The Dominican Order, also known as the Order of Preachers (OP), was founded by S. Dominic of Guzman and approved by Pope Honorius III on 22-12-1216.
Though it was meant to be international in character, for a more practical organization, the Order was divided into territorial units (regional or national) called Provinces, with their own territory and a certain number of religious, houses (or convents) and apostolic activities. Even if subjected to the supreme authority of the Order (the Master of the Order and the General Chapter), the Provinces governed by a Provincial (with his Council and the Provincial Chapters), enjoyed certain degree of autonomy.
As early as 1221-1228 the Dominican Order had the following Provinces: Spain, Toulouse, France, Lombardy, Roman, Hungary, Teutonia or Germany, England, Poland, Dacia or Croatia, Greece and the Holy Land. Other Provinces were added as the Order spread out to other regions or countries, or when the religious and convents in a given nation were too numerous to be properly administered by only one Province. So, in the Iberian Peninsula there were the Provinces of Castilla or Spain, Aragon and Betica, besides Portugal. In 1573 the Order counted with 28 Provinces, some of them in the New World, such as the Provinces of the Holy Cross of the Caribbean Islands, Mexico, Peru, Chiapas, Colombia and Chile.
When the Spaniards settled in the Philippines in 1565, news of the populous countries in Asia, such as China, Japan, Siam, etc. began to arrive in Mexico and Spain. Thinking of the new opportunities of spreading the Kingdom of God, the Dominicans in Mexico thought of the need of founding a new Province for the evangelization of the Kingdoms of the East. The work was entrusted to a veteran missionary, Fr. John Chrysostom who obtained the necessary permits from the Pope, the King and the Master of the Order.
The birth of a missionary Province
The projected Province, to be known as the Holy Rosary Province, became a reality when in 1587, out of a group of 40 Dominican volunteers who left Spain, 3 sailed from Mexico to Macao (China) and another 15 boarded the galleon on April 3 from Acapulco to Manila, where they arrived on July 21, 1857. They were the “Founding Fathers” of the new Dominican Province (officially admitted by the General Chapter of the Order in 1591) and the pioneers of a missionary saga which would continue uninterruptedly for four hundred years. In 1987 the fourth hundred anniversary of the Province was solemnly celebrated particularly in Manila, but also in all places where the Province is present today.
The new Province of the Holy Rosary (the feast of the Rosary in the church was established by St. Pius V in 1572, after the victory at Lepanto) presented several peculiarities: a) it would have no territorial boundaries, b) would be governed by special Statues in order to foster and facilitate its missionary work, c) the members of this Province would be volunteers coming from other Provinces in Spain, Mexico and Europe, d) they would have at least 2 hours of mental prayer everyday and would say the office at midnight. There were more than 1,500 volunteers who joined the Province up to 1835. In 1835, after the exclaustration, the Province began to train its own candidates in Ocaña and Avila. Some 400 members had been already recruited and trained in the Philippines, Japan, China and, above all, Vietnam.
In the Philippines
The missionary activity of the new Province began in earnest in the Philippines, and its apostolic activity would last for centuries in Manila (Santo Domingo Convent, the University of Santo Tomas, Letran college, the ministry among the Chinese of Binondo and the Parian), as well as in the geographical provinces of Bataan (and part of Zambales), Pangasinan, the Cagayan Valley and the Batanes and Babuyanes archipelago. At the end of the 19th century (1898), the Dominicans administered spiritually some 90 towns in the Philippines and cared for more than 504,000 souls. In 1971 a new Filipino Dominican Province was created and most of the convents, houses, schools and other institutions of the Holy Rosary Province in the Islands were handed over to the new Province.
In Japan
The missionary objectives of the new Province were not circumscribed only, or even mostly, to the Philippines, but the “vast Kingdoms of the East.” The Philippines became the stepping stone for the Dominicans to jump to the Asian Continent, even if they would not succeed at once.
In 1602 Japan began to be part of their missionary activity, a glorious ministry which would last for only 35 years, since the bloody persecution brought to an end the work of the Church in 1637 in that country. Only one of the Dominicans who died in Japan during that period died of natural causes. The rest (European and native Dominican Japanese) died martyrs. They all are today beatified or canonized. The Dominicans would return to Japan in 1904, the second Order to do so, and they still continue there with a Vicariate in the island of Shikoku and several institutions, like the famous Aiko school in Matsuyama.
In Formosa (Taiwan)
In 1626 the Dominicans began to evangelize the island of Formosa (the island today known as Taiwan), which at the time was not part of China but populated by Malay natives. The main reason was to enter China from there, as well as Japan. The missionary work in Formosa lasted for a short period and was concentrated mostly in the north of the Island, where some of the missionaries were martyred. In 1642 the Island fell to the invading Dutch forces from Batavia (Indonesia), bringing to an end all missionary activity for more than 200 years. In 1859 the island, now mostly Chinese but with a native population in the mountains (for nearly 50 years it was also under the political control of the Japanese, 1895-1945), was once again entrusted to the missionary zeal of the Dominicans of the Holy Rosary Province. They were the only missionaries in Taiwan for almost one century, until the Communist regime took over the mainland China, forcing many missionaries of different Orders took shelter in Taiwan. The Dominicans graciously handed over most of its missionary centers and moved to the south, to the area of Kaohsiung. There are three Dominican Vicariates (one of the Holy Rosary Province, another one of the German Province, and the General Vicariate of Our Lady of China) and the Dominican Family is represented there by Nuns, several Congregations of Dominican Sisters, and the Dominican Laity.
In China
In 1631, after at least seven previous attempts that ended in failure, the Holy Rosary Province succeeded in making a dream come true: entering the great China, where since then they would evangelize uninterruptedly in the Fukien area for more than three hundred years, in the tree Apostolic Vicariates eventually established by them: Amoy, Fochow and Funing. Like the rest of the missionaries, the Dominicans were expelled from China by the Communist regime in 1952-1954. They had been joined by German and American Dominicans in the early part of the 20th century, as well as by different Congregations of Dominican Sisters. The members of the Dominican Laity were many and well trained. Six of the new saints of the Chinese mission, canonized in the year 2000 were Dominicans, including the first martyr of that Mission, St. Francis Fernandez de Capillas (1648). Some of the illustrious Dominicans of China were the first Chinese bishop (the only one in more than 300 years!) Lo Wanzao (+1690) and the heroic missionary Juan Fung de Sta. Maria (+1775).
In Vietnam
In 1676, the glorious mission of Tonkin (North Vietnam) was established and, like the mission of China, would continue uninterruptedly for more than three hundred years, also with three Apostolic Vicariates established and administered by them: Oriental, Central and North. The persecutions and martyrdoms were a characteristic of this mission, which, at one time, was considered by the Church as the best in the missionary world, and was nurtured by the blood of more than 30.000 martyrs. The Dominican missionaries moved to the South with most of their Christians in the famous exodus of 1955. The native Dominican vocations were always many, and finally a native Dominican Province was created in 1967.
Several attempts were made to establish missions in Cambodia, Siam and Korea. The mission in Korea has become a reality only recently, but it is full of promise.
The missionary saga
The work of the Dominican missionaries, like that of other religious Orders at the same time and in the same area, was characterized by the generous dedication to the preaching of the Gospel, even at the cost of profuse shedding of blood. Three large groups of Dominican martyrs of the Holy Rosary Province (in Japan, China and Vietnam), have been elevated to the glory of the altars, some beatified but most of them canonized: 57 blessed and saints, not counting the 42 members of the Dominican Laity and the many members of the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary, among them the first canonized saint of the Philippines, San Lorenzo Ruiz de Manila, martyr in Japan (1637).
Many were the protagonists of this great missionary saga. We mention but a few, whose names are more familiar: Domingo Salazar, Juan Castro, Miguel de Benavides, Juan Cobo, Diego de Soria, Diego Aduarte, Luis Gandullo, Francisco Blancas de San José, Diego Collado, Alfonso Navarrete, Jordan Ansalone, Guillermo Courtet, Luis Flores, Jacinto Orfanell, Vittorio Ricci, Juan Butista Morales, Francisco F. de Capillas, Gregorio Lo, J. B. Fung, Domingo Varo, Francisco Serrano, Pedro Sans, Juan Arechederra, Francisco Gil de Federich, Vicente Liem de la Paz, Jeronimo Hermosilla, Valentin de Berrio Ochoa, Roque Carpena, Miguel Calderon, Francisco Gainza, Mariano Cuartero, Ceferino Gonzalez, Hevia Campomanes, Pedro Payo, Bernardino Nozaleda, Jose Cueto, Joaquin Fonseca, Norberto del Prado, Marin Sola, Pedro Muñagorri, Francisco Aguirre, to name but a few of those who are entitled to appear in an honor roll.
The objective of the “Founding Fathers” of the Dominican Province of the Holy Rosary was to establish not only the local church but also the Dominican Order in the countries evangelized by them. From the Holy Rosary Province have sprung up the Province of Our Lady Queen of Martyrs of Vietnam (1967), the Province of the Philippines (1971) and the Vicariate General of Our Lady Queen of China (1979).
