The Social Cancer, by José Rizal - Home

CHAPTER LXIII 304
[28] Arms should yield to the toga (military to civil power). Arms should yield to the surplice (military to
religious power),--TR.
[29] For Peninsula, i.e., Spain. The change of n to ñ was common among ignorant Filipinos.--TR.
[30] The syllables which constitute the first reading lesson in Spanish primers.--TR.
[31] A Spanish colloquial term ("cracked"), applied to a native of Spain who was considered to be mentally
unbalanced from too long residence in the islands,--TR.
[32] This celebrated Lady was first brought from Acapulco, Mexico, by Juan Niño de Tabora, when he came
to govern the Philippines in 1626. By reason of her miraculous powers of allaying the storms she was carried
back and forth in the state galleons on a number of voyages, until in 1672 she was formally installed in a
church in the hills northeast of Manila, under the care of the Augustinian Fathers. While her shrine was
building she is said to have appeared to the faithful in the top of a large breadfruit tree, which is known to the
Tagalogs as "antipolo"; hence her name. Hers is the best known and most frequented shrine in the country,
while she disputes with the Holy Child of Cebu the glory of being the wealthiest individual in the whole
archipelago.
There has always existed a pious rivalry between her and the Dominicans' Lady of the Rosary as to which is
the patron saint of the Philippines, the contest being at times complicated by counterclaims on the part of
St. Francis, although the entire question would seem to have been definitely settled by a royal decree,
published about 1650, officially conferring that honorable post upon St. Michael the Archangel (San Miguel).
A rather irreverent sketch of this celebrated queen of the skies appears in Chapter XI of Foreman's The
Philippine Islands.--TR.
[33] Santa Cruz, Paco, and Ermita are districts of Manila, outside the Walled City.--TR.
[34] John xviii. 10.
[35] A town in Laguna Province, noted for the manufacture of furniture.--TR.
[36] God grant that this prophecy may soon be fulfilled for the author of the booklet and all of us who believe
it. Amen.--Author's note.
[37] "Blessed are the poor in spirit" and "blessed are the possessors."--TR.
[38] The annual celebration of the Dominican Order held in October in honor of its patroness, the Virgin of
the Rosary, to whose intervention was ascribed the victory over a Dutch fleet in 1646, whence the name. See
Guía Oficial de Filipinas, 1885, pp. 138, 139; Montero y Vidal, Historia General de Filipinas, Vol. I, Chap.
XXIII; Blair and Robertson, The Philippine Islands, Vol. XXXV, pp. 249, 250.--TR.
[39] Members of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, whose chief business is preaching and teaching. They
entered the Philippines in 1862.--TR.
[40] "Kaysaysay: A celebrated sanctuary in the island of Luzon, province of Batangas, jurisdiction, of Taal, so
called because there is venerated in it a Virgin who bears that name ....
"The image is in the center of the high altar, where there is seen an eagle in half-relief, whose abdomen is left
open in order to afford a tabernacle for the Virgin: an idea enchanting to many of the Spaniards established in
the Philippines during the last century, but which in our opinion any sensible person will characterize as
extravagant.