“An old man, a chief who is held in high honor, and who has hitherto been obstinate, has at last told me that he is ready to bow his head to baptism.  He is all white-haired and decrepit, so that he can scarcely combine word with word.  Since he is unable to come to church, I am compelled to go to his house.  I will baptize him, with another man of advanced age, as early as possible.  It seems to me no small evidence that they have been predestinated, that both of them have waited so long, and that they now begin to glow with so great a desire for baptism.”

With regard to another mission, Father Gabriel Sanchez writes that the archdeacon of Zebu, who holds a benefice in Tana, went to the island of Bohol, twelve leagues distant, to ask our superior for a father skilled in the language, to preach the gospel to his tribe.  Father Gabriel was sent, and in one month heard four hundred confessions, and offered to many the sacred body of the Lord.  He also baptized eighty small children and some larger ones.  The custom was there introduced of having boys march in procession in the public streets, and chant the Christian belief.  The same thing has been done in the church, so greatly to the delight of the people that even the chiefs of the tribe think it small honor to them if they are not sometimes examined in the same belief.

The Indian wife of a local governor was bedridden, and one night began to suffer so intensely that she was entirely deprived of the power of speech.  A father of the Society was called, who found her entirely speechless.  And since she had not confessed her sins, although she tried to do so, the father began to recite the holy gospel, and to sprinkle her with holy water; and when this was done she collected her strength and, after pronouncing the name of Jesus, said, “Have mercy upon me!” Then, in the presence of many, she desired to confess; and after less than a quarter of an hour she arose from her bed, so well and whole that the father would not listen to her, but directed her to come to church on the following day to make her confession, which she did.  The same thing happened to the same father in the case of two other sick persons, whom by the recitation of the gospel and by the sprinkling of holy water he restored to sense and health, so that they were able to confess their sins.  Further, on two different days having gone to two children near to death, and deprived of the power of speech, with the same antidote of the gospel and of holy water, he restored both to their former health, so that one of them went so far as to jump suddenly out of his bed and return to his boyish sports.