ADMINISTRATION OF THE ROYAL HOSPITAL AT MANILA
Sire:
I have desired that the royal hospital of this city should be served and administered with more charity, better order, and a more perfect system than hitherto; for I am told and I know how much the poor thereof suffer, and of how much importance for the correction of this and of many other evils is their good comfort, assistance, and healing, spiritual and temporal―all which the hospital has in charge; and how essential it is that it should be administered by persons who are servants of God, self-denying and free from self-interest, charitable and zealous for His service and for the good of their neighbors. Hence I desire that the Order of St. Francis, because it seems to me suitable on account of its self-denial, barefootedness, and freedom from self-interest, may unite with the Confraternity of La Misericordia[1] in the charge of the hospital. I suggest that they place
- ↑ This confraternity was founded (1594) at Manila by a priest named Juan Fernandez de León, who came to the islands in 1591. The association was planned in imitation of that at Lisboa, and included prominent members of all the orders, as well as secular persons. Its first presiding officer was Luis Pérez Dasmariñas. In conjunction with the Franciscans, the Confraternity of La Misericordia ("mercy") administered the hospital for many years. See Santa Inés's Crónica, ii, pp. 200-215.
