in my\nadversities, tolerance of wrongs, and, in everything, a tranquil mind\"\n(Novena, Manila, 1893, p. 10). Also the following prayer is directed:\n\"Put forth therefore your effort, my Saint, with thy sacred grandson,\nJesus, that every imperfection and bad desire may be taken from our\nhearts, that we may pardon for love of God all wrongs.\"\n\nIt is not possible to cultivate a sense of dignity or self-respect\nitself when doctrines are disseminated such as these, which result\nfrom the following examples in the Novena of Santa Rosa de Lima.\n\nCarried by her humility, she made a mere servant step on her lips\n(p. 10). \"She loved ridicules more than worldly honors\" (p. 102). * *\n * and she desired so much that all others considered her the worst in\nthe world, that she merited being in hell, and that it was her proper\nplace because of her sins. If any body happened not to know her and\nthat she was considered innocent, she would say \"nobody knows me,\nI alone know what I am\" (p. 11). \"Hearing once that they praised her\nas being virtuous she felt so bad that she fainted\" (p. 11).\n\nIn a prayer to Saint Filomena (Novena, p. 16), it is said to the\nsaint asking her protection: \"My sins made me less than angels,\nvery inferior to the beasts, since these do not forget the manger of\ntheir master, and in their own way they are grateful for their food,\nand I have forgotten the house of God * * *.\" Not only self ridicule\ncomes out of these things, but lack of logic in attributing to the\ngratitude of the beasts their return to their manger, when it is\nclear that the motive that prompts them is simply hunger.\n\n\n\nThe Ire of God\n\nThe natural phenomena are looked upon thru ignorance as manifestations\nof the divine wrath which would not have taken place if no one among\nhumanity had not provoked them by their conduct. Saint Thomas Aquinas,\nwho with reason is considered as the most scientific man of his\nperiod, believed firmly that the thunder, lightning, and the storms\nwere punitive manifestations of God enraged against men. \"From his\nfear of God, the saintly doctor had an unearthly fear of thunder and\ntempests, who as a reverent child feared to see wrath in the face of\nthe Father, hoping only that those tempests were not provoked by his\nsins\" (Milicia Angelica, Manila, 1907, p. 21).\n\nThe blind fear of Saint Thomas led him to conceive a blind justice\nof the divinity, because of his sins God released the tempests and\ngave lightning which naturally hurt and molested a great number of\npersons who suffered by reason of the sins of the saint. To the simple\nbeliever, when the wise saint thought and believed in that manner,\nthere was no reason for rejecting the explanation, much less to\nsuspect that to punish justly the sinners was not an act of justice\nnor of common sense.\n\n\n\nLack of Logic\n\nLogical mentality cannot be developed when the absurd is fomented and\ncultivated, especially when it is presented under the false veneer\nof religion, when it is founded on a purely puerile and simple\nsuperstition.\n\nIn the life of Saint Vicente Ferrer, according to his novenas, the\nfollowing miracles are referred to, and there is no doubt that he\nwho believes in them cannot really cultivate the faculties of his\nintelligence.\n\n\n    In Valencia a servant of Count de Faura, who was born deaf and\n    without tongue, was that way for many years, and adoring one\n    day the miracle of Saint Vicente, was cured of his deafness,\n    his tongue grew, and thenceforward spoke (p. 17).\n\n    A woman gave birth to a piece of meat (pedazo de carne) without\n    a human aspect. It was offered to Saint Vicente giving a mass,\n    and at the Epistle, it already had head; at the Gospel, it\n    had arms; and at the Consecration, it had legs, and finally\n    a beautiful child was evolved. The same happened with another\n    woman of Toledo (p. 34).\n\n    In Lisbon there lived a woman well-known for being quite\n    ugly and was the object of ridicule on the part of all who\n    saw her. She went to San Vicente and one morning she became\n    very fortunate and beautiful, from which the women of Lisbon\n    became so devout to San Vicente that those in Valencia did\n    not excel them (p. 27).\n\n    A merchant left once for a fair and meanwhile the wife\n    committed an indiscretion (una fragilidad) for which she\n    remained * * *. She came and appeared repentant to San Vicente\n    and the same went to the road whereon the husband returned\n    with some horses, and startled them by means of a cloak and\n    thus dispersed them. Then the husband lost time to gather his\n    horses so that when he returned to his house his wife had time\n    to flee from him, thus saving herself from the consequences\n    of her fault.\n\n\nThus with the greatest freedom an immoral and grotesque act is related\nin which the innocent husband is left out and takes no step to have\njust punishment meted, and the saint with his cloak commits a deviltry\nonly fit for urchins of the brook.\n\nIt is said that San Ramon takes such a deep interest in the misfortunes\nand pains of his devotees, and is so extremely compassionate \"that his\nimages perspire thru the affliction of his devotees\" (p. 12). \"An image\nof the Saint perspired so copiously at one time that a devout woman\nsuffered and the veil with which she covered herself was stained;\nand some handkerchiefs wet in his perspiration relieved headaches\nmarvelously\" (p. 21).\n\nSaint Roque has the power of stopping the spread of epidemics. \"His\nprotection is what preserves us from plague and other sufferings or\ndiseases, which, having their origin in the corruptions of the air,\nwhich should conserve our life, causes death\" (p. 3).\n\n\n\nThe Height of Absurdity\n\nIs it possible to invent or suppose greater absurdities than those\nhere mentioned? Nevertheless, in order not to prolong this address,\nI shall only present a few of the cases which are cited in abundance\nin these little booklets (opusculos), distributed in great profusion\namong our people. What logic, what reasoning can we expect of minds\nnurtured with such absurdities, fed up with fakes of such puerile\nnature that one can hardly believe them to have been narrated by men\nof simple common sense?\n\n\n    The mattress where San Vicente died has become possessed\n    of the virtue of making miracles; by merely lying on it on\n    different occasions over 400 sick persons afflicted with\n    various diseases became well (p. 32).\n\n\nOne time when San Antonio de Padua preached on the seashore it happened\n\"that the fishes to whom he preached came out of the water and heard\nhim with all attention.\" No devotee ever doubts the coming out of\nfishes, nor does he interests himself in the solution of the physical,\nphysiological, linguistic, and especially logical aspects of such an\nevent, but the Novena to the Saint confirms it so (p. 20).\n\nThis lecture would be unduly prolonged if I were to mention all\nthe absurdities that appear in the Novenas of which I have quite a\ncollection, which constitute a real array of documents of positive\nusefulness for the history of the superstition which I have scarcely\ntouched upon here. With what has been said there is enough to explain\nthe origin of the immorality, the real cause of the predisposition\nto vice, the absence of a sense of responsibility, the natural\nexplanation of what incomprehensible character formed of a mixture of\nsentiments which the missionaries have contributed to the Filipino,\nIndio, Spaniard, and Chinese, all influenced by the injurious spirit\nwhich pervades all that literature which is completely antagonical to\nreason. Such, and not the lay education, is responsible for this evil.\n\nI am not here to formulate theories or to speak of a capricious\nhypothesis. Before an audience such as this which I have the\nhonor to address, I need to weigh the value of my words and of my\njudgment. For this reason I have cited facts, repeating the exact\nwords, not of the profane literature composed of the anonymous Corridos\nwhose detrimental influence is well known, but the authentic texts of\nNovenas authorized by the ecclesiastical censorship for not containing\nanything contrary to sane morals, as it is said in the permits granted\nfor their printing.\n\nNor have I thought for a moment of mixing religion in my criticism; nor\nis it in my power to vary the results or consequences that may result\nfrom the facts mentioned in the Novenas, which are the literature\nresponsible for this state of puerile mentality, absolutely inadequate\nfor an understanding of morals, composed of matter that paralyzes,\nrather than bring out, progress.\n\nMorals is nothing but the triumph over one's self, thru which man\ndoes what he should and not what he wishes. In the immoral man there\nis no struggle between two tendencies, one against evil and the\nother against good. There is only the instinctive tendency; there\nis no rational control in opposition. What mastery over self does a\nman have who for the purpose of controlling his habit of dirty and\nobscene speech seeks the intervention of a saint? Lacking in will,\ndispossessed of any idea of struggle with himself, how can he triumph\nover himself? Slave to his own passions it might have seemed that\nthe only thing that might control him was the punishment in store in\nfuture life; but this fear does not preoccupy him in the least since\nat the same time that he is threatened with eternal fire he is told\nthe manner of evading it without ceasing to do evil.\n\n\n\nImmorality of the Novenas\n\nThese Novenas contain pernicious teachings for society whose moral\nfoundation consists in the development of the individual qualities\nsuch as industry, fulfillment of duty, respect of law, struggle with\none's own instincts and passions which require above all else the\nmastery over one's self. Not only are these social obligations not\ntaught nor mentioned but there is a real stimulus toward all that\nis bad, assuring to the criminal, to the sinner, that he will be\npardoned, that he will be free from punishment, that however badly\nhe may act and however sinful he may be, without the least effort,\nwith the greatest ease and naturalness, he will obtain what he wishes\nand will triumph on earth as well as in the other life.\n\nOn the other hand, the individual is terrorized by the influence of\nevil, always tending to push him on to the road of vice and ignominy;\nhe is inspired with blind confidence by placing on his side a Guardian\nAngel who never leaves night and day, who supports him, who guides\nhim \"his (the Guardian Angel's) intervention being so useful that he\nmodifies that which we asked of God when he knows that our petitions\nmight bring us some spiritual or bodily ill.\"\n\nWhat idea of justice can one conceive when he remembers the spectacle\nthat was witnessed by that gentleman in the cemetery of Cuzco? Not\nonly are Mary and Joseph presented as interceding with all energy for\nthe salvation of the criminal for the mere reason that he invoked\ntheir names, but they remain unmoved and do nothing to soften the\ncruelty of Jesus Christ when He condemns to sudden death and eternal\ncondemnation the two unfortunate sinful women. They did not invoke the\nname of Mary and Joseph who only seem to have pity on their clients and\nwork with the same partiality of a Nacionalista or Democrata demagogue.\n\nAnd what significance does a law have which does not admit nor\nprosecute polygamy when so many virgins are wives of Jesus who expect\nthe other life in order that they may deliver themselves to Him as\ntheir husband? What about Mary, wife of the Father, of her own son,\nof Joseph, and Saint Domingo?\n\nMr. Ignacio Villamor in his report to the Committee on Infant\nmortality, written when he was Attorney-General, refers to various\ncases of murder of persons considered as bewitched and as such were\nsacrificed for being fanatics.\n\nThe lad of Trayguerra who assailed the ugly woman for mistaking\nher for the devil himself after hearing a sermon of San Vicente,\nis absolutely of the same nature as those possessed of the asuang\nreferred to by Mr. Villamor.\n\nAnd what shall be said of the protection of San Isidro invoked by\nthe agriculturists? He gave an example of neglect of his duties as a\nfarmer, because instead of plowing the land, doing the work for which\nhe was paid by his master, he spent the day praying. Thru a miracle,\nan angel took hold of the plow, guided the bulls while the saint prayed\nand did not work. And right here in our midst, confident in San Isidro,\nthe people of the field sleep, hoping that the angels shall do the\nwork for them! How can you condemn laziness when the angels protect\nit? And how can you preach the doctrine of \"earning bread by the sweat\nof your brow\" when the labor that sweat presupposes is unnecessary?\n\nWithout connection whatsoever with the Bureau of Education of the\nGovernment of the Philippine Islands, I have spoken in the manner\nthat I have just done, not to defend the lay schools of an unjust and\nunjustifiable accusation; not to attack any persons or any religious\nor political ideals, but to contribute to the eradication of one of\nthe bases, one of the strongest causes of criminality, of corruption,\nof formation of individuals who are useless and detrimental to society:\nsuperstition. And, gentlemen, it is not a superstition that is only\nto be laughed at. Not by any means. It is a ridiculous and even\nabsurd superstition, it is true, but it is a tragic and dangerous\nbecause it offers to the wicked, the criminal, the imbecile, the\nmeans of triumphing in life, of obtaining what they want, giving\nthem the means of avoiding punishment, making fun here on earth of\nthe justice of men, and securing from God the pardon from eternal\ncondemnation thru the simple means of invoking the name of a saint,\nor thru the medium of a Latin word which, acting as a sort of open\nsesame opens wide to the devotee the gates of heaven.\n\n\n\nThe Lamentable Error of the Bishop of Cebu\n\nThe prelate who accused the public schools in the form above mentioned\nhas committed a lamentable error. For my part, I can say that the\naccusations awakened in me a desire to investigate the causes of\nimmorality and of the perversion of customs which the said prelate,\nand we with him, all regret. According to those who have studied\nthe mentality of the majority of our people, it is evident that\nsuperstition is the enemy which we all have to combat and that is\nthe cause of many of the moral errors which we observe. The regular\nfriars as well as the secular clergy confess that the mass of the\npeople still finds itself subject to the superstition inherited from\nour predecessors--the superstition which could be called genuinely\nPhilippine, that which comes from the old belief in the nunu, in the\nasuang, the anito and all the spirits of the old idolatry preached\nbefore the implantation of Catholicism by the Spanish missionaries.\n\n\n\nFailure of the Missionaries\n\nAccording to their own confessions, these missionaries, after three\ncenturies of preaching, have failed to eradicate those superstitions\nincrustated in the conscience of the people. We must accept their\ndeclaration as a faithful recognition of the failure of their\nreligious mission. I am not interested in, nor do I discuss,\nthe religious point of view, but the importance of superstition\nin social life, its pernicious influence upon the evolution of\nmorality. What undoubtedly results from the narratives contained in\nthat literature which constituted the only reading of the people is\nthe promotion of ignorance spreading in a very effective manner all\nthe superstitions aforementioned and adding to them a wealth of errors\nwhich unfortunately governs the mentality of the mass of the people.\n\nNot only the so-called Indios the ones concerned; the sons of the\nSpaniards of pure blood or those mixed with Indios as well as the\nChinese mestizos are also accused of these superstitions. All these,\nall of us Filipinos, are included among the individuals infected with\nthe leprosy of superstition fomented by the absurd miracles of the\nNovenas and it cannot be said that it is an evil particularly of the\nFilipino race but also the inhabitants of the Philippines in general.\n\nIn order that education be useful it has to form in the individual\nthe sense of responsibility thru the free exercise of reason. The\nfulfillment of duty shall be its objective and in order to obtain\nthis goal, it is highly necessary to develop the will in man with\nwhich he shall fight the animal instincts, the sentimental impulses,\nall that is contrary to the dictates of reason.\n\nLogical mentality (mentalidad logica), to know what we should do and\nto enable us to plan out a just route that we should follow; will\n(voluntad) to enable us to exalt the dictates of reason above the\nimpulses of our own desires: such is the object of lay education,\nthe education in the so-called godless schools, here in the schools\nof the Government as in the college of Beata Imelda directed by the\nDominican fathers under the norm of Japanese ideas translated in\nimperative laws, situated in Taihoku, capital of Formosa.\n\nThe reading of the so-called miracles of the type that I have before\ncited makes the impossible appear possible, thanks to mysterious\ninfluences which are easy to secure, not thru industry, but simply thru\nunworthy and low means and reproved by good morals such as humiliation,\nadulation, and propitiation. A benefit is not asked or expected thru\nsome positive good that we do, thru fulfillment of duty out of which\nresults a positive good which is a right; resort is had by means\nof favor, by gaining the benevolence of a saint, making him believe\nthat he is liked, adored, and admired, seeking to exalt his vanity\nand, thru his mediation, gain the good will of God, not as a benefit\nconferred directly to him who asks, but in consideration of the merits\nof the mediator. Nothing can be imagined that is more immoral, more\nprimitive, more contemptible. The celestial court turns out to be a\ncourt more corrupt than those of the autocrats condemned by history:\nthe court of the Khans, the Sultans, the Bysantine Emperors, Mungols,\nPersians, Tartars, all the barbarians who have abused humanity and\nwho have personified injustice and justified revolution and massacres.\n\nA society whose members expect everything thru favoritism does not\nknow what emulation is; when an individual finds a means as simple\nas that offered in the Novenas to secure what he desires following\nthe line of least resistance, does not resort to the exercise of any\nnoble activity, and, consequently, cannot perfect his faculties nor use\nthem; an individual who expects to attain the absurd and improbable\ncannot know the existence of immutable laws which rule the universe;\nthe individual who expects to secure what he wants thru the medium\nof a celestial patron cannot conceive the God of Justice nor can he\nreally be a useful member of society.\n\nFavor, propitiation, exception, protection, grace, preference,\npredilection, are incompatible with what a God should be, with the\nIdeal of civilization, with the supreme aspiration of humanity which\nis Justice.\n\n\n\nDisastrous Results\n\nThose who believe in the absurd miracle (milagreria absurda), protector\nof the fools, accomplice of the lazy, of the gamblers, of thieves,\nof all who, thru its means, seek to secure what they desire--those\nare the criminals that fill our jails and who die in the gallows;\nthose are the ones, who, armed with their anting-anting, talisman,\nrosary, scapulary, bones of saints, or shark's teeth, fight with\nthe police, commit outrages, upset order, confident in their triumph\nbecause of the protection of their celestial pintakasi. Such is the\nproduct not of the schools without god but of god without schools,\nimpossible and paradoxical, whose power manifests itself in capricious\nmethods and in the exercise of prestidigitation. Those individuals\nare in truth the natural products of that superstition preached,\ndiffused, and presented to the ignorance of people who have come\nto the point of fearing neither God nor devil and who know that the\ninfernal punishment only is meted to him who does not wear a rosary\naround his neck or does not confide in a pintakasi, who guarantees\neternal salvation because God does not permit that the worshiper of\none of His devotees be condemned.\n\nWhat kind of citizen can an individual be in society who laughs at\npunishment using the easy means of a celestial lawyer. How can terrors\nof hell infuse fear in him when he knows that thru the medium of a\npowerful lawyer, God finds himself obliged (forzado) to pardon him. And\nwhen a man knows the way of evading divine justice, it is clear that,\nin order for him to escape human justice, he will resort to appealing\nto the mercy of the judge, to evade compliance with the law, to the\nnon-fulfillment of any duty, and to live only to enjoy his rights;\nhe will resort, in dealing with human authorities, to the use of the\nsame methods of propitiation, adulation, prevarication, humiliation,\nand deception which dominated the same God and triumphed over the\npower of the devil!\n\nNever will it be possible for a superstitious man, especially if he is\nof the type that we have just analyzed, become a useful citizen. Such\nis the type which unfortunately is the product of an education of\nthree centuries...!\n\nThe parochial schools (escuelas religiosas) have given their fruit;\nthe lay schools (laicas) have also borne fruitage. The youths who\ngraduate from the latter are undoubtedly not without defects; but they\nare not poisoned or forever led astray by that brutalizing superstition\nsown by native and foreign impostors. None of those youths will assail\nruthlessly an ugly old woman mistaking her for a devil; he will not\ndream of flying in the air launched like a balloon by an army of\ndevils. None shall believe that a piece of meat shall be transformed\ninto arms, legs, and heads as a mass offered to a pintakasi progresses;\nmuch less can such youth conceive a Jesus Christ that would weaken\nat the sight of a chest that his mother Virgin Mary would show to\nremind him of his weak memory of God would forget; nor will he excuse\nhimself of a wrong committed against a companion of the other sex on\nthe pretext that he does not have with him the girdle of the Angelic\nMilitia; much less will he believe that, in spite of a criminal life,\nhe will be able to secure eternal salvation provided only he has\ntaken the precaution of repeating at every turn the invocation of\nthe so-called Trinity on Earth.\n\nThat lay education will not produce individuals who trust in protection\nor recommendation to progress and triumph on earth. The lay education\nis wholly democratic and will not be capable of committing the same\nfaults of those who, by not following their education, seek to employ\nin the affairs of life those means recommended in the Novenas in\norder to obtain what is desired by means of the help of the powerful,\nsecured by means of requests, protestations of love, and promise of\neternal devotion.\n\nThat mental conformation created by the diffusion of this superstitious\nspirit is an obstacle, an insuperable barrier set up against the\ndevelopment of the moral sense. We shall sow principles of morality\nas the farmer who sows in the fields the seeds properly selected which\nwill not grow unless the soil is adequate. Sane morals is founded upon\nthe basis of reason; when this foundation is lacking, the moral taught\nwill be like a tree that is rootless and lifeless. It is not possible\nthat a school without god (escuela sin Dios) or the one with god can\nmake the seed of morals grow upon a soil prepared by the school of\nsuperstition, of magic, and of sorcery. We have to prepare the soil\ncultivating reason and creating the logical sense.\n\nI will only insist on things which only need to be presented before\nour common sense to be judged as they merit.\n\n\n\nThe Public School\n\nPermit me now to express first of all my gratitude to the Assistant\nDirector, Mr. Osias, who had the kindness to honor me with an\ninvitation to speak at this conference. Now, I wish to express to\nyou my thanks for your kind attention. Lastly, I desire to make one\ndeclaration: Every time I referred to the new generation, I did not\nwant to mention only the youth educated in the lay schools of the\nGovernment, but all the youth educated in modern ideas, all the men\nand women of whatever age who, throwing aside the weighty burden of\nthe Legacy of Ignorantism (Le gado del Ignorantismo), have accepted\nmodern ideas, have modified their mentality, have been modernized,\nthanks to the example of, and the contact with, the representatives of\nAmerican democracy. All the change, all the economic, moral, social,\nand political transformation effected in the Filipino people, and which\nnone denies nor anyone can deny, reveals progress, and that progress is\nnot the result of the Legacy of Ignorantism but the natural consequence\nof the regime of liberty, industry, work and logical mentality which\ngoverns our public schools and orients our social life.\n\nTo the Department of Education, to all the teachers of both\nsexes--Americans and Filipinos--I express my profound gratitude\nfor the splendid manner in which they are complying with the duty\nentrusted to them by America and by the Philippines.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nNOTES\n\n\n[1] Ignorantism, the spirit of those who extol the advantage of\nignorance; obscurantism.\n\n[2] Translated from Spanish.\n\n[3] Of the one hundred fifty-six books which the censorship of the\nManila Customs refused entrance because they are obscene, five were\nprinted in French and one hundred fifty-one in Spanish. In English,\nit is known, no obscene literature is found.\n\n[4] From the Bishop of Cebu, dated November 19, 1919.\n\n[5] This book was printed in 1844. Today, in the year 1920, the\nseventh edition of the Rueda is sold in Manila and is used in some of\nthe private schools. This edition is a reprint of the original edition\nwithout any correction so that in history Japan is not even mentioned,\nFrance is a kingdom, Prussian is separated from the rest of Germany;\nand in Spain, Isabela II is the one who still happily reigns. This\nis the famous book recommended by the priest who was interested in\nextending instruction in the Philippines.","title":"The Legacy of Ignorantism","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":14128}