Domingo, OP and Mother Francisca del Espiritu Santo de Fuentes in 1696 for Spanish women only.
Francísca de Fuentes was a Spanish young widow in Manila, who devoted her time to prayer and helping the poor and sick.
The latter granted the petition, confirmed and approved that a House of the Sisters of the Third Order be established in the City of Manila, signed in the Convent of Sta.
Maria de la Minerva in Rome on January 11, 1688, with the Confirmation of the Acts of the Province of the Holy Rosary with Fr.
The next day, after hearing her confession, he asked her, whether what she told him with such determination was a revelation or a dictate of the Holy Spirit.
So the three beatas, including Mother Francisca, lived in that house as in a convent, thus laying the foundation of the Beaterio.
Among the earliest companions of Francisca was a Spanish young lady named Rosa Prieto who was a slave owner.
Years before, in his royal decree, August 9, 1589, Philip II instructed the Governor General: "it is advisable to remedy this...and I therefore commit upon your arrival at the islands, you shall set liberty all those Indians held as slaves by the Spaniards.
Apparently, both Pope Gregory XIV and King Philip II were ignored by the leaders of the Beaterio de Sta.
Sor Cecilia de la Circuncision, whose secular name was Ita y Salazar, had withdrawn to Santa Catalina to avoid marrying an elderly uncle and professed sixteen years previously.
Now entering middle age, she fell in love with, of all men, Don Francisco Figuerora, the secretary of the governor-general.
The acting governor then happened to be a Dominican friar, Bishop Juan de Arechedrra of Nueva Segovia.
Mother Cecilia turned to the vicar general of the archdiocese, sede vacante, to declare her vows null and void.
The prelate ruled in favor of the Spanish beata on the basis of the royal orders, which repeatedly forbade the beaterio to be a convent.
When the report of their infringement of royal laws reached the king of Spain, he decreed, as punishment, the extinction of the beaterio upon the death of the remaining beatas.
This gave the Dominicans ample time to move heaven and earth to have the royal order rescinded.
In the meantime, the governor trained his critical gaze at the other beaterios to ensure that they, too, would comply with the king's edicts or face the threat of extinction-at least during his incumbency.
Unfortunately, their efforts to set up religious houses in Spain to train missionary nuns was not successful because of lack of funds and vocations.
Hence, the Spanish nuns remained permanently in the beaterio occupying the principal offices since the Filipina members were mere lay Sisters.
In the last decade of the nineteenth century, however, in order to accord full membership to Filipino applicants from choice families, the beaterio extended the definition of "Spanish mestiza" to the broadest possible meaning of the word.
This was two decades after the Spanish colonizers had left and even the Royal Monastery of Santa Clara had opened the door of its cloisters to Filipina applicants.
Led by Mothers Catalina Osmena and Felomena Medalle, the Filipina beatas petitioned the highest official of the Order to grant them full membership to native aspirants who were at least high school graduates regardless of their racial background.
When the plans were officially disclosed, the surprised Filipinas, including the criollas and the mestizas, except for a few, opted not to join the Spaniards.
The Spanish Dominican priests of the Most holy Rosary allowed the Filipinas to retain their old edifice in the Walled City.
In startling contrast, however, they gave the new Spanish congregation all the other houses of the beaterio in the Philippines, China, Japan and Taiwan, numbering to seventeen.
Catlina's eye witness historian, Sor Maria Luisa Henson 1904-1995), expresses the sentiments of her sisters regarding this sad episode in their development: We, of the Beaterio de Sta.
(Davis 1990,88) The only building allotted to the Filipina Dominicans, newly remodeled and reconstructed through the generosity of Mother Catalina Osmena, was bombed to the ground by Japanese invaders.
"[This quote needs a citation] "Servant of God, Francisca del Espiritu Santo de Fuentes, intercede for us.