THE SPANISH BEATERIO OF STA. CATALINA
Captain Simon de Fuentes, assisted Governor General Don Sabiniano Manrique de Lara in suppressing the Filipino Revolt of 1660-1661. The chivalrous captain belonged to one of the first Spanish families to settle in the city of Manila. He was named after his father, and his mother was Dona Ana Maria del Castillo y Tamayo. Unfortunately, Simon died of physical illness soon after the uprising. But radiant in the spiritual realm were the accomplishments of hos women relatives who were afflicted by his untimely death. His childless widow, Dona Antonia Ezguerra (1640-1694) decided to withdraw from the profligate world into a life of propitiation and prayer in her house in the Walled City. Before long, she was joined by her sister-in-law, Dona Francisca Fuentes (1647-1711) and still later, another sister-in-law, Dona Maria Ana Fuentes (1638-1708), both widows like her. The three Spanish ladies had journeyed from grief of widowhood to the joys of religious life. The sisters-in-law, Dona Antonia Esguerra vda. de Fuentes and Dona Francisca Fuentes, received the tertiary habit of St. Dominic in 1682. The first took the name Sor Antonia de Jesus Maria and the second, Sor Francisca del Espiritu Santo. The two beatas continued to live in seclusion in Sor Antonia's house in the Walled City. In their daily visits to the church of Santo Domingo in Intramuros, Sor Antonia and Sor Francisca crossed paths with an India mystic, by the name of Sebastiana Salcedo (1652-1692), from the ancient town of Pasig, a suburb of Manila. The sisters-in-law invited her to join them in their house of penitence and contemplation. Sebastiana was a ladina who was quite at ease in communicating and interacting with high-born Spanish ladies in the Walled City who shared her religious vision. She appeared to be God send to the community of Spanish beatas as though to remind them that no race has monopoly of God's grace. Her Spiritual touched not only her two Spanish friends but also the Dominican community such that in 1683 or 1684, the Order of Preachers invested her with the holy habit and became Sor Sebastiana de Jesus. Transcending racial lines, the fervent trio formed the nucleus of the Dominican beaterio.
"Before God, race does not matter," writes Sor Sebastiana's Dominican biographer. He created both the noble and the humble and looks after them equally. Though this truth is evident in sacred Writings, there are still some presumptuous people who misinterpret the lowliness of these Indios (natives) and the naivete of their thought and speech as signs of their incapacity for heroic virtues and lofty contemplation. They arrive at this conclusion because they use nature as their standard and not the power of Divine grace which can turn stones into sons of Abraham and raise the poor from dirt to the highest nobility (Sto. Domingo 1911). Around 1684, a young Spanish mestiza, Maria Ana de la Vega (1668-1690) joined the Dominican tertiaries in their house, thus increasing their number to four. Mother Sebastiana's confessor, Fray Bartolome Marron, OP (1646-1717), was elected provincial of the Order in 1686. Privy to the dream of the four beatas, he, together with the Order's chapter, formally recognized their communal life on 4 May 1686. This act was confirmed by the Dominican master general in Rome on 11 January 1688, entitling their humble abode to "all the rights', privileges, immunities, favors, and graces in all such houses and convents of the sisters of the third Order as concealed by the supreme pontiffs, kings and princes." Yet it did not mean that they constituted a beaterio for they were not allowed to profess simple vows.
Fray Juan de Sto. Domingo, OP (1640-1726), the confessor of Mothers Antonia and Francisca, succeeded Fray Bartolome as the provincial in 1690. The pioneer beatas took this opportunity to bring forward their definitive plans for a beaterio. To their disappointment, Fray Juan set aside their entreaties citing the formidable problems involved in such an undertaking that they had encountered six decades ago albeit with regard to a monastery. Endowed with the gift of prophecy like some catalonan of old, Mother Sebastiana assured Mother Antonia: "The beaterio will be established eventually near the convent of Santo Domingo and not in your house where we live. Neither you nor I will see it." True enough, before the beaterio could become a reality, Mother Sebastiana departed from this world on 20 March 1692 at the age of forty. Mother Antonia had another maid, Catalina de los Angeles, a Chinese mestiza, she had been living with them "in recollection and virtue for some years." She was to be accepted five years later as one of the first Filipino lay Sisters. To help support the remaining beatas as well as the future of the beaterio, Sor Antonia willed her house and other possessions to her sister-in-law, Mother Francisca. The biggest single benefactor was the Spanish General Don Juan de Escano y Cordova, an affluent Dominican tertiary, who contributed funds for the building and maintenance of the beaterio; ultimately, he declared the beatas his universal heirs.
INAUGURATION OF THE SPANISH BEATERIO
At long last, the Beaterio de Sta. Catalina de Sena de las Hermanas de Penitencia de la Tercera Orden was
formally inaugurated on 26 July 1696, the feast of St. Anne. Mother Francisca del Espiritu Santo became the prioress for life. Considered as the co-founders were Fray Juan de Sto. Domingo, Don Juan de Escano, Mother Lorenza, Mother Juana, Mother Rosa and Mother Maria del Espiritu Santo, the surviving Spanish beatas in the Ezguerra house. Unfortunately, it was specified in the foundation papers that there would only be FIFTEEN CHOIR SISTERS OF SPANISH BLOOD in honor of the FIFTEEN MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY. This discriminatory practice as in the Monastery of Santa Clara, the inevitable questions came up as to what to do with the Filipina applicants who were also begging for admission to the Beaterio de Santa Catalina. It had become very obvious that religious life always struck a deep chord in the soul of many Filipinos. After some deliberation, the founders of Santa Catalina determined in 1699 that, to begin with, five native women could be accommodated as "SISTERS OF OBEDIENCE" (HERMANAS DE LA OBEDIENCIA). ALTHOUGH PERMITTED TO TAKE SIMPLE VOWS, THEY WERE TO BE DEPRIVED OF VOTING RIGHTS, BARRED FROM HOLDING OFFICE, AND CHARGED WITH THE MENIAL TASKS IN THE CONVENT. FOR DEVOTIONAL NAMES, THEY COULD ADOPT THE NAMES OF THE ANGELS AND SAINTS OR RELIGIOUS CONCEPTS OTHER THAN THE MYSTERIES OF THE HOLY ROSARY, WHICH RESERVED ONLY FOR THOSE OF THE SPANISH RACE. Also called LEGAS, the Filipino beatas offered special testimony to the monastic spirit of total humility. Paradoxically, had she lived longer, Mother Sebastiana-who helped lay the beaterio's strong foundation and was the one who predicted there would be fifteen members-would not have qualified as a full member herself. Perhaps she foresaw this paradox, too, but kept it to herself.
THE FIRST UPHEAVAL
After seven years of fervent existence, scandals began to mar the image of a few of the Spanish beatas who were admitted at the start of the eighteenth century. They resented authority and constant admonitions of Mother Francisca, the prioress. Defying the rules of the beaterio, they, including a certain Sor Jacinta, goddaughter of Fray Juan de Sto. Domingo,OP, the co-founder, began to live separately in private homes. To the residents of the Walled City, it was unseemly for beatas to go out and worse, stay out of the beaterio without any compelling reason to do so. The Escano bequest had spared them from having to beg alms for their subsistence, unlike the poor beatas of the Compania. Inevitably, the two beaterios were now being compared with each other. On the other hand, the growing community, counting about twenty-four members in 1703, seven of whom were Filipina lay Sisters, had decided to build a bigger edifice to accommodate new applicants and helpers. The situation stirred up legalistic issues regarding beaterios, which agitated canon and civil law experts no end, their opinions depending, not surprisingly, on which faction they belonged to. Caught unwittingly in the middle of the controversy were the beatas in whose name the war words and documents were being waged. Concluding that the Dominicans had been unable to maintain discipline among the beatas, Archbishop Camacho of Manila claimed jurisdiction over the institution and insisted on the practice of closure. The Dominican provincial protested that the authority of the master general of their Order was sufficient to justify the existence of the beaterio and that it enjoyed prior exemption from the closure which was a later requirement of the Council of Trent. But the beatas, upon the advice of their Dominican counselors, refused obedience to the archbishop who was left with no other recourse but to excommunicate them. In the beginning of 1704, the beatas chose to dissolve their community and live as a group of laywomen in exile at the College of Santa Potenciana whose premises were courteously offered by the governor. Henceforth, they were dispensed from their vows, divested of their habits and deprived of their religious names. Their "Babylonian exile" lasted for two years and three months from January 1704 to April 1706. During this period, Sor Jacinta, whose laxity triggered the upheaval, was expelled and four other unnamed Spanish beatas left the fold. The fact that the Filipino lay Sisters tended to "persevere in their good intentions" more than the Spanish Sisters ran counter to the assumptions of the Dominican Chapter of 1663 cited above.
RETURN FROM EXILE
Archbishop Camacho, relented after a few months and humbly made the first move to negotiate for the beatas' return from banishment. Because of the initial reluctance of Fray Juan, the co-founder, to get involved again with the institution, it took two years to fashion an acceptable agreement between the prelate and the beatas who now accepted the principle of closure in their letter in the first week of February 1706. In response, the archbishop gave up his claims of jurisdiction and, henceforth, became and avid advocate of the beaterio. The Sisters returned to their blessed abode after 24 April 1706 when the archbishop signed the last of series of documents on their reinstatement.
MIDLIFE TURMOIL
With such tenuous arrangements, the community sailed innocently too near the wind. In 1746, a tempest roared like a lion battering the beaterio to its foundation, which reverberated to the other beaterios. Sor Cecilia de la Circuncision, whose secular name was Ita y Salazar, had withdrawn to Santa Catalina to avoid marrying an elderly uncle and professed sixteen years previously. Now entering middle age, she fell in love with, of all men, Don Francisco Figuerora, the secretary of the governor-general. The acting governor then happened to be a Dominican friar, Bishop Juan de Arechedrra of Nueva Segovia. Mother Cecilia turned to the vicar general of the archdiocese, sede vacante, to declare her vows null and void. The vicar convinced her that this was not the best time to press her case. The time finally came in 1750 when the new governor, the Marques de Obando arrived and there was also a new archbishop, Fray Pedro de la Santisima Trinidad who was a Franciscan. The prelate ruled in favor of the Spanish beata on the basis of the royal orders, which repeatedly forbade the beaterio to be a convent. Over the protests of the Dominicans, Sor Cecilia was able to leave the community borne on a hammock muttering of some illness. But now she was free to marry Figueroa. The couple later transferred to Mexico where Cecilia's case was upheld by the archbishop there. When the report of their infringement of royal laws reached the king of Spain, he decreed, as punishment, the extinction of the beaterio upon the death of the remaining beatas. This gave the Dominicans ample time to move heaven and earth to have the royal order rescinded. In the meantime, the governor trained his critical gaze at the other beaterios to ensure that they, too, would comply with the king's edicts or face the threat of extinction-at least during his cumbency. The royal decree suppressing the beaterio was finally lifted after the war about 1769.
CHANGES AND COMPLICATIONS
The missionary phase of the Beaterio de Santa Catalina gave rise to certain complications in their serene existence. In 1865, the Dominican priests began recruiting Spanish nuns for the Asian missions. They were to be housed temporarily in the beaterio while waiting to be transported to their respective assignments. Unfortunately, their efforts to set up religious houses in Spain to train missionary nuns was not successful because of lack of funds and vocations. Hence, the Spanish nuns remained permanently in the beaterio occupying the principal offices since the Filipina members were mere lay Sisters. In the last decade of the nineteenth century, however, in order to accord full membership to Filipino applicants from choice families, the beaterio extended the definition of "Spanish mestiza" to the broadest possible meaning of the word. The community began to accept not only Spanish "half-breeds" , but also those families had been classified as "Spanish mestizos" for generations, regardless of the proportion of Spanish blood flowing in their veins. Under this mitigated policy were admitted two Filipinas as choir Sisters who were to figure eminently in the development of the beaterio. It was only in 1917 that the Filipino lay Sisters gained the status of choir Sisters more than two centuries and a half after the inauguration of the Beaterio de Sta. Catalina. During his canonical visit to the Philippines in that year, the Dominican master general, Father Ludovicus Theissling, OP, a Dutch, noted the wide discrepancy in status between the Spanish and Filipina Dominicans. This was two decades after the Spanish colonizers had left and even the Royal Monastery of Santa Clara had opened the door of its cloisters to Filipina applicants. Led by Mothers Catalina Osmena and Felomena Medalle, the Filipina beatas petitioned the highest official of the Order to grant them full membership to native aspirants who were at least high school graduates regardless of their racial background. The master general readily gave justice to their request. Inevitably, the polarization between the Filipina and the Spanish beatas-which paralleled that between the Filipino secular clergy and the Spanish religious Orders during the colonial regime-led to the division of the Beaterio de Sta. Catalina in 1933. The Spanish Sisters, without consulting the Filipina beatas, formed a new community, the Congregacion de Religiosas Missioneras de Santo Domingo. When the plans were officially disclosed, the surprised Filipinas, including the criollas and the mestizas, except for a few, opted not to join the Spaniards. They chose to remain in the beaterio and to preserve their institutional identity, this time under diocesan authority. A few of the Spaniards decided to stay in the beaterio with the Filipinas. The Spanish Dominican priests of the Most holy Rosary allowed the Filipinas to retain their old edifice in the Walled City. In startling contrast, however, they gifted the new Spanish congregation all the other houses of the beaterio in the Philippines, China, Japan and Taiwan, numbering to seventeen. Thus, the Beaterio de Sta. Catalina was unexpectedly deprived of their mission field. Invoking the patience of Job, the Filipino nuns refrained from protesting the unequal partition. "The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord!". The Beaterio de Sta. Catalina's eye witness historian, Sor Maria Luisa Henson 91904-1995), expresses the sentiments of her sisters regarding this sad episode in their development: We, of the Beaterio de Sta. Catalina de Sena, were the first daughters of the province of the Most Holy Rosary, and worked side by side with the Dominican Fathers in the missions. But during the crucial moment in 1933, we were abandoned and disappointed by the then Provincial Administration under Father (Ricardo) Vaquero (1931-1934). When two daugthers separate from the father, do they not get equal share? Perhaps, the Father Provincial Vaquero was angry because we did not join the Spaniards. (Davis 1990,88) The only building allotted to the Filipina Dominicans, newly remodeled and reconstructed through the generosity of Mother Catalina Osmena, was bombed to the ground by Japanese invaders.
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