Founding of the Augustinian Province-First Provincial in the Philippines
The book "A Brief Survey of what was and what is the Diocese of Cebu in the Philippine Islands" written by Fr. Felipe Sendino Redondo translated into English by Azucena L. Pace provides among many others how such province was founded:
"According to Fr. Gaspar, with our Religious priests settled, Fr. Diego de Herrera could now embark and continue his journey to New Spain to report to the priest of the Province in Mexico as they had agreed beforehand, and that only then could he leave for New Spain to bring back sufficient number of people to "preserve and increase the grain fields" who were enlightened enough to realize the sumptuous spiritual structure that was begun in these Islands; that since their arrival in the Islands, however, they have been governed by the decrees of the Province of Castille, issued by the Chapter meeting celebrated in our convent of Duenas on May 8, 1565. Aware of how much better it would be to extend the new Christendom, based on the Papal Brief of Pope Adrian VI, dated March 10, 1522, creating the Province of Mexico in 1537 which used to be the subject to that of Castille, by establishing in the Philippines a new Province separate from that of Mexico. This proposal had already been presented to the Father General of the Religious Order and to the Provincial of Castille. Thus congregated, they chose as their first Provincial Fr. Diego de Herrera, who left Cebu on July 10 in the nao go to New Spain. In this Chapter, the Prior elected for the convent of Cebu was Fr. Martin de Rada; it was also decided that the two Religious priests who had come in the nao would be assigned to different places. In implementing the decision, Fr. Alonso Jimenez, in the company of Capitan Andres de Ibarra, went to the island of Masbate to preach the holy Gospel, and to the province of Camarines where he began in the town of Ibalon, Fr. Juan de Avila went to the Araut River, on the shores of Panay Island, in the company of Capitan Luis de Haya, and settled in the town of Dumangas."
Fr. Redondo wrote the book in 1887 and was translated by Azucena L. Pace in 2014 courtesy of the University of San Carlos Press. The translator, Ms. Pace worked with the Philippine Embassy in Madrid for 28 years. She is based in Barili, Cebu and is one of the founders and incorporators of the Barili Historical Society, Inc. and chairs the Santa Ana Shrine Heritage Committee. She also owns the Barili Folk and Heritage Museum, which she established in 1998. She was awarded by then Cebu Governor and now Congresswoman Gwendolyn Fiel Garcia as the "Cebuana Trailblazer Award" in 2011.
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