Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 04).djvu/140

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GRANT OF A PLENARY INDULGENCE
TO ALL THE FAITHFUL WHO
VISIT CHURCHES OF THE
FRIARS MINORS

To all the faithful of Christ who view these present letters, health and apostolic blessing:

With solicitude, as is the duty of our pastoral office, for the health of the Lord's flock entrusted by divine arrangement to our unworthy care, we willingly invite the faithful of that flock, all and singular, to visit churches and perform pious and meritorious works, in order that with the aid of divine grace, through spiritual largesses, indulgences (namely), and the pardoning of sins, they may the more easily reach the joys of everlasting happiness. For in the Indias, China, and the Philippine Islands, we desire that the churches already founded, or to be founded within the next ten years, and each one thereof belonging to the monasteries or houses of the discalced brethren known as the Order of Minors of St. Francis[1] of Observance be held in due veneration by the faithful of Christ themselves—that, frequenting them with befitting reverence, and flocking thither to those

  1. The order of Friars Minors (Fratres Minores), better known as Franciscans, was founded (1208) by St. Francis of Assisi.