Today in History, July 21, in 1587, the first batch of the Dominicans, a mendicant order of Catholic priests, arrive in the Philippines at the port in Cavite, to establish their order in the Philippines.
Context: Founded in the year 1216 in France by Dominic of Osma (St. Dominic), the Dominicans (known as the Order of Preachers, or OP) were some of the leading scholars of Europe’s Middle Ages. After the Augustinians, Franciscans, and Jesuits, they arrived in the Philippines on this day in 1587.
Although this group was not the 1st of the order to have arrived, as Domingo de Salazar, the first archbishop of Manila, & Cristóbal de Salvatierra, preceded them in 1581, the objective of this group of 15 men was to establish the order in the Philippines.
Just prior to Philippine Revolution, the Dominicans, as well as other orders acquired lands, making Spanish friars politically powerful. The Rizals, for ex., were evicted after being defeated from a case vs. the Dominican ownership of land in Calamba.
The Dominicans figured much in Philippine history. They published 1 of the earliest books in Ph—Doctrina Christiana. They founded the oldest existing university in Asia, the University of Santo Tomas. They made the Philippines a base for missionary activity in Asia. (Kristoffer Pasion | @indiohistorian)
1940
80 Years Ago Today. Quezon inaugurates golf course in Tagaytay, July 21, 1940. With him as a guest was Emilio Aguinaldo. Quezon and Aguinaldo had formally reconciled and appeared together in public on June 12, 1940, just a month before this event.
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