The Dominican Province of Our Lady of Rosary is one of the Provinces of the Order of Preachers. It was the first Bishop of Manila Domingo de Salazar, O.P., who contributed effectively to the foundation of the said Province. This Dominican religious was nominated by Philip II, King of All the Spains, to Pope Gregory XIII as first Bishop of the Philippines in 1578. Two years earlier Fray Domingo had
returned to Spain from Mexico. At that time, he immediately began to recruit friars for the exalted task of the Evangelization of the Philippines from volunteer religious from the Priories of the Iberian Peninsula. Of the eighteen religious who took ship with the new Bishop, leaving Spain for Mexico on July 10, 1580, six died on the passage between Spain and the New World, as victims of a pestiferous illness which infested the ship they had boarded, and others died after arrival in Mexico. Some of the survivors opted to remain in Hispañola (Santo Domingo) and others to stay in Mexico. However, Bishop Domingo de Salazar, accompanied by Cristóbal de Salvatierra, arrived at last in Manila on September 17, 1581. Before leaving Mexico on his way to the Philippines, Bishop Salazar handed over to Juan Crisóstomo the task of accomplishing what was involved in the project of founding the new Province. When Fray Crisóstomo returned to Spain in 1581, he obtained from the Council of the Indies the permission needed for taking twelve religious to the Philippines, dated March 31, 1582. A few months later, on July 14, the Master of the Order, Fray Paolo Constable de Ferrara, gave his approval for the foundation of the new Province, naming Fray Crisóstomo as its Vicar General with all the prerogatives of a Provincial. Furthermore, the Master authorized the Vicar General to take with him some forty religious of our Provinces in Spain and ten more from Mexico and Chiapas (which included what is now part of Guatemala). Shortly afterwards, on September 17, 1582, the Master of the Order passed away from earthly life. At this point Pope Gregory XIII intervened, confirming Fray Crisóstomo in office as Vicar General and giving his Apostolic Approval for the foundation of the new Province. This was proclaimed on October 20, 1582. As things turned out, Fray Crisóstomo was not able to take ship with his first band of religious as soon as he had thought to do so. Difficulties in Madrid blocked his plans. After two years waiting in the Convento of San Pablo in Seville, he finally received the ‘Royal Pass’ on August 9, 1585, giving him the needed permission to gather the Friars designated and head their mission to the Philippines, including fifteen more. The friars of the Province have reached and try to evangelize in the Philippines since 1587; in Japan from 1602 till 1637 and again since 1904; in Taiwan (Formosa) from 1626 to 1642 and since 1858; in mainland China from 1633; in Vietnam (Tonkín) from 1676 to 1955; in Venezuela from 1902 to 1905 and from 1951; in South Korea from 1989; in Singapore from 2001; in Myanmar (Burma) from 2010; in East Timor from 2013; and also in Peru, Sri Lanka (Ceylon) and other countries for short periods of time. The Order of Preachers, in Latin Ordo Praedicatorum, also known as Dominicans, is a Roman Catholic religious order founded by a Spanish priest Saint Dominic de Guzman and officially approved by the Pope Honorius III on the 22nd of December, 1216, in the papal bull Religiosam Vitam. La Provincia de Nuestra Señora del Rosario fue fundada para predicar el Evangelio en Filipinas, en China y en las demás naciones del Extremo Oriente. Los religiosos de la Provincia han evangelizado en las Islas Filipinas desde 1587; en Japón entre 1602-1637 y desde 1904; en Taiwán (Formosa) entre 1626-1642 y desde 1858; en China desde 1633 a 1955 y desde el 2004; en Tonkín, Vietnam (Indochina) desde 1676 a 1955; en Venezuela entre 1902-1905 y desde 1951; en Corea desde 1989, en Singapur desde 2001, en Birmania (Myanmar) desde 2010, en Timor Leste desde 2013; e igualmente, en Perú, Sri Lanka (Ceilán) y en otros países por cortos periodos de tiempo.
Catálogo 2016 de la Provincia
