t the waters they prayed for, to the
sea, Oh Child, they carried thee and put thee in the water,
so that thy love conceded the water they asked.

The better known miracles by the Holy Child took place from 1618
to 1675. Since then nothing in the Novena that is memorable is
registered. Nevertheless, the novena confirms that "the Holy Child
performs continually" miracles (p. 15), and to "him go all the citizens
of Cebu, Bohol, Leyte, Samar, and Mindanao to kiss his sacred feet and
venerate him and commend to him their necessities and misfortunes,
asking relief in their sickness, assistance in their voyages, and
protections in all the events of life" (pp. 15-16).

The certainty of finding what is sought in the novenas is assured
in reference to Saint Roque. "The exercise of this novena," it is
said (p. 3, Novena, Manila, 1910), "offers us a means of compelling
(obligar) this glorious saint to secure of God what we ask." To
be rid of epidemics--which has its origin in the corruption of
the air--we must have recourse to San Roque with fervent prayers"
(p. 3). By the side of the corpse of the saint a letter was found
which was supposed to have been written by God, which reads: "Those
afflicted with plague who implore the favor of Roque will find health"
(p. 5). The intervention of Saint Roque is exclusively in favor of
the Catholics. Who so makes his novena says the following:

"I implore thee that by the merits of this glorious Saint, thou freest
us all who assist to this cult and to all the Catholics of the Kingdom
of Spain and of these Islands of all pestilential diseases which might
take away our lives" (p. 13). Since the Catholics of the United States
are not included here, the Bureau of Health ought to remember that
such citizens together with those who are not Catholics who inhabit
the Philippines do not enjoy the anti-pestilential protection of
Saint Roque.

Superstition and Crime

In his notable study on Criminal Anthropology of the Philippines,
Dr. Sixto de los Angeles (p. 119) says:

The easy credulity fomented by the over-development of
religious fanaticism, has constituted from the beginning to
this day one of the defects unfortunately so widespread still
among the native inhabitants of the country * * *. Devoted
to their inherited traditions and customs and lacking in
adequate opportunities to acquire proper knowledge, the mass
of the people have to adh