Pedro Chirino (1557 – 16 September 1635) was a Spanish priest and historian who served as a Jesuit missionary in the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

. He is most remembered for his work, ''Relación de las Islas Filipinas'' (1604), one of the earliest works about the Philippines and its people that was written. He was born in 1557 in the town of

Osuna Osuna () is a town and municipality in the province of Seville, southern Spain, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. , it has a population of c. 17,800. It is the location of the Andalusian Social Economy School. Among famous people associ ...

Andalusia Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a ...

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. A graduate in both civil and canon laws at Sevilla, he entered the Society of Jesus at age 23. He was soon appointed to the mission in the Philippines, arriving in the country in 1590 along with Gomez Perez Dasmariñas, the newly-appointed

governor-general of the Philippines The Governor-General of the Philippines (Spanish: ''Gobernador y Capitán General de Filipinas''; Filipino: ''Gobernador-Heneral ng Pilipinas/Kapitan Heneral ng Pilipinas''; Japanese: ) was the title of the government executive during the colon ...

. He was first assigned to

Balayan Balayan, officially the Municipality of Balayan ( tgl, Bayan ng Balayan), is a 1st class municipality in the province of Batangas, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 95,913 people. The town is rich among the natu ...

before he was appointed to be the parish priest of the town of Taytay in 1591. During his tenure as parish priest, he transferred the location of Taytay parish from its original site near

Laguna de Bay Laguna de Bay (Spanish language, Spanish for "Lagoon/Lake of Bay, Laguna, Bay"; tl, Lawa ng Bay, ), also known as Laguna Lake, is the List of lakes of the Philippines, largest lake in the Philippines. It is located southeast of Metro Manila, b ...

to a hilltop area where it has remained to this day. He also began to immerse himself in the study of the Tagalog language and was able to preach his homily in Tagalog for the first time on August 15, 1591 on the occasion of the establishment of a Jesuit mission in Antipolo. Chirino also went to missions in

Tigbauan Tigbauan, officially the Municipality of Tigbauan ( krj, Banwa kang Tigbauan; hil, Banwa sang Tigbauan; tl, Bayan ng Tigbauan), is a 2nd class municipality in the province of Iloilo, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a populati ...

from February 1593 to April 1595 and

Leyte Leyte ( ) is an island in the Visayas group of islands in the Philippines. It is eighth-largest and sixth-most populous island in the Philippines, with a total population of 2,626,970 as of 2020 census. Since the accessibility of land has be ...

in June 1595. It was in Tigbauan where Father Chirino established in 1593 what would become the first Jesuit boarding-school in the Philippines. In the course of his missionary work, Father Chirino also recorded the transition of Filipino writing from the

Baybayin (, ''pre-kudlít'': , ''virama-krus-kudlít'': , ''virama-pamudpod'': ; also formerly commonly incorrectly known as alibata) is a Philippine script. The script is an abugida belonging to the family of the Brahmic scripts. Geographically, it ...

script to the Latin alphabet. In addition, he began writing down his knowledge of Philippine history as well as his observations on the way of life of Filipinos in that period. Upon his return to Europe in 1602, he worked on the publication of these writings into a book entitled ''Relación de las Islas Filipinas''. The book was eventually published in

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in 1604. In Europe, he was able to further establish the Jesuit mission in the Philippines at both the royal and pontifical courts. Through his efforts, he was able to obtain a decree from the

Superior General of the Society of Jesus The superior general of the Society of Jesus is the leader of the Society of Jesus, the Catholic religious order also known as the Jesuits. He is generally addressed as Father General. The position sometimes carries the nickname of the Black Po ...

, elevating the Philippine mission to the status of vice-province, independent of the province of Mexico. Father Chirino returned to the Philippines in 1606 and continued writing about the Philippines; many of these writings have yet to be published. He died in Manila on 16 September 1635.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chirino, Pedro 1557 births 1635 deaths 16th-century Spanish Jesuits 17th-century Spanish Jesuits Date of birth unknown Place of birth unknown 17th-century Spanish historians Spanish Roman Catholic missionaries Authors of Spanish ethnographic accounts of the Philippines in the 16th century