The same priest also went, for the sake of hearing confession, to a man who lived a league and a half from the town, whose body was so weakened and torn by sickness that he could not bear to be touched or to be turned from one side to the other.  When his confession had been heard and the gospel had been recited, the father went away on Saturday of that week.  On the following Sunday, when the father asked how the sick man was, he was told that he had been restored to health, and had gone out to an island in order to get by hunting what was necessary for his food.  One night, while the daughters of one of the chiefs were chanting the heads of the Christian law, they looked up from a sort of portico and saw a crucifix in the sky, with a kind of crown on the head, rough but beautiful, and with the whole body and breast plainly visible.  It shone like the sun, and went up to heaven until it reached the sphere of the moon; as soon as it had reached that it vanished.  The sight of this vision caused the spectators as much joy as its disappearance did sorrow.  The father commanded that the whole thing be recounted in church, in the presence of many, by those very persons who had seen it; although, as that tribe is very simple and modest, they showed great fear and shame in telling the story.  Afterwards it was learned that the same crucifix had appeared in another place two leagues away.  This vision ought to be recognized as of greater value because it befell persons of exceeding virtue, who are persevering in their pristine habits of holy living.

Residence of Samar

Since the inhabitants of this island are scattered along an extended coast-line of the sea, it was necessary to send six of the fathers for the greater part of last year to cultivate it, with the results which might be expected from such missions.  We learned from the letters of Ours that the people of this island who live along the coast have begun to offer their names in order to receive the Christian religion, and that all the chiefs have already been purified by holy baptism.  The duty of visiting fourteen places rests upon this residence.  In this year three thousand six hundred and eighty persons, for the most part adults, have been joined to the spouse of Christ through the holy waters of baptism.  In one tiny island, which had not been visited for two years, two of Ours who had been sent thither on mission were received by the whole tribe with such delight that, all the way from the beach of the sea to the church of the place, they adorned all the roads with green branches; and then they were led to the church by a procession of boys and girls singing the Christian teaching with joyous voices.  And when Ours asked to have placed on the lists the names of those who desired to receive baptism, they answered that there was no need of a list, that they all wished to become Christians.  The old men—­who are generally more perverse than the rest, and are unwilling to learn the Christian teaching—­brought forward no other ground for the baptism which they so much desired than that their old age promised them no long life.  Thus all by the divine grace were made children of God, and inheritors of eternal life.