BRIEF OF SIXTUS V
Erection of the custodia of the Discalced Franciscans
in the Philippines into a province
Sixtus V, Pope:
In perpetual remembrance of the affair.
While with our mental vision we regard the fruitful results, which, with the aid of God, religious persons—especially the Friars Minor of Observance[1] known as "Discalced" ["barefoot"], of the custodia of St. Gregory in the Philippine Islands of the Western Indias—are zealously gathering by their own toil, as so many workmen in the field of the Lord, busy for the glory of God and the spiritual health of peoples dwelling in those very remote regions so far away from us, we think it right—nay, even their due—that we should graciously impart the favor of our apostolic love for their comfort and increase.
In truth, our very dear son in Christ, Philip, Catholic king of the Spains—in his own name, as well as in that of our beloved sons the guardian and the other brethren of the custodia of St. Gregory in the aforesaid islands—has represented to us, that the brethren of the province of St. Joseph of the same order, estab-
- ↑ The reformed Franciscans were commonly called Observantines, from their stricter observance of the rules of their order.
