le pia,
Benedicat Virgo Maria, Per omnia secula seculorum, Kyrie eleyson,
Christe eleyson, came under the category of enchantments (ensalmos)
known by the terms bolong and mantala of the primitive mangkukulam,
manghihikup, mananangisama, etc. etc., of Philippine paganism. All
of these Latin phrases acquired so great a prestige that they were
looked upon as a form of irresistible invocation for conquering the
divine will, and a certain ridiculous sect came to be known as the
Colorum, which term originated from the wrong pronunciation of secula
seculorum with which many Latin prayers ended, prayers which were
incomprehensible but used due to the ignorance of many.

The phrase agnus dei qui tolis pecata mundi is used as an incantation
in which every word more or less incomprehensible has a sacred
character so that if one should say that he despises qui tolis, it
would be considered a blasphemy because the Qui Tolis is something
sacred or divine. A child after saying the trisagio said by way of
protest: "I am tired of saying kirileson (Kyrie eleyson)." His mother
then punished him for playing with the name of God. Another child who
happened to name a dog Qui Tolis was corrected by his aunt, saying:
"The name of God is never used for naming an animal."

Magic Invocations

All this constitutes a real array of magic invocation in the efficacy
of which there is great confidence to avoid evil, ridding of danger,
securing more good, and attaining some grace. As an example of the
power of the invocations and what can be obtained by merely saying
frequently "Jesus, Maria, y Jose" (Jesus, Mary, and Joseph), which
constitutes the most "divine trinity on earth," the following cases
are related: (Novena a Jesus, Maria y Jose, Manila, 1903).

A bad man walking in the middle of the night in front of the church of
San Francisco in Cuzco, Peru, saw lights in the cemetery, and knowing
it to be a funeral, went to the place to witness it. Presently he
noted that there was a throne where Jesus Christ was found seated
between Mary and Joseph. Then several demons appeared, each one with a
book in his hand. One of them began accusing a bad woman from Buenos
Aires. "Jesus," says the Novena, "pronounced a sentence against her
of instant death and with it eternal perdition" (p. 7). The demon
disappeared in order to execute the sentence. Another devil read from
his book that in Chile there was another bad woman. "Jesus sentenced
her to death