150. SAN LUCAS ALONSO GORDA DEL ESPIRITU SANTO DE CARRACEDO

 

SAN LUCAS ALONSO GORDA DEL ESPIRITU SANTO DE CARRACEDO

Dr. Troy Alexander G. Miano, LPT

02 March 2022

In the course of my local research on the history of Isabela two decades ago, I stumbled on the name Lucas Alonso del Espiritu Santo who served in what is now the Province of Isabela particularly in the locality of present-day Barangay Bangag in the capital City of Ilagan during the early part of the Christianization of Cagayan Valley. I decided to scribble and post in Facebook and blogspot the biography of the good Dominican missionary saint today, the 63rd birthday of Isabela’s 29th Governor, Honorable Rodolfo “Rodito” Taguinod Albano III, who we all know is a devoted Roman Catholic.

Dominican Pedro V. Salgado who authored the book “Cagayan Valley and Eastern Cordillera” mentioned Fray Lucas Alonso del Espiritu Santo as one of the first missionaries who penetrated the land of the Irrayas. In 1604, Nuestra Señora dela Asuncion de Talama was founded by the Dominicans. It was a settlement between the town centers of Tumauini and Ilagan now barangay Bangag. It was believed that after Talama disintegrated, Abbuatan was founded in 1608. On April 6, 1617, Nuestra Señora dela Asuncion de Abbuatan was officially accepted as an ecclesiastical mission by the Dominicans under the patronage of the Our Lady of the Assumption. Fray Tomas Ellilar was the first vicar with Frays Domingo Laborda and Pedro Martin Martinez as his helpers. In 1621, Fray Carlos Clemente Gant accompanied by Fray Lucas Alonso del Espiritu Santo headed the mission in Abbuatan. It is unfortunate that the missions in Abbuatan, Pilitan, Batavag and Bolo became extinct after the Irraya Revolt by the end of 1621. Abbuatan was resurrected after over two centuries in 1850 and was christened as “Bangag”.

Catholic publications and posts in the net reveals the life of the only Chirstian saint who served in Isabela province. San Lucas Alonso Gorda del Espiritu Santo de Carracedo also known as Luke Alphonse of the Holy Spirit of Carracedo (English) and Lucas Alphonsus a Spiritu Sancto Carracedensis (Latin), was born on October 18, 1594 at Carracedo, Zamora, Spain to Domingo Alonso and Leonor Gorda. He was baptized the same day and was given the name of Saint Luke the Evangelist, on whose feast day he was born.

In 1610, Lucas entered the Dominican Order at the convent or priory of Santo Domingo de Benavente in Zamora, Spain for his education and religious vocation. By June 31, he took the Dominican habit in the same convent. On June 2, 1611, he studied art and conducted his profession of faith in the aforementioned convent. After his studies in Triana in the city of León, he also attended at the famous Colegio de San Gregorio in the city of Valladolid. On April 25, 1617, he went to Seville in order to travel to the Philippines via Mexico with a group of volunteer missionaries. He survived his long and dangerous Atlantic crossing through prayers and daily singing of the salve to the Blessed Virgin. In Mexico City, he completed his studies in theology and after a few months, he was ordained as a priest at the end of 1617, adopting "Espiritu Santo" as part of his religious name.

Fray Lucas, left Acapulco, Mexico for Manila, together with the remaining 26 members of his missionary group. While on his Pacific voyage, he had ample time to evangelize the ship's crew and to recruit many of them to the Confraternity of the Rosary. In 1618, he arrived in Manila. His first assignment was to preach in the Dominican missions in Cagayan Valley in Northern Luzon. At the age of 29, he taught at the Colegio de Santo Tomas in Manila as a professor of the arts, philosophy and theology impressing everyone and the growing congregation.

In March 1623, despite the enormous danger of persecution and inspired by the “Great Martyrdom” of 1622 in Japan, Fray Lucas left Manila to go to that foreign hostile country in the company of Frays Domingo Ibañez de Erquicia de Regil (1589-1633; became a saint in 1987) and Luis Beltran de Barcelona. In June 1623, he arrived in Japan and lived in a village to learn the language of the country.

When an order was issued requiring all Spaniards to leave Japan, he ostensibly departed with Fray Domingo Ibañez and other companions and secretly returned to shore with the help of some of the Japanese Christians, beginning a ten-year period of an underground apostolate and clandestine traveling from one place to another during the night. On September 8, 1633, he was arrested in Osaka, together with Antonio de Sousa, Domingo Kakusuke de Nagasaki and Mateo Kohioye del Rosario de Arima, by the shogunal authorities, who were highly suspicious of their evangelistic work. On September 15, 1633, he underwent the regurgitated water torment with patience and fortitude.

With planks hooked to their feet and tied around their necks, Fray Lucas was taken by boat to Kobe and then to Kokura, from which a “great procession” was held, passing through the villages and cities until it reached Nagasaki. On October 18, 1633, Fray Lucas was hanged at the gibbet on his 39th birthday and suffered the torture called “tsurushi” or “horca y hoya” (gallows and hole). This inhumane act was described as being hanged upside down with head inside a pit filled with excrement and covered with boards to make it more difficult to breathe. After a few hours, he was taken out of the hole and offered great rewards and high offices if he would renounce his faith but did not yield to such offer, prompting his tormentors to subject him again to the same torture.

Fray Lucas died the following day together with Domingo Kakusuke de Nagasaki and Mateo Kohioye del Rosario de Arima, in Nishizaka Hill in Nagasaki. His body was burned and his ashes were scattered at the Nagasaki Bay. The report about his cruel death caused Pope Urban VIII to order the abandonment of all attempts to send missionaries from the Philippines to Japan.

On February 18, 1981, Pope John Paul II (1920-2005; now a saint) beatified Fray Lucas together with 15 other companion martyrs of Japan of 1633, 1634 & 1637 who belonged to various nationalities. Lorenzo Ruiz de Manila, who eventually becams the first Filipino saint, led the martyrs in the beatification at the Rizal Park in Manila. On October 18, 1987, the same pope canonized Blessed Lucas together with the same group of beatos at Saint Peter’s Square, Vatican City.

Saint Lucas Alonso Gorda del Espiritu Santo de Carracedo is venerated not only at the Cathedral of Astorga in Spain but also in the Philippines, Japan, Argentina, Bolivia and other countries with September 28 as his Feast Day (together with the 15 martyrs). The saint is also remembered every October 19, his death date, and in some places, October 18, the day he was hanged. It is interesting to note that Saint Lucas Alonso Gorda del Espiritu Santo de Carracedo holds the distinction of being born, hanged and canonized on the same date, October 18.

Isabeleños are unaware that a saint once lived among our ancestors of yesteryears. People in Barangay Bangag, the site of old Abbuatan, or even among Ilagueños and Ibanags may have little knowledge on the sacrifices of Saint Lucas and the whole Dominican community in the valley in making sure that our pagan ancestors embrace Christianity. The teachings and preaching of San Lucas and his companions may have one way or another left an imprint among the Irrayas which was passed on from generation to generation up to the Ibanags of today. It is interesting to note that a large number of Lucas families reside in present-day Bangag.

In the monumental hagiographic book entitled “Witnesses of the Faith in the Orient: The Dominican Martyrs of Japan, China & Vietnam” (2006, Second edition), the Dominicans stated that Saint Lucas Alonso Gorda del Espiritu Santo de Carracedo was one of the greatest representatives of Catholicism in the Far East. The priest uttered sublime words during his last torture hours worthy of a martyr: “It is hard to know whether patience is needed more to suffer the torment than to experience the joy that will follow.”