Francisco Ignacio (de) AlcinaSJ (also Alzina, Alçina) (February 2, 1610 – July 30, 1674) was a Spanish historian and a Jesuit missionary in the Philippines. He served as parish priest in the Visayan islands for 37 years. Most of those years were spent among the natives whom he used to call "my beloved Bisayans."
Francisco Ignacio Alzina was born on February 2, 1610, in Gandía, Valencia, Spain.[1]: I:XVI:61, III:I:211 He was one of the eight boys; six of his brothers died at an early age. At the age of 14, Alzina entered the Jesuit Province of Aragon and he was only 22 years old, a cleric in theological studies, when he was chosen for Philippine Missions.[1]: 354
Missionary life
Arrival in the Philippines
In 1631, together with other Jesuit missionaries, he left Zaragoza and travelled to Mexico. Later that same year he left Acapulco and had first sight of the Philippine islands on May 15, 1632.[2]: 44–56 Alcina arrived in Manila on May 26 and stayed two and a half years where he completed his studies and until his ordination. Alcina was ordained by Augustinian Bishop D. Fe. Pedro de Arce, who had been a catechist and pastor in the Bisayan Islands for a long time.
Bisayan missions
After his ordination, he was first assigned in Borongan, Samar or Ibabao (Ybabao), as that eastern coast was called in olden times.
Alcina spent most of his time documenting the general information of the Visayas and its people, including language, arts, science and their ancient traditions.
Alcina documented East Visayan literature including the poetic forms such as the candu, haya, ambahan, canogon, bical, balac, siday and awit. He also described the susumaton and posong, early forms of narratives.
Alcina, Fr Francisco Ignacio (1668). Historia natural del sitio, fertilidad y calidad de las Islas e Indios de Bisayas [Alcina's History of the Bisayan Islands] (in Spanish).
Part I = The location, the fertility and the nature of the Visayas and its inhabitants.
Blair, Emma Helen & Robertson, James Alexander, eds. (1905). The Philippine Islands, 1493–1898. Vol. 36 of 55 (1649–1666). Historical introduction and additional notes by Edward Gaylord Bourne; additional translations by Henry B. Lathrop. Cleveland, Ohio: Arthur H. Clark Company. ISBN978-1103146949. OCLC769944919. Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century.
Blair, Emma Helen & Robertson, James Alexander, eds. (1907). The Philippine Islands, 1493–1898. Vol. 44 of 55 (1700–1736). Historical introduction and additional notes by Edward Gaylord Bourne. Cleveland, Ohio: Arthur H. Clark Company. OCLC769945246. Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century.
Blair, Emma Helen & Robertson, James Alexander, eds. (1908). The Philippine Islands, 1493–1898. Vol. 53 of 55 (Bibliography). Historical introduction and additional notes by Edward Gaylord Bourne. Cleveland, Ohio: Arthur H. Clark Company. OCLC769944927. Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century.
