(Editors’ Notes: These are excerpts from the book, RECUERDOS DE MI COLEGIO, author: Danilo Madrid Gerona, PhD; book design and layout: Boyet R. Abrenica; publisher: Universidad de Sta. Isabel;. printer: AMS Press, 2006. In our April 2024 edition, we highlight Chapter 3, “The Daughters of Charity in Kabikolan,” which chronicles the momentous arrival of the Sisters in Manila on April 2, 1868, and in Pasacao in April 4, 1868. Thereafter, the Escuela-Colegio Diocesano de Sta. Isabel was opened on April 12, 1868. Published with permission.)

The industrial and commercial development Kabikolan was experiencing in the middle of the nineteenth century coincided with the coming to the region of the Daughters of Charity. The arrival of these brave and dedicated women workers in God’s vineyard ushered a new era in the social and intellectual life of the young women of the region. This did not only give the women hopes to transcend their confinement to the domestic sphere but also set the phase for a new direction they had in society.

The Imperial Mandate on Education

Prior to the departure of Gainza and the recruited Sisters who would lay the foundation for the establishment of a diocesan school for girls in Nueva Caceres, the Spanish monarch and the bishop had already reached an agreement on the fundamental operational principle regarding the educational institution. The document emphasized the primordial role of the bishop and the Hijas de Caridad in administrative matters:

The Royal Decree dated 5 November 1867 grants to the Lord Don Fray Francisco Gainza, Bishop of Nueva Caceres, the creation of a school for girls (escuela de niñas) which will be under the care of the Hijas de Caridad.

This decree authorized the Director General of this religious congregation to appoint the Superior of the local community and also bestowed on her the power to re-assign elsewhere their respective members. To ensure that the authority of the bishop, being the over-all caretaker of the institution, would be respected and that the superior of the Daughters of Charity would not arbitrarily exercise her authority, only those expenses related to decisions made with the concurrence of the bishop would be shouldered by the diocesan coffers.

The document, however, reflected the tremendous importance given by the Crown and the bishop to the Daughters of Charity. As part of the concessions, the Sisters who would take care of the school were to enjoy “a modest but exclusive dwelling “separate from the rest of the house, with doors whose keys would be kept by the local Superior and nobody, under any pretext, could have access to them without her permission.” Other logistical needs of the community were to be provided by the diocesan prelate. The decree also assured the Sisters complete freedom in regard to their administration as long as it would not run contrary to the general policies of the institution.

The Sisters’ fundamental responsibility was the school. “They were to attend to the classes three hours in the morning and two-and-a-half to three hours in the afternoon,” the decree indicated categorically. But as soon as they had complied with these obligations, the rest of the time could be used for their spiritual exercises or for manual labor. The respective assignments of the Sisters, both in their academic and in their domestic chores, particularly those which pertained to the care of the niñas internas were left to the discretion of the local Superior.

The Royal Decree not only provided detailed instructions regarding the operation of this educational institution but specifically entrusted its care to the Hijas de Caridad or Daughters of Charity. The Daughters of Charity’s role in the educational apostolate in the islands only came at a later date in the colonial regime when Queen Isabel II on 19 October 1852 approved the request for the Vincentian Fathers and the Daughters of Charity to come to the Philippines and to participate in the work of spreading the Gospel according to their respective religious charism. As it had been indicated, the latter was assigned the task of taking care of hospitals and other learning and charitable institutions in Manila.

The 5 November 1867 decree prescribed that the royal treasury would provide support for the maintenance of the six Sisters of Charity who would constitute the pioneering batch to lay the foundations of the school in Caceres. But it also opened the possibilities for the increase in their number which would be made with the concurrence of the bishop and the Director General of the Order and after securing approval from the Governor General. Such rule applied in the event of the death of any of these Sisters. Having secured the necessary documents and materials, the bishop and the Sisters of Charity embarked for the Philippines.

On 2 January 1868, another decree was issued which only provided a clearer summary of the basic points agreed upon by the bishop and the Royal Crown. Among the points raised was: “…in the city of Nueva Caceres, capital of the diocese, a primary school placed under the advocacy of Sta. Isabel will be opened which will admit the poor girls of the diocese to receive a free instruction.” The school was to be under the immediate control of the bishop, in accordance with the Royal Decree of 20 December 1863. But the most important feature of this decree was the fiscal aspect which allocated to the six Sisters of Charity an annual salary of six hundred escudos each, with a thousand escudos for the (entretemiento) edifice where the school was located and for the reposition of materials needed for teaching. A separate allocation for fare as well as for other miscellaneous expenses were also mentioned: Fourth, the fare, of the six teacher-Sisters (hermanas maestras) and 800 hundred escudos as expenses during their travel until their departure, plus 2,000 escudos for the repair of the edifice and the purchase of necessary utensils, will be shouldered by the government through the local funds of the provinces within the diocese. To fully implement the will of Her majesty, it is assigned to Your Excellency the credito supletorio of 10,600 escudos charged to the local funds of the provinces within the diocese.” As soon as the minutest detail of the contract was threshed out and agreed upon, the contingent headed by Bishop Gainza undertook the final preparation for their return to the Philippines.

The Arrival of the Sisters in Bikol

The contingent led by Bishop Gainza and the six Sisters arrived in Manila on April 2, 1868 after three months of sailing. Eager to participate in the Holy Week activities, Gainza and the Sisters hurriedly embarked for the Bikol region. Having received the report of their arrival in Manila and their immediate departure for Nueva Caceres, the anxious residents of the city and of nearby localities prepared a hearty welcome.

On April 3, having read the news item from the Diario de Manila which heralded the departure of the ship Pasig bound for Bikol, the former provisor of the diocese, the secular priest Fr Vicente Garcia, together with some parish priests hastily proceeded to Pasacao to act as the advance party for the welcoming party. Seeing that those they were to welcome had not arrived yet, the group retired to their respective towns in the afternoon of Saturday to attend to their Sunday parish work. But Fr. Garcia decided to remain in Pasacao and at midnight of April 4, Saturday, the group finally arrived. Despite this late hour of arrival, they were warmly welcomed by the jubilant crowd, including a large number of children carrying banners, who had been at vigil on the seashore awaiting their arrival. A correspondent of the Diario de Manila gave a vivid picture of this historic event:

At midnight, when the night sky was clear and the moon was shining brightly, a huge crowd lined up the shores, with the children carrying their banners welcoming the arriving party. The crowd spent their evening and a large part of the day in this port, with the authorities planning out the manner of transporting such a huge crowd to Pamplona and thereafter to Nueva Caceres.

Since the group was said to have spent a large part of their day in the port town of Pasacao, they could have left the place in the afternoon of April 5, Palm Sunday. The report of Bishop Gainza indicated that the bishop, the Padre Director, and the Sisters traveled by carriages (coches). It would appear that aside from the Sisters, another six young women who accompanied the Sisters from Manila, were coming by sedan chairs and hamacas. Some Vincentian Fathers rode on horses and some went on foot. The contingent left for Pamplona, then cruised the Bikol river to Camaligan on their colorful barotos forming a spectacular “Triumphal Parade.” The Sisters, the principales and a musical band on board a well-decorated boat or pagoda caught the attention of the thick crowd on both banks of the river. As the pagoda passed by the numerous riverine visitas all the people lit their fireworks, struck their tamboriles and waved their banners. This huge crowd must have sailed through the canal which led to Gainza then to Camaligan where they were to disembark and to proceed from there to Nueva Caceres. The travel must have taken hours.

In Camaligan, all the towns were in the embarcadero. The bishop and the rest of the group entered the beautiful church and the bishop pronounced his blessings. Then the Sisters climbed the coches aportadas (sedan chairs), so did the bishop and the other ecclesiastics. The seminarians, principales of the city and the immense crowd went on foot traveling for some 20 minutes. Upon arriving at the first house of the city, the Sisters alighted from their coaches and placed themselves at the center of the contingent, parading through the principal streets and plazas of the city until they reached the Cathedral at 10. There the bishop sang the Te Deum and made the episcopal blessings and thus they retired themselves to a dinner prepared for this purpose.

The Sisters were given temporary shelter in the parochial house while plans for the construction of the school and their dwelling were underway. The six Sisters who came to assume the administration of the school were the first members of any religious order for women ever seen by Bikolanos and certainly the first to establish their apostolate in the region. To most Bikolanos, the presence of these celibate women who completely, unselfishly and quietly devoted their lives to serve mankind and God was truly an edifying experience. For the native women, the Sisters served as the moral exemplars and the rallying point for empowering women.

These six Sisters namely: Crisologa Navarro, Ignacia Ostolazas, Juana Morga, Rita Delome, Antonia Novoa, and Sales Montoya, were apparently chosen by their congregation to pioneer the establishment of the missionary outpost in the region because of their exemplar morality and learning. Appointed Superior of this community was Sales Montoya, a native of Madrid where she was born on 27 January 1873 to a distinguished family. Little could be said as to what had transpired in Madrid where she spent more than 20 years prior to her arrival in the Philippines. But it was certain that Sales Montoya lived an exemplary life as a religious.

When the Archbishop of Manila entrusted to the Sisters of Charity the administration of Colegio de Sta. Isabel in Manila in September 1864, the Superior of the Sisters of Charity in the Philippines, Sister Tiburcia Ayanz, asked the Superior in Spain to send a Sister of sufficient disposition who could be at the helm of this college. Responding to this demand, they sent Sor Sales de Montoya. Coming at the head of the third mission, this pioneering group arrived in Manila in April 1865.

After taking possession of the college in Nueva Caceres, Montoya worked selflessly at the crucial stage of Sta. Isabel’s history. Having spent her energy, her health began to deteriorate and was at its worst in the last two years of her stay in the city. This compelled the members of her order to bring her to Manila to seek appropriate medical attention in 1884. She spent almost a year at the Concordia College but as her health continued to worsen, the Sisters eventually decided to bring her to Spain. But en route to Spain, while the ship was in Singapore, Montoya succumbed to her illness in 1 February 1885 at the age of 62.

Header image: A depiction of St. Vincent de Paul giving his blessings (credit: Daughters of Charity/history).