Bohemian Jesuits In The Island of Negros

Bayawan way back in time

Posted by Negros Chronicle

HISTORICAL NOTES
by: REV. FR. ROMAN C. SAGUN. JR.

One may begin to revisit the history of Bayawan by reading the city profile in http:// www.bayawancity.gov.p

In the south-western Island of Negros, the Jesuits opened a mission in Ilog starting way back in 1630.

Among the early Jesuit missionaries was Father Esteban Jaime who worked in the Island for some 27 years between 1632 and 1659. Two years after his arrival, this veteran missionary was joined by Fathers Francisco Angel and Francisco Luzon. At the time, they expanded their missions from Binalbagan to as far as the south-eartern village of Bayawan as bounded by the river at Sicopong.

It was in the second quarter of the eighteenth century when the mission in Negros was entrusted to Jesuit volunteer missionaries from Central Europe. One of them was Father Bernhard Schmitz, a Dutch Jesuit arriving in the Philippines in 1721, who was entrusted with the old town at Ilog in 1730 or thereabouts. In 1732 he was joined by Fathers Anton Malinsky of Prague and Lorenz John of Leitmeritz.

Thanks to my good friend, Pavel Fochler of the Universidad Carolina in Prague, capital of the Czech Republic, we have this additional information. Of German nationality, Father Lorenz John was born on 10 August 1691. In 1729, he left Bohemia for the overseas missions and arrived in the Philippines in 1732. Between 1732 and 1735, Father Lorenz John labored so fervently in western Negros, even reaching the point also written in some extant records as Buyonan. In this southern corner of western Negros called Bayawan, Father Lorenz went on monthly missionary expeditions, while noting that this satellite mission station was under the patronage of San Jose and that of the other village named Basay had San Nicolas Tolentino as patron saint.

From1735 to 1737, it was the turn of Father Anton Malinsky to also make pastoral visitations every month. He reported that in mid-1735, a pagan in hatred of Christian believers burnt down the church and mission house recently built in Bayawan. It caused great sadness to the villagers. However, that pagan was soon apprehended and sent to a Bohol fortress for trial.

Father Malinsky noted how the villagers again built anew the church and mission house, all of them again of wooden structures. He took great delight in the skills of the workers who did not need any iron nail for them, and in spite of that, the new structures were strong.

Records of the Jesuit Bohemian province in the Czech lands plainly show that between 1732 and 1737 Bohemian Jesuits from Central Europe contributed considerably to spread the faith among the natives in Bayawan.

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