When he came to the Philippines in 1584 from Spain, San Pedro Bautista was

assigned in Intramuros. In 1586 as Parish Priest of Lumban, Laguna, he

taught church music and the manufacture and use of musical instruments. As
the custos or superior of the Franciscans,
from 1587 he ministered to the Japanese outside Intramuros through the help
of Fray Gonzalo Garcia and gathered the Filipinos into town settlements. In
1590 he established San Francisco del Monte as a hermitage and novitiate.
He discovered the medicinal characteristics of the hot springs of Los Baos.
He also strongly defended the basic human rights of the indigenous peoples
of Zambales. It was his firm, moral stand that opened the people`s minds on
the value of life. In 1593 San Pedro Bautista became the Philippines`
ambassador to Japan. He averted the emperor`s impending invasion of
the Philippines. With his first companions he then settled in Miyako and later
on in Nagasaki. They founded hospitals and churches. In 1596 the emperor
persecuted the Christians. San Pedro Bautista and 25 others were raised on
crosses and speared to death in Nagasaki on February 5, 1597.
Early Life
San Pedro Bautista was born Pedro Blazquez in San Esteban del Valle on
June 29, 1542, three centuries after Saint Francis. He studied Latin and
cosmology in Mombeltran, and continued his studies with the Jesuits in
Oropesa and later studied music in Avila. He served in the cathedral for two
years as a choirboy. In 1560 he studied philosophy and theology in
Salamanca for 6 years until he felt called to the priesthood. He was ordained
deacon in Avila.
 The Making of
a Franciscan

In 1567, the young Pedro Blazquez

returned from Salamanca and entered the Franciscan novitiate in Arenas,
where San Pedro Alcntara (1562) was buried. Here in the spiritual fervor and
rigor of the Alcantarine reform the spirit of the young novice Pedro Blazquez
was formed. He professed in 1568. Coming as a deacon with ecclesiastical
studies already done, he was soon ordained priest and was assigned to
preaching and formation work in the Province.

Mission Beckons
The times were conducive to missionary work. After discernment, he applied
to be a missionary and was approved to join a religious group who would
leave for Mexico in 1581. He
worked there for nearly three years. At that time a missionary`s ultimate goal
was China and Japan with the Philippines as a stopover for refueling. He
arrived in Manila in 1584 and immediately gave himself to missionary work.

His Missionary Methodology

But why was he effective as a missionary? How was he understood as he
preached to the natives? He chose the poor and needy environments. He
visited them, took care of the sick, built houses, schools and hospitals. Pedro
Bautista and his confreres attended to the lepers and the poor. They became
the advocate for the voiceless, abused and exploited. The Mexican historian
Miguel Len writes: `For the natives like the Franciscans because they walk
barefoot and live as poor like us, eating what we eat, settling down with us,
talking with us meekly ... With their love and charity they attract both rich and
poor .... Litigation or complaints were never found in the holy friars.

First Assignments
His first assignment was to teach music to children and adults from towns and
parishes around Manila. He was the first to organize a parish choir in the
Philippines. He did not only organize them, but taught them how to use and
make musical instruments made of bamboo. He became known for building
the liturgical life of the people where ever he was assigned. He became the
guardian of San Francisco de Manila in Intramuros. In 1586 he was made
Parish Priest of Lumban, Laguna. Becoming Custos that same year, he was
placed in charge of the Franciscans, who were spread from Bulacan to
Sorsogon.
Ministry to the Japanese in Paco, Manila
At the time, there were many Japanese living in Paco near Manila. In 1587,
Gonzalo Garcia, a mestizo Portuguese-Indian who had lived and worked for
many years in Japan and knew the language well, was received into the
Franciscan Order in Manila. This made it possible for Pedro Bautista in his
concern for the Japanese to do something for their good. With the help of
Gonzalo Garcia, he formed a special group of Japanese in Paco Parish.

Organizing Towns
San Pedro continued the Franciscans` work of gathering the Filipinos into
towns. To him are
due the first Franciscan buildings made of stone in the towns outside of
Manila. It is interesting to note too that it was in the church of Lumban that the
Franciscans first reserved the Blessed
Sacrament outside of Manila (1600).
San Francisco del Monte as a Hermitage and Novitiate
Because of his deep concern for the spiritual welfare of his friars and
influenced by the Alcantarine spirituality, Pedro Bautista saw the need for a
secluded place where the missionaries could revive their spiritual vigor by
prayer, reflection and discipline. After a long search, he selected a site which
would become San Francisco del Monte. It was opened as a house of retreat
for the missionaries and as a novitiate house in 1590.

Healer of the Sick and Defender of the Poor

San Pedro is the recognized founder of the hot springs in Los Baos, Laguna.
He determined its medical element. He also strongly defended the rights of
the indigenous peoples of Zambales. He affirmed their basic human rights and
taught the slave drivers to recognize God`s dignity in their lives. It was his firm,
moral stand that opened the people`s minds to the value of life.
 Japanese Expansionist
Plan
In the last decades of the sixteenth century, however, the Spanish presence
was seriously
threatened. In 1586 an armed encounter between a group of Japanese pirates
and colonial forces took place. The victory sided with the Spaniards, but given
the ferocity of the Japanese and the weapons they used, the Spaniards feared
the Japanese. In 1591, the Philippine authorities received a letter of Toyotomi
Hideyoshi, the shogun of Japan, also known as Taykosama with the following
threat: "Recognize my power, because if you would not come to bow to me
and prostrate before me, without doubt I will certainly send my army and I will
destroy and lay you waste."

Initial Response
The government immediately sent a party through the Dominican Father Juan
Cobo in order to try to stop the expansionist impulses of Hideyoshi. But he
died in Formosa, upon returning from his trip, without informing the authorities
of Manila. Hideyoshi wrote a second letter as threatening as the first. The
governor, aware that Manila was unprotected and indanger in case of an
invasion, decided to send a second party to try to appease the irascible and
ambitious shogun of Japan. The person chosen was Pedro Bautista.

Bound for Japan

After overcoming initial difficulties, the party was organized immediately and
on May 26, 1593 they began the journey to Japan. Pedro Bautista was
accompanied by three friars, the priest Bartolome Ruiz, the lay brother
Francisco de La Parrilla, and the lay brother Gonzalo Garcia as interpreter,
and several lay Spanish and Japanese. The delegation was divided into two
boats. The journey was much longer and more dangerous than expected.
After a series of typhoons, on July 4, 1593, after 39 days at sea, the ship of
Pedro Bautista entered the port of Hirado, a modest island northwest of
Japan. The second boat went to Amakusa.
Before Hideyoshi
The meeting between the Franciscans and Hideyoshi, for reasons of
Japanese protocol, occurred two months later, in October in Nagoya. The
early moments were very tense. Hideyoshi spoke in a threatening tone,
demanding that the rulers of Manila would give clear signs of submission.
Pedro Bautista did not lose his composure for a moment, rejected the threats
and refused to give evidence of submission. Finally Hideyoshi yielded to the
peaceful attitude of Pedro Bautista. Impressed by his humility and extreme
poverty, he promised to protect the Franciscans and even gave them a lot in
Miyako (modern Kyoto), where they could build a convent and church. Six
years earlier, in 1587, Hideyoshi had decreed the expulsion of all the Jesuits
from Japan. The church in Japan was in a lamentable state, since the
prohibition. He invited Pedro Bautista to visit him in Kyoto, home of the
emperor, and the surrounding cities, Osaka, Sakay, Fushimi, etc. Before
traveling to Kyoto, Pedro Bautista informed the Philippine authorities on the
outcome of their meeting. The document would be signed two years later.

Challenge of Evangelization
The number of Christians at that time was about 6,000, from about 400,000
inhabitants. The challenge of evangelization offered Fray Pedro and his
brothers was immense. Nevertheless, the missionaries were forced, for more
than six months, to observe a discreet silence, limiting themselves to
evangelize with their mere presence, a Franciscan method learned in their
solitary convents in Spain.

Our Lady of the Angels, first

Franciscan Church in Japan
In 1595 Pedro Bautista and his brothers got to work. Soon they began to
receive support and
financial help from the people. He had insisted that both the church and the
convent were opened on August 2, feast of the Our Lady of the Angels. But
since the construction prevented the friars to spend sufficient time to pray,
Pedro Bautista decided to postpone the opening to October 4, the feast of
Saint Francis. Before that date, the second group of missionaries arrived from
Manila.
Hospital for the Lepers
Shortly after the inauguration of the convent and church, Pedro Bautista
started to build Santa Ana Hospital especially designed to accommodate the
lepers. Sometime later, to meet the needs of the population of Kyoto, he
ordered the construction of a second hospital, which he called San Jos.

Schools
Not satisfied with this, he decided to build a school for children to counteract
the harmful influence of certain Buddhist pagodas. Not all were happy with the
uplifting of the poor Japanese. Buddhists monks and merchants became wary
of the friars` evangelizing works.

Founding of the Convents of Nagasaki and Osaka

Pedro Bautista was not discouraged by the negative reactions to their selfless
activities. In
December 1594 Pedro Bautista started to build a convent in Nagasaki which
served as the contact point with the Philippines. By March he met a very
strong opposition in certain sectors of the city. With calm partially recovered,
he returned to Kyoto in September, leaving behind some friars. In June 1596
another group of friars came. A small residence was established on Osaka
named after Our Lady of Bethlehem.
Toward Martyrdom
The wreck of a Spanish galleon in Tosa Bay was used by those against the
Franciscans. Pedro Bautista tried to save the ship`s merchandise and to help
the passengers. They gave false accusations to Hideoshi, who believed them.
On December 8, 1596 Hideyoshi ordered the house arrest of Pedro Bautista
and his friars in Japan.
Kyoto to Nagasaki
On January 3, 1597 Pedro Bautista and his friars, along with catechists and
helpers of the convent, to which Paul Miki, catechist of the Jesuits and two
other assistants joined, were taken to the public jail of Kyoto and subjected to
punishment cutting part of their left ears asa sign of shame. They were made
to march through the cities of Kyoto, Fushimi, Osaka and Sakay and, in the
Japanese winter, with tremendous snowfall, sometimes on foot, on horseback
and on boats for a long journey of about 800 miles to the place of execution on
top of the hill Nishizaka in Nagasaki. On February 5, 1597 before thousands of
people, the veracity of the prophetic words of Pedro Bautista to one of the
friars was confirmed: "Brother, when we will be martyred for the faith of our
Lord Jesus Christ, then we will be truly evangelical preachers, and a dead
martyr will do much more than many living preachers."