The Religiosity of Gómez Pérez Dasmariñas, Governor-General of the Philippines, 1590–1593

Abstract

Gómez Pérez Dasmariñas, who was Governor-General of the Philippines from 1590 until his death in 1593, was a very devoted and religious man. He was born and grew up in Galicia in northern Spain deeply influenced by St James, whose famous shrine at Santiago de Compostela was nearby. His most important mission in the Philippines was to “strive for the propagation of the holy faith among the natives.” He took this very seriously and, besides fortifying the city of Manila, he was involved in the foundation of the College of Santa Potenciana for young women, and the publication of Doctrina Christiana in Tagalog and Chinese by the Dominicans. In his will he ordered many masses to be said for his soul and asked to be buried by the high altar in the Dominican church. In a postscript, I discuss the possibility that the illustrations in the famous Boxer Codex from about 1590, which mainly concerns the peoples of the Philippine region, were influenced by the recently discovered sixteenth century University of Santo Tomas Hours. I also surmise that this Book of Hours may have belonged to one of the wives of Gómez Pérez Dasmariñas who died before he left Spain.