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by Fr. Cayetano Sanchez, OFM
About Fr. Diego de Oropesa,
very little can be said, although Fr. Ribadaneira dedicated a whole chapter to him, as well as to his companions since we
can hardly find concrete details about him. Fr. Antonio de Llave also wrote something
about him. Gomez Platero gathered some biographical data about him in his catalogue, which was reproduced by Fr. Antolin Abad
in these terms:
“He was born in the town of Oropesa and professed in the province
of San Jose, He became a member of the founding mission organized by Fr. Antonio
de San Gregorio in 1575. He embarked for the Philippines in 1577 arriving in Manila the first day of July
of 1578. He was among the first who Christianized
Laguna and Tayabas, together with Fr. Plasencia being able to gather abundant harvest and so they were the founders
of the towns of Pila, Lilio (Liliw), Nagcarlan, Panguil, Siniloan, Morong, Taytay,
Antipolo, And Mecauayan. Furthermore, he became the guardian of the convent of
Santa Maria de los Angeles of Manila from where he departed for the mission of Cochinchina in 1583. He traveled
to the court of the said Kingdom but due to a storm he was forced to land in Haynan, where he was made prisoner, chained and
brought from tribunal to tribunal and finally liberated in Macao, from hence he returned
to Manila in 1585. Travelling through
Balayan and Mindoro, he still had the spirit, to go back to his old places in the archipelago.
He sailed for Spain on July 27, 1590
and dies during the journey before reaching Acapulco, about the middle of
November of the same year, a holy man and a zealous apostle.” |
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