Agustín De San Pedro. El Padre Capitán

Fray Agustín de San Pedro known in Philippine History as El Padre Capitán by Emmanuel Luis A. Romanillos Dubbed as El Padre Capitán for his heroic exploits of the Moro Wars, Fray Agustín de San Pedro was born in 1599. He epitomizes the 17th- century missionary who erected fortress-like temples, forts, palisades and watchtowers to shield his flock from marauding pirates, mostly Moros from Mindanao and Sulu. 1 He was often depicted as a soldier of God welding the cross in one hand and brandishing the sword in the other. He was born to Mario Rodríguez and María Moreyro of Braganza, Portugal. The young Agustín studied at the University of Salamanca. He after afterward entered the Augustinian Recollect convent at Valladolid, making his The bust of Fray Agustín de San Padre religious profession as Fray Agustín de "El Padre Capitán' at Fuerza de San San Pedro in 1619. Andrés in Romblon. At the Recollect Convent of Portillo in Valladolid, he devoted himself to the study of mathematics and military science to such an extent that his superior who had had noticed it commanded him to desist from it for he deemed it unsuited to the religious profession. The biographer commented that such study of military science proved later to be exceedingly useful in his future ministry in the Philippine missions at that wracked by piratical raids. In July 1622, Fray Agustín joined the sixth Recollect group of thirteen missionaries to the Philippines that included the future Martyr of Japan Blessed Martín de San Nicolás. Their galleon lifted anchor at Cádiz in 1 Other Augustinian Recollect missionaries known for their building of forts and bulwarks, organizing militias, military feats and punitive expeditions against the Moro lairs in southern Philippines from the 17th to the 19th century are Juan de San Severo, Valero de San Agustín, Pascual Ibánez and Ramón Zueco. See Ángel MARTÍNEZ CUESTA, Historia de los agustinos Recoletos (Madrid 1995) 390. southern Spain and passed by Mexico. He was ordained to the priesthood in Mexico City. He then proceeded to Manila where he arrived in 1623. He was initially assigned to Butuan in Mindanao, spending in the area many years working for the resettlement of the natives and converting them to the Christian Faith. He resettled them in Christian communities along the banks of Gingood and Jibonga Rivers. Later he descended south to Linao and continued his evangelization tasks and established Christian villages in the vicinity. Indeed, Fray Agustín’s military studies eventually proved extremely useful in defending the missions against Moro ambushes and piratical raids. He trained the Christians to defend themselves and protect their houses, farms and livestock and ward off the raiding parties with great success. Thus he became known throughout the Philippines as Padre Capitán, a name that caused terror among Moros pirates. The pirates dreaded his name especially after the devastating defeat in Lanao and Cagayan where Fray Agustín de San Pedro was parish priest or where his help was needed by confreres and Jesuit missionaries. He evangelized the natives at the banks of Butuan River up to Lake Lanao. His reputed valorous feats were known in Butuan, Cagayan and Tandag. The intrepid missionary built stone forts in Lanao and Cagayan de Misamis [now Cagayan de Oro]. Padre Capitán was parish priest of Cagayan de Oro and prior of its religious community for a total of thirteen years (1626-1638), then of Butuan (1638-1641, 1642-1642) and Romblon (1644-1651). He was elected provincial secretary of the Province of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino in Manila in 1651. He passed away in early 1660s and was buried at Saint Joseph parish church of Romblon. The Recollect chronicler Patricio Marcellán describes one of Padre Capitán’s military strategies and defense systems during his pastoral ministry in Cagayan de Misamis, present-day Cagayan de Oro: Padre Agustín surrounded the town [Cagayan de Misamis] with a strong palisade with its sentry-boxes and watchtowers for sentinels who kept watch at night, by means of which they were kept safe from continual ambushes of the enemy. He trained the natives how to conduct attacks, to shoot, and spy out those who were in ambush, and in the end he carried himself out as their most skillful captain.2 The Spanish confrere then vividly narrates the episode of Sultan Kudarat’s well-planned attack perpetrated against Cagayan de Oro that 2 Patricio MARCELLÁN, La Provincia de San Nicolás de Tolentino de los Agustinos Descalzos de la Congregación de España e Indias (Manila 1879) 290. eventually led to the feared Moro leader’s defeat at the hands of Padre Capitán and his well-trained defenders and courageous reinforcements from Caraga: The tyrant Cachil Corralat [Sultan Kudarat] was angry that a small village like Cagayan should resist his power, and desired to finish it once and for all. He launched his fleet of more than thirty caracoas manned by the best of his men and equipped with military weapons and supplies. The preparation of the enemy was learned, and the father prior sent to Caraga for more troops. Six soldiers and one hundred natives came. A sudden alarm was sounded to call in those who were distant in their fields. The enemy disembarked more than two thousand Moros were ordered to attack the town; but they found so strong a resistance that they turned back, fleeing in disgrace. All that gave annoyance to Corralat, and he was grieved to his very soul that Padre Capitán should be the one to check his boldness. Therefore, desirous of seizing him, Corralat ordered ambushes to be set and took other means to secure this end.3 We now recount the narrative of “epic proportions”: An expedition not unlike that of the conquistador Hernán Cortes4 needed the construction of six huge boats. The materials for them were taken by land to an area in the vicinity of Lake Lanao where they were assembled and equipped with artillery and other weapons with easy. An army of one thousand five hundred Caraga troops was then organized by Padre Capitán. The Maranaos had six thousand armed warriors. The Maranaos were dispersed by Padre Capitán’s forces. He then had the lake in view and went on to attack the enemy by land and by water and vanquished them. Fifty towns and villages were then put under the obedience of the Spanish monarch through the painstaking efforts of the intrepid Recollect. Governor General Sebastián Hurtado de Corcuera (1587-1660) adjudicated the spiritual administration of the territory to the Jesuits. Padre Capitán could not do anything but to move out of the Lanao area and withdrew to his parish in Butuan. The story did not end there. Another life-threatening episode took place in March 1662. Padre Capitán was in his parish when he was recalled to Lake Lanao areas and help the embattled Christians. On 9 March 1662, the Jesuit Gregorio Belin wrote a letter to Padre Capitán to beg for his help. Four thousand Moro warriors under Sultan Kudarat, the Maranaos of Butig and other local chiefs had seized three boatloads of Christians and food supplies the night before and slaughtered numerous Spanish troops and Boholano warriors. Then they proceeded to lay siege on Fort Santo Tomas where the 3 Ibid., 291-292. 4 The Spanish conquistador was part of the campaign for the conquest of the Aztec Empire in Mexico in the early 16th century. Jesuit missionary and his group had sought refuge. The beleaguered Christians had stored rice stocks that could last only a month, even if they consumed one meal a day. A courier slipped through the Moro siege and delivered a letter to Padre Capitán in Butuan. Belin beseeched him not to delay his reinforcements any longer as there lurked the danger of annihilation of Christians in Lanao if he would arrive too late. The Jesuit’s letter goes thus: It is impossible that the heart of your Reverence would allow us who are here in the lake area to perish. For the love of God, for whom you had suffered so much to resettle and subjugate them, please come to our aid with greatest force. […] I beg your Reverence for the sake of God and His Mother to succor us in everything. If you have two boats with you, then that would be a good thing. At the shore of Bayug there is a fort and Balooy [present-day Balo-i] is fortified. Do what your Reverence may decide and believe me you will have here a most affectionate friend and son and that your holy prayers may not fail us.5 The Fort of San Andres [Fuerza de San Andrés], built in the 17th century by the Portuguese Recollect friar Agustín de San Pedro on a hill overlooking the capital town of Romblon, whose restoration by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts was done in 2016. The Jesuit missionary of Zamboanga and historian Francisco Combés in his 1667 Historia de las Islas de Mindanao, Joló, y sus adyacentes [History of the Islands of Mindanao, Jolo and their Adjacent Islands] had only good words for the Augustinian Recollect warrior missionary: “Without owing to anything to what a religious is, he fitted what a soldier is in many occasions with so much gallantry, so that his valor had won him fame and thus he is known in the Philippines as El Padre Capitán.” Padre Capitán’s military exploits and defense structures in Romblon 5 Licinio RUIZ. Sinopsis histórica de la Provincia de San Nicolás de Tolentino de las Islas Filipinas I (Manila 1925).

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