4th Centenary of the first arrival of the OH Brothers in Manila
Last June 22nd, 2011 Card. Rosales, at that time Archbishop of Manila, presided a Thanksgiving Mass in the Chapel of the Quiapo Community of the Hospitaller Brothers and blessed a memorial marble plaque with the following caption:
IN MEMORY OF THE THANKSGIVING MASS
CELEBRATED BY THE ARCHBISHOP OF MANILA
HIS EMINENCE GAUDENCIO B. CARDINAL ROSALES
ON THE 22ND OF JUNE 2011, ON THE OCCASION OF
THE 4TH CENTENARY OF THE FIRST ARRIVAL
OF THE HOSPITALLER BROTHERS IN MANILA
The first two Spanish Brothers of St. John of God who arrived in Manila in June 1611 were Bro. Juan de Gamboa and Br. Luca de los Angeles. They founded a small convalescent hospital in Bagumbayan, known today as Luneta. The building was very close to the church of Our Lady of Guia (= Guidance). The convalescent hospital was transferred to an island in Pasig River during the eighteenth century. It was named San Andres, but it is now called Hospicio de San Jose.
Brother Andres Rebollo founded the second hospital in Cavite City in 1641. It was a general hospital named after San Juan de Dios, which was functioning until the beginning of our century. The building was totally destroyed during the last World War.
The hospital founded in 1578 by the Franciscan Juan Clemente in Intramuros, Manila was offered to the Brothers of St. John of God in 1656. The San Juan de Dios Hospital of Intramuros was the Provincial House of the Hospitaller Brothers until 1866. After its destruction in the last World War, the site has ever since been occupied by the Lyceum of the Philippines. A new San Juan de Dios Hospital was set up in Roxas Boulevard, Pasay City.
From the very beginning, the Brothers were given large portions of agricultural land in Bulacan, forming the so-called "Hacienda Buenavista". The harvest of the land was able to support our three hospitals in Luzon giving free service to all their patients. A Barrio arose in the center of the land and was named after San Rafael, the special Patron of the Philippine Province of the Hospitaller Brothers. That Barrio later became the town of San Rafael de Bulacan where the Brothers set up a hospital.
The Brothers also founded hospitals in Cebu City and in Zamboanga City. The hospitals in the Philippine Province were only six, but the Brothers managed them with overflowing charity. They even reached sick people at home both in the city and in the farmer area. Out of gratitude, the poor people started to call them "Juaninos" (= Little Johnnies) instead of their official name, Hermanos de San Juan de Dios. On February 24, 1703 Bishop Diego Camacho y Avila proclaimed Saint John of God as secondary Patron of Manila with the holiday obligation of attending Mass like on Sunday.
The Brothers were determined to reach even the remotest areas. One of them, Brother Lorenzo Gomez, was killed by the Tinguians in an ambush in the mountains of Northern Luzon in the beginning of the eighteenth century. Two other Brothers were killed in San Rafael, Bulacan, the first being Brother Antonio de Santiago who was shot by an arrow of the Negritos during a raid, and Brother Juan Antonio Guemez who was killed by raiders with a spear in 1731.
In the following century, another Brother was killed by the Spanish soldiers. He was a national hero, Apolinario de la Cruz (Manong Pule), born in Lucban, Quezon on July 22nd, 1815, the founder of the "Cofradia de San Jose" (Confraternity of St. Joseph) exclusively for native Tagalogs. In 1841, the Spanish government tried to suppress this Confraternity and asked the Superior to dismiss Bro. Apolinario from the Community of Intramuros, where he was living as an Oblate since 1830. He was able to escape and reach his many disciples in Lucban, Quezon. But on November 4th,1841 the Spanish soldiers caught and executed him after a short trial.
Bigger problems besieged the Hospitaller Brothers in the following years. At that time there were two autonomous Branches of the Hospitaller Order. The Philippine Communities of the Hospitaller Brothers were under the Provincial Superior in Mexico City and the Spanish Branch General Superior in Madrid, Spain. In 1822 the new Mexican Republic suppressed all Religious Congregations and consequently the Mexican Province of the Hospitaller Brothers disappeared, leaving the Philippine Communities without a Provincial Superior. In 1835 the same happened in Spain, where the Government suppressed all the Religious Communities in the Peninsula leaving the Philippine Communities without a General Superior. Since there was no more canonical Mayor Superior available for the Hospitaller Brothers in the Philippines, it became impossible for them to accept candidates in their Novitiate in Manila. To solve this problem, Pope Pius IX asked Bishop Gregorio Meliton Martinez to put the Hospitaller Brothers of the Philippines under their General Superior in Rome. For political reasons, this project failed and consequently the remaining Brothers became older and older and started to die. Because of their decreased number the Brothers left their two hospitals in Manila in 1866 and joined their last Community in Cavite City. The Daughters of Charity took their place in Manila until now.
When St. Benedict Menni restored the Hospitaller Order in Spain, he tried to send Brothers to the Philippines. In April 1886, he wrote a letter to the last Local Superior of the Cavite Hospital, Bro. Manuel Peña. The latter suggested setting up a new Hospital. The Governor of Manila approved the project and offered a building for a Mental Hospital, as at that time there was no one in Luzon. Unfortunately, in 1887 the Government in Madrid rejected the project and did not allow the departure of Spanish Brothers for the Philippines.
After the death of the last Hospitaller Brothers the Archdiocese of Manila inherited the Hacienda in Bulacan, the Hospitals in Intramuros, Pasig Island and Cavite City and all the properties scattered in Manila. After World War II the Archdiocese sold the Hacienda to the Government, but is still operating the San Juan de Dios Hospital and the Hospicio de San Jose.
On September 23, 1985 Card. Sin as archbishop of Manila sent a written request to the General Superior of the Hospitaller Brothers in Rome to send again Brothers to the Philippines and to resume their activity in Manila. On October 22, 1987 Card. Sin met in Rome the Provincial Superior of the Hospitaller Brothers who agreed to give priority to his offer of a provisionary free premise in the squatter’s area of Quiapo and promised that the first Brothers will arrive in the Philippines in March.
On September 21, 1988 - just six months after their arrival - the Hospitaller Brothers opened, in cooperation with the Department of Health, a free Tuberculosis Clinic in the premise offered by the Archdiocese temporarily for 20 years. Punctually at the end of those 20 years the Brothers were able to transfer their activities in an adjacent lot they bought from the Manuel Luis Quezon University.
In February 1995 the initial TB Clinic was converted into a Charity Polyclinic. In September 1996 in cooperation with the UST a Charity Special Pre-School for Hearing Impaired was opened and was finally accredited by the Department of Education Culture and Sports (DECS) on May 4th, 1999.
In 1990, the Hospitaller Brothers opened a Novitiate in Bo. Salaban, Amadeo, Cavite and in 1996 the San Ricardo Pampuri Pedagogical Center, a special shelter for the rehabilitation of abandoned cerebral palsy children. The Brothers offered to these special children a very modern special program, called "Conductive Education", enabling them to learn how to walk and how to reach physical autonomy. The project received its accreditation from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) on August 21, 1998. In July 2008 a Charity Special Pre-School for Disable was opened and in January 2010 was recognized by the Department of Education.
Already on October 30th, 1992 the two Communities were canonically raised to a Philippine Delegation under the Roman Province of the Hospitaller Order. The present Provincial Delegate is a Filipino Brother, Br. Eldy de Castro, and all the present Brothers of the Delegation are Filipinos except two, who are Italian.
Bro. Joseph Magliozzi o.h.