It took Mother Jeronima and seven another volunteer to embark from Spain to the Philippines in 1620. By that time, she was already sixty-six years old but still strong and determined to start the first monastery for women in Asia. Her companions were from the Monastery of Santa Isabel, Sr Ana de Christo; Sor Leonor de Sanct Francisco, mistress of novices; and/or Juana de Sanct Anttonio, novice and secretary of the group; from the Monastery of Santa Juana de la cruz near the town of Cubas, Sor Maria Madalena de la Cruz, vicars; and Madalena de Christo; from the Monastery of La Column in Sevilla, Sor Luysa de Jesus, novice; and Sor Maria de la Trinidad (who unfortunately died at sea). In Sevilla, the Franciscan provincial commanded Mother Jeronima to pose of a full-sized portrait by budding artist name Diego de Velasques, who later turned out to be one of the greatest Spanish masters. Velasquez painted not one but two pictures of hers which now hang at the Prado Museum in Madrid. In Mexico City, they were joined by two more nuns from the Monastery of the Visitation: for Leonor de Sanct Buenaventura and Sor Maria de los Angeles.
The First Enduring Monastery
After more than a year and three months of voyage on a galleon ship, the religious pioneers arrived in Manila on 5 August 1621. Dona Ana de Vera, the childless widow of the Master of Camp Don Pedro Chaves had deeded to them her two houses in the Walled City, which became the site of the Royal Monastery of the Immaculate Conception of the Barefoot Nuns of St. Clare, called Monastery of Santa Clara for short. True to their vow of poverty, the nuns returned the additional donation of Dona Ana in form of a ranch in Sampaloc with cows and horses and land for cultivation. They also turned down another house offered by another widow, Dona Maria de Jesus de Angulo, as well as other donations of money and material things they did not need.
Within two months after its inauguration, the monastery attracted twenty Spanish maidens and they vanished from view of the outside world. The deprived bachelors of Manila lodged a formal complaint against the institution with Church and state authorities. The latter tried to restrict the number of applicants but Mother Jeronima opposed the move. She appealed directly to the king who ruled in her favor. On the other hand, in view of the deteriorating health of some of the nuns, the Franciscan provincial tried to pressure her to mitigate and adapt the monastic rules to the tropics. But this, too, she resisted and she was eventually upheld by the general of the Order in Rome. Notwithstanding her personal victory, she did not hesitate to modify the strict statutes when she realized the havoc they wreaked on the members of the congregation.
The Repudiation of Filipinas
A more sensitive issue was the admission of native applicants to the monastery. The royal foundation as specifically created for"pious (Spanish) women and daughters of the conquistadors who cannot marry properly" without mention of native women. Silence with regard to the latter was conveniently interpreted as prohibition. Further, it was questions in this era whether Indios, like "Jews, Moors, Negroes, and gypsies" possessed the "purity of blood" necessary for admission to sublime Spanish institutions like monasteries. Despite the legalistic controversy, the Filipino beatas knew instinctively that they were ready and able to move on from the Third to the Second Order. Indias began to knock at the convent gate begging for admission. Around 1628 Dona Maria Uray, the beata of Dapitan, tried to apply in the monastery. She was rejected because she was an "India." Undaunted, she reapplied as a slave, although she was of the native nobility being the granddaughter of Datu Pagbuaya of Dapitan to whom the the Adelantado Don Miguel Lopez de Legaspi was beholden. "Uray"signifies a lady rajah. But no matter. She was turned down anew. He Jesuit advocates, asserting that she had arrived at "the genuine science of the soul," consoled her by pointing out the greater glory she would render to God by continuing her quasi-monastic life in Dapitan interspersed with corporal works of mercy. She died around 1630.
Dona Maria's case apparently gave qualms to Madre Jeronima. She considered building a separate house for native contemplatives in Pandacan, which was then a rustic town. The church and civil authorities, however, turned a deaf ear to her proposal.
The difference between a monasterio of the Second Order and a beaterio of the Third Order became clearer in the minds of Filipinos, in general, and the local beatas, in particular. The former was contemplative and isolated from the community whereas the latter combined contemplation and interaction with the outside world. The former seemed impossible for them to attain whereas the latter was more accessible especially to Filipino beatas who had been enrolled in the Third Order. As noted earlier, until now, in Filipino, the particular word for a contemplative nun is monja (Spanish for nun) whereas the word for a "regular" nun is madre.
When the Spaniards sold the Philippine colony to the Americans in 1898 and uneasy peace was restored, the Monastery of Santa Clara began to admit Filipina applicants in earnest. The Spanish membership had dwindled during the long strife. The first Filipina Poor Clare in the twentieth century was Madre Sor Concordia de San Francisco, OSC (1886-1959). She was born as Concordia Lopez y Gonzalez in San Nicolas, Cebu. Receiving investiture in 1906, she professed simple vows in 1907 and solemn vows in 1910. During the war in 1944 she was elected abbess. The next year, she and her community witnessed the total destruction of the 300-year-old monastery by American bombers trying to dislodge the Japanese Army in the Walled City.
