Philippine E-Journals

Leyte in Transition, 1768-1780: Contextualizing Two Accounts of Fr. Agustin Maria de Castro, OSA, Augustinian Missionary

Rolando O. Borrinaga

 

Abstract:

The year 2018 marks the 250th anniversary of the Jesuit expulsion from the Philippines in 1768. One of the Jesuits’ major mission areas was Leyte Island, and their expulsion from this place was followed by a decade-long social ferment characterized by a religious revolt in nearby Biliran Island that impacted on the entire Leyte-Samar region, the transfer of provincial capitals, the final break-up of Leyte and Samar into separate provinces, and the overall hostility of the native population towards the new Augustinian order. Among the first-generation Augustinian missionaries who replaced the Jesuits in Leyte was Fr. Agustin María de Castro, OSA, who would write Osario Venerable, a history of the Augustinian missions until the late 18th century, which manuscript he completed in 1780 but was first published only in 1954 under the title Misioneros Agustinos en el Extremo Oriente, 1565-1780 (Osario Venerable). Fr. de Castro wrote two accounts about his assignment in Leyte. The first was a status report of the Leyte pueblos he compiled after the turnover of the Jesuit missions to the Augustinians in 1768. This was attached as an appended catalog in Osario Venerable. The second was a report full of negative impressions and opinions on the state of affairs, colonial governance, and the people of the province. This was included as the tenth and last chapter of the Relacion clara y veridica de la toma de Manila por la escuadra inglesa (Clear and True Account of the Capture of Manila by the English Squadron) in the year 1762, known to have been written by Fr. de Castro in 1770. But this stray chapter had little or nothing to do with the topic of the war against the English. It was first published in Missionalia Hispanica in 1952. This paper puts in context the two accounts of Fr. de Castro, which provide an Augustinian eyewitness perspective on the overall dynamics and developments in Leyte during the restless 1770s.