vice-provincial, determined, upon learning
this, to instruct them by means of signs, believing that Divine
Mercy desires that we should all be saved, and denies His grace to
no one. [13] He undertook the task, persisted, and won success, our
Lord so operating therein that the father, and the father-visitor,
and all who knew them, regarded these men as fit for baptism. Nor
were they deceived in this opinion; for the two mutes received the
sacrament, and since then the divine grace which is communicated
therein has been resplendent in them, with such tokens and effects
as Fathers Francisco de Otaco and Melchior Hurtado attest in some
of their letters concerning this matter. In that written by Father
Francisco de Otaco to Father Ramon, he says: "I will not fail to
inform your Reverence in a special letter, of the two mutes whom
your Reverence catechized, and whom I baptized on the day following
your Reverence's departure. Your Reverence was deprived of much
consolation in not being present on that occasion: for in all this
land I have not seen another person receive holy baptism with greater
demonstrations of devotion and joy, while thus setting an example for
the others who received the sacrament in their company. They could
not restrain their joy--especially the elder one, who seemed as if
his heart were bursting with gladness. But it was not only during
the baptism that these admirable tokens and results were evident,
for they were continued in the church, these new Christians attending
mass upon their bended knees, with folded hands, and their eyes fixed
upon the altar with extraordinary attention and reverence." Here
Father Francisco de Otaco ends his account. Father Melchior Hurtado,
in another letter to the father-visitor, thus writes: "The baptism of
the mutes whom the father vice-provincial catechized was performed
with all possible solemnity, and with the utmost satisfaction that
our Lord had made good in these poor men their lack of hearing and
speech. Their expressions of devotion--and especially those of the
elder, who was christened Raimundo--were extraordinary, not only
during the ceremonies at holy baptism, but when they were sprinkled
with the water. So devoted has Raimundo become that he seldom goes
from home. He diligently attends to all the requirements of devotion,
never failing to attend mass, carrying his rosary, beating his breast;
and he lacks nothing save speech. We are convinced that God supplies