Appendix C: Franciscan Missionary Priests in the Philippine Highlands,
Analysis and Reference to a Roster[1]
I have tried to identify all Franciscans who served in the highland missions or who spent considerable time there, including those who served in Baler, Lupi, and Palanan. Having done that I then calculated length of life as well as length of service after arrival in the Philippines. Moreover, I looked to see whether there was a clear pattern of placing priests new to the Philippines in highland mission service as the first Philippine assignment or whether a significant number of Franciscans served in administrative or pueblo postings before serving in the highlands.
The purpose of comparing these figures was to see if there was a significant disparity between lengths of life and service between those who served in the mission areas and all Franciscans serving in the Islands and other parts of Asia. If those serving in the highlands died younger on average than those assigned other work away from the missions, then one might tentatively suggest that the highlands were less healthy than lowland service. This would be broad-brush work of course, more detailed analysis with attention to length of service and so forth would have to be done.
Except for smallpox, Spanish Franciscans might have been more susceptible to tropical disease than Filipinos since the former would be entering a new ecological and epidemiological zone whereas Filipinos would have grown up and been subject to the diseases and such all their lives. (Still, Filipino lowlanders entering the highlands might be at greater epidemiological risk, and vice versa, than those who stayed in either the lowlands or highlands. Smallpox epidemics, though, might have affected both highlander and lowlander Filipinos, while Spaniards might have been more likely to have been exposed to smallpox as children and subsequently immune) For the Spanish Franciscans, though, a 1754 Franciscan made the sensible observation that many young Franciscans “recently transplanted from Europe to such a different climate” died.[2]
I also looked at what sorts of diseases Franciscans died of, especially ones that might be more unique to highland service. Again, if I could identify any, then Filipinos too might have found them disproportionately deadly, affecting their general well-being and of course length of life. Most deaths among the Franciscans were, so to speak, generic: drowning and other misadventures (warfare, murder, taken by an alligator, killed by fireworks); fever (one of the two identified with fatal fevers had served in the missions around Mount Isaroc);[3] cancer, tumors, cholera, insanity, leprosy, paralysis, and accidental electrocution. Except for fevers, nothing is particularly specific to highland life, merely the possible reasons for inevitable death that anyone at this time might have been exposed to, wherever they lived in the Islands.
In previous work on the Spanish Franciscans in the Philippine colony and elsewhere in Asia, I was able to compile figures from 1579 to 1898 for the average length of life and the average years lived after first arriving in the Philippines, two figures for each because of problems with data collection at the end of Spanish rule:[4]
All Franciscans in the Philippine Province and other Asian Postings, 1579-1898:
Average Length of Life Average Years Lived after 1st Arrival in the Islands
51.91 or 52.12 22.78 or 22.09
I then worked with the roster data presented below and computed answers to the same questions:
Highland Franciscan Missionary Priests
Average Length of Life[5] Average Years Lived after 1st Arrival in the Islands[6]
53.79 26.55
The results are surprising—I expected shorter lives and careers for those with highland missionary experience, but the data do not support this.
[1] Baler, Palanan, and Lupi are included because of their close ties to surrounding missions.
[2] AFIO 7/38. Informe al Rey sobre el descubrimiento de las nuevas Misiones de Amelen en los montes de Baler. July 1754 [no date given]. This report is written by the Provincial who says in the year he has been in office 16 Franciscans had died, most of them younger priests.
[3] Taken from Bruce Cruikshank, Spanish Franciscans in the Colonial Philippines, 1578-1898. Catalogs and Analysis for a History of Filipinos in Franciscan Parishes. (Hastings, NE: Cornhusker Press, 2003. 5v), volume 2, Appendix Eleven, 279-283.
[4] Spanish Franciscans, volume 2, Appendix Eight, 186-214; here, 208.
[5] Length of life calculation based on data from 253 of the 364 Franciscan missionary priests listed.
[6] Life span after arrival in the Islands based on data from 283 of the 364 Franciscan missionary priests listed.
[7] Of course not all priests in the missions assigned to the Franciscans were members of that organization. Diocesan priests also served in these missions. R. T. Jose [Regalado Trota Jose, comp., Curas de Almas. A Preliminary Listing of Parishes and Parish Priests in the 19th Century Philippines Based on the Guias de Forasteros, 1834-1898. Manila: UST Publishing House, 2008. 4v.] tells us that Secular priests served in the following missions: Carranglan, 1853-1860, v. 3, 148
Pantabangan, 1854-1860, v. 3, p. 151
Daraetan [“Santa Maria Caboan”], 1855-1864, 1890, v. 3, pp. 24-25
Baler (pueblo of course), 1853-1863, v. 3, p. 203
Casiguran, 1839-1840, 1850-1864, v. 3, p. 203
San José de Casignan, 1857-1860, 1862-1864, v. 3, p. 204
Palanan (pueblo of course), 1839-1862, v. 2, p. 298
Goa, 1839-1842, 1852-1862, v. 2, p. 155
Lupi (pueblo of course), 1839-1845, 1849-1864, 1885-1886, 1898, v. 2, p. 157
Manguirin, 1839-1864 and 1895-1898, v. 2, p. 158
Pili, 1839-1864, v. 2, p. 162
Ragay, 1839-1845, 1852-1879, 1885-1886, 1890, v. 2, p. 163
Sagñay [sic], 1839-1847, 1849, 1854-1862, v. 2, p. 164
Siroma [sic], 1884-1885, 1891-1898, v. 2, p. 166
Tigaon, 1839-1847, 1850-1862, v. 2, p. 166
Tinambac, 1839-1875, v. 2, p. 167