10

It is not exactly an easy path to go, with its many, many steps to ascend
and to descend. Then, finally you come before the venerable rock with
its many inscriptions and symbols.Resting and meditating for a while
about the man who has been pierced here for his belief,you get new
strength to continue till finally you reach the top of the hill. Without
damaging the original natural beauty, the people of Kali,guided by its
enthusiastic parishpriest ,built here a resting-place and erected a very big
cross. With a little bit of imagination you could dream to stay on top of
the famous Pao d'Assucar ("Roti manis") with the statue of Christ on top, AN UNKNOWN HERO
in the majestic bay of Botafogo near Rio de Janeiro.
This whole project at the Pinantik hill has been officially opened WHO DIED IN KALI, NORTH CELEBES
on August 14th 1994, exactly 450 years after Lorenzo Garralda died as
a heroic martyr in this place. The bishop of the diocese of Manado, Mgr.
J. Suwatan msc, blessed a monument in honour of Lorenzo Garralda . LORENZO GARRALDA O.F.M.
Thousands of people from the whole diocese assisted at this liturgical
ceremony. Also from Tomohon, the place where 450 years ago the revolt 14 / 15 AUGUST 1644
against the Spaniards started, hundreds of Christians paid homage to this
saint priest who had been tragically murdered by their own ancestors.
And so the village of Kali got for the third time in its most recent history by
certain fame. First it became famous for its very beautiful cataracts.
These falls were known for a long time but only very few people dared to Dr.J.van Paassen msc
have a look at them. Now they are made accessible. also for less athletic
people. A second big attraction of Kali are its famous dancers who are
able to attract twice a week many spectators as far as from Singapore.
And last but not least its fame as place of pilgrimage in honor of a hero
who came from the Philippines but died as a saint parishpriest of Kali.
Maybe for many people this will be the main attraction of age-old Kali.

Wisma Lorenzo Lotta Dr.J.van Paassen msc

28 April 1996 Wisma Lorenzo Lotta
28 April 1996

A picture of Lorenzo Garralda OFM
according to the pious imagination of Mr. Rony M. Lengkong
Manado 1993
The original painting can be seen in the chapel of Wisma Lorenzo,
Jalan Imam Bonjol No. 20, Lotta-Pineleng II
28 April 1996
9
place of pilgrimage. The Protestant owner of this place never forbade Ca-
tholic people to pray in his garden but it is understandable that he never
started an action for promoting a Catholic pilgrimage to his well-kept
garden.
Maybe the first group of organized pilgrims came from Wisma
Lorenzo, Lotta in the year of 1990. In this catechetical centre of the
diocese of Manado, Christian lay-people were used to follow an
upgrading course. At a certain morning during this week, they went on
pilgrimage to this historical place, praying for strength and fidelity in
their vocation of modern apostles.Later on the Catholic inhabitants of
Lotta made their own organized pilgrimage, singing dan praying from
the start of this pilgrimage in Wisma Lorenzo till they arrived at the very
narrow place before the big rock on the Pinantik hill. Here the pilgrimage
was completed with a sermon and the Eucharistic Sacrifice.
In Nov.1990 the visit of resident J.O. Bolang to this place was an
important step in the promotion of pilgrimage to this place. that formerly
was very difficult to reach. It even was a bit dangerous. For the first time
in history, the local authorities of Kali and also of the district Pineleng
had been involved in building a more passable path, with an iron foot-
bridge.
In 1993 I contacted a local painter, Rony M.Lengkong, to make
a picture of Lorenzo Garralda, giving him some details about his back-
ground, his age and the way he was pierced and murdered. Also could I
show him a Franciscan monk's frock. .
In the same year the diocese of Manado commemorated the
restauration of the Catholic Church in North and Central Celebes since
1868 . Much attention was given also to its first implantation since 1538
till its ruination in 1677 as mentioned before.
In honour of Lorenzo Garralda mr. Ubaldus Koten, a catechist,
wrote a play about this hero,.that has been shown with great succes in
most villages of Minahasa. Local players in a diocese-wide competition
before a diocesan Jury, tried to get the trophy for the best actors in this
drama that attracted also many non-Catholic spectators.
In the meanwhile Father Cardo Renwarin, a former parishpriest
of Kali, could buy some strategic plots of ground near the venerable rock
of Lorenzo. and also the top of the hill. Nearly for a year the people of
Kali, helped also by many Catholic students from Irian Jaya, built a really
beautiful route with 14 rest-homes that can be used also for prayer and
meditation in tropical and majestic surroundings.
8
how people in the seventeenth century could move such a big rock. But
till now no official instance ever made a thorough investigation around
this rock..
Unfortunately the same is true for the inscriptions.Till now no-
body can exactly decipher all that has been engraved in this stone. With
some (Catholic?) imagination you could see a cross, a chalice, the Eu-
charistic Bread, a fish, a proa,etc. All these signs are Catholic symbols,
but I cannot exclude the possibility that the same signs are also used in
the local old culture. I have to add to this mysterious character of these
inscriptions that nobody knows who engraved them ,and when and why?
Nevertheless, everybody in this region is deadly sure about this one fact,
namely that these inscriptions are an indication that at a close distance
from this rock the bones of Lorenzo Garralda have been buried.
Another mystery about this place has been solved by the same
Sister Magdalena Lumi JMJ. Going around there, local people will show
you two big stones, both with inscriptions. And just like every visitor, the
late resident / bupati of Minahasa, J.O. Bolang, paying a visit to this place
liked to know which of the two stones indicated the right place.
Putting this question forward to Sister Magdalena, she answered that
when she was still a child, a very heavy earthquake clove this big rock
and that a part tumbled down. Asking her which part of the big rock
indicated the original place of the remains of Fray Lorenzo, she answered
by asking me with a glimpse of humour in her eyes , if I had ever seen a
rock tumbling uphill?.
It seems that for many decades of our century there was only a
local custom of individual prayers at this place. Maybe this custom
started not long after the first Catholics in Lotta have been baptized on
11-1-1876 and then became more conscious of the importance of a place
that for centuries had been known to the inhabitants of Kali and Lotta as
the place where a Catholic priest had been murdered.
These individual prayers did not attract any attention from the part of
ecclesiastical authorities. There was not even an annual celebration by
the Catholic parish of Kali.on the 14th or 15th of August in honour of
their saint parishpriest who gave his life centuries ago. Even Franciscans
working now in Indonesia, often told me they had never heard about this
Lorenzo Garralda OFM.
When I arrived in this area at the beginning of 1964, I sometimes
heard from some seminarians of the Major Seminary of Pineleng that
they had visited this hidden place, but at that time it was by no means a
AN UNKNOWN HERO
WHO DIED IN KALI, NORTH CELEBES
LORENZO GARRALDA O.F.M.
14 / 15 AUGUST 1644
by
Dr.J.van Paassen msc
In this short biography I can only mention some historical facts that I
could gather in Minahasa, but probably outside this part of North Cele-
bes or Sulawesi Utara there are more data still hidden.I am pretty sure
that the archives of the Franciscan Fathers in Manila could give us more
information about this heroic missionary, but till now I had not yet the
opportunity to make use of these sources.
My main source is a report written by his colleague Juan Iranzo,
who lived together with Lorenzo Garralda in Minahasa between 1641-
1644; within a year after the heroic death of Lorenzo, 14/15 August 1644,
he wrote a letter to his superior in Manila on the 4th of August 1645.
In this letter Juan Iranzo describes the general situation of the Catholic
Church in North Celebes and gives a rather detailed report of the life and
death of Lorenzo Garralda, a member of the Far-East Region of the Fran-
ciscans with their main office in Manila.
This letter has been written in Spanish but three centuries later it
has been translated in the Dutch language by B.J.J. Visser msc, Onder de
Compangnie 1606-1800. Uitgave G.Kolff & Co, Batavia 1934, page 65-
70. This Dutch translation has been re-translated by a team of 3 mem-
bers, H.B.Palar from Tomohon, S. Ponomban and J.van Paassen both
from Pineleng, Lotta.
Two other sources about Lorenzo Garralda but dependent on the letter of
Iranzo, are
*A.Meersmans OFM, The Franciscans in the Indonesian Archipelago
1300-1775, Nauwelaerts-Louvain 1967, especially Chapter 7: The
 Mission of the Franciscans on Sangihe Island and their Return to
Manado 1640-1666, page 100-103.
*Ludolf Bulkmans CMM,De Katolieke Missie in het huidige bisdom Ma-
nado en de Noord-Molukken in de 16e en 17e eeuw. Manado 1976.
2 7
These three sources can be found in the Library of the Major Seminary
of Pineleng and also in Wisma Lorenzo, Jl Imam Bondjol no.20, Lotta ,
Pineleng II.
Some excerpts about Lorenzo Garralda from these sources.
Not much is known about his background. He was born in Navarra, a city
in the Northern part of Spain, probably between 1600-1610. His parents
were Miguel de Garralda and Maria de Nagore. As a young man he
embarked for the Far East, probably by rounding South America and
reaching the Philippines by crossing the Pacific Ocean. This was a rather
common route for his compatriots, the Spaniards who often did not like
to encounter the Portuguese fleet, ruling the waves of the Indian Ocean.
I do not know the motivation for young Lorenzo to leave his homeland
that he never would see again. Neither do I know in what function he
embarked: as a sailor, as a soldier or as a merchant. Anyhow when he
finally arrived in Manila he felt a call to become a member of the
Franciscan Order and he entered the Noviciate or House of Religious
Initation on the 4th of February 1632.
After one year of intense religious formation, he intensified his links
with the Franciscan Family by his religious vows on the 4th of
February 1633. After becoming a Franciscan, he probably continued his
further studies in order to become a priest.At that time, not long after the
Tridentine Council, there certainly was not yet an official Major
Seminary in Manila. Anyhow he stayed in Manila and it is not before
1641 that we hear again about our future hero. In that year he was sent to
the Franciscan mission in the Moluccan area with Ternate as its center.
At that period there was not yet a borderline between Indonesia
and the Philippines. At best there was a certain maritime superiority
either of Dutch or of Spanish ships sailing these seas in the Far East.
More complicated was the ecclesiastical division of this region.
According to papal decrees, the territories around Celebes belonged to
the Portuguese and hence to the Jesuits who had their home-base in Goa,
India and later on in Malacca, a famous harbour in Malaysia, midway
Goa and Ternate.. Moreover it was forbidden under pain of grave papal
censures to travel to those areas except via India.
But in 1606 the Moluccas and other islands were conquered by the
Spaniards who had their main base not in India like the Portuguese but in
the Philippines, Manila. In the beginning most of the missionaries in this
region were members of the Franciscan Order.
number of years. In 1677 Carlos Tuscotti preached the Gospel in that
area. In the same year, however, the Dutch and Ternatese invaded the
country and were able to lay their hands on him.
Later the Dutch also seized Siau and forced the Jesuits to leave;
otherwise they might have served the Minahasa Mission perhaps in
disguise. In Kaidipan, Manado and elsewhere the Reformed Religion was
introduced and the Catholic Religion forbidden.
Of the work of the Catholic missionaries of long ago only a few me-
mories have survived. These have been preserved in a number of legends,
which up to the present are repeated among these people.
And according to one of these old stories, the bones of Lorenzo
Garralda have never been removed from Kali. Till today there is a place
in the neighbourhood of Kali that is known as "Kubur padre Lorenzo" on
the hill Pinantik.
For centuries not much attention has been paid to this rather unknown
martyr. One reason of this silence is the fact that the newly introduced
Protestant Religion had not much to gain by paying special attention to
the remains of this Catholic priest who had been an inhabitant of Kali in
his own presbytery for a couple of years. Another reason is that for a
very long period the village of Kali has been abandoned by its in-
habitants who moved en masse to a new place named Lotta at a distance
of 3 miles from Kali.
This new place became an important centre of the interior part of
Minahasa and in 1825 Lotta became the capital of a rather extended
district, including Kembes and Tomohon. It is only in 1830 that Pandey
Wongkar went back to the original place and built his house in Kali. In
the begining of the twentieth century, after a heavy epidemic of malaria,
many people left Lotta and founded the new village Pineleng or went
back to their old places in Kali.
New attention for this local hero
According to an oral testimony of Suster Magdalena Lumi JMJ, born in
1909 in this area, she went as a child sometimes with her father to pray
on the hill of Pinantik. There a very big stone with inscriptions indicated
the place where the body of a saint priest, Lorenzo Garralda had been
buried centuries ago..It is not a real tomb and nobody knows exactly if
the bones of Lorenzo are under this big stone or in its neighbourhood.
This second possibility seems more probable, because I cannot imagine
6
After this report about the heroic death of Lorenzo Garralda , Juan Iranzo
goes on to tell us about his own vicissitudes. With the help of some faith-
ful Christians, Iranzo and a number of Spaniards escaped to a small forti-
fication where he remained hidden for eight months. Since he and his
companions were suffering great want and conditions had altered so radi-
cally, he decided to return to Ternate where they had heard of the upri-
sing and reckoned him among the dead.
Before leaving the shores of Minahasa he tried to get back the blessed
corpse and some pious pictures that had belonged to Fray Lorenzo. His
Christian friends told him what they themselves had heard from his ene-
mies, saying that two men had desecrated and torn to pieces a picture of
our Lord Jesus and also a picture of the Holy Virgin Mary. Next morning
they were found dead all of a sudden, without any natural cause. This
incident according to the pagan Alifores themselves, was the retaliation
of the Christian God who had murdered the murderers of Lorenzo
Garralda and of other Christians. But his efforts to get back the corpse of
Lorenzo were in vain Nobody dared to go to the mountains or to Kali,
dreading their pagan enemies.
Finally in the mid of 1645 Fray Iranzo arrived in Ternate, nearly a year
after Lorenzo Garralda had been murdered. Again he tried to get back the
holy remains of Lorenzo and he contacted a Spanish skipper .This brave
man promised solemnly to bring back the bones of Lorenzo Garralda.
Then Iranzo put an end to his report about Fray Lorenzo, saying in a last
sentence: "I am sure that skipper will fulfil his promise".
Nevertheless, we never hear anything again about this promise or its ful-
filment. First because the political situation in this area made it nearly im-
possible for Spanish people to make an expedition to Manado,not to men-
tion Kali. The opposition and the revolt against the Spaniards continued.
Around the year 1655 the people called in the Dutch who most willingly
hastened to their aid and built a fort in Manado. Five years later Simon
Cos expelled the Spaniards from the north-west corner of Minahasa, the
region of Manado where they had been able to maintain themselves and
pursued them as far as Amurang.
With the arrival of the Dutch, the total eclipse of the mission was
imminent. When Francisco de Miedes S.J. from Siau paid a visit to Ma-
nado, he was told not to appear there without written permission from the
Dutch. A small Spanish garrison was able to hold out in Kaidipan for a
3
But ecclesiastically, these regions continued to depend on the Portuguese
Padroado Diocese of Malacca, where the Jesuits had their base.This
complicated situation explains some tensions mentioned in the report of
Juan Iranzo, he himself a Franciscan priest, with some Jesuit missionaries
in the same region. Although serving the same Church , the Spanish
Franciscans with their own bishop in Manila and the mainly Portugese
Jesuits with their hierarchy in Goa and Malacca did not always live and
work in the spirit of Christian confraternity.
Anyhow, in 1641 Lorenzo Garralda finally got permission to
travel from Manila to Ternate. There he met with thirteen or fourteen
Minahasa chiefs who during a year had been instructed and had observed
at close quarters Christian life and customs. After they were solemnly
baptized at St. Anthony's Church, they returned to Manado. Twelve
soldiers accompanied them and also Lorenzo Garralda.This young priest
had been appointed to replace the sick Laybrother Francisco de Alcala,
companion of Juan Iranzo, already working in the Minahasa region.
Fray Juan Iranzo kept the new missionary a full year at his side to give
him ample opportunity to learn the language of the Alifores, probably
"bahasa (language) Tombulu". Together they would venture into the
villages inside the quadrangle Kema - Tondano -Amurang -Manado,
where they would say Mass and instruct the people. Fray Lorenzo was
most zealous and ever ready to sacrifice himself. No wonderr the Alifores
felt attracted to him.. On one missionary expedition into the interior they
baptized 740 persons, all belonging to the more important caste. Two
thirds of them were received by Fray Lorenzo, as the Baptism-registers
show. At the insistence of the heads of Kali, especially King Bungkar
(actually named "Wongkar") Fray Juan Iranzo appointed Lorenzo to that
village. There with the help of the people he built a church.
Besides this one large group of 740 persons, they baptized
others as well. The Franciscan chronologer Huerta writes that Fray Juan
Iranzo made more than 4000 converts, but this figure seems to be a bit
on the high side. In a report of 1656, ten years later, a Jesuit writes that
formerly there were 4000 Christians in Minahasa. In this number we
must include not only the Christians formed by the Franciscans but also
those baptized by the Jesuits. In another Jesuit report, written at the
time of Lorenzo Garralda , in 1644, we read that there were 500 Chris-
tians in Manado, obviously belonging to their own Jesuit mission in the
region of Manado.
4 our enemies already had blocked the ways in order to arrest and murder
The two Franciscan missionaries experienced many difficulties.In
Minahasa. There were a number of mestizoes or halfbreed who fre-
quently insulted and abused the people. Fray Juan and Fray Lorenzo de-
fended the people and thus they came into conflict with these mestizoes.
One of them had good relations with a Jesuit Father and he manipulated
this Jesuit who transmitted his false reports to the Governor in
Ternate .The Franciscans were accused of helping the people in their
resistance to the Spanish Governor, who tried to imprison the Franciscan
missionaries. In the end the Governor realized the true state of affairs and
relented. But the two Franciscan Friars were obliged to continue
opposing these mes-tizoes on account of their exploitation of the
people.In the meanwhile the native people of Minahasa became more
and more angry with the Spa-niards controlling this area through these
mestizoes . The Spanish soldiers
too oppresssed the population and instances of immorality occurred.
Frequently on these accounts the people attacked them. Thus on 21 April
1644, the Dutch Governor of the Moluccas, reports that towards the end
of 1643 or in the beginning of 1644, 40 Spaniards and native soldiers
were killed by the inhabitants of the Minahasa region
In the end it was such behaviour which caused the total ruination
of the mission. And caused also the death of Lorenzo Garralda.
In 1644 a Spanish soldier attacked and wounded the chief of
Tomohon. Thereupon his relatives took up arms to avenge the insult.
Fray Juan Iranzo who was residing in Tomohon at the time, was able to
re-establish peace between the parties, but it was not enduring.. When
new incidents occurred, the people of the whole region decided to
exterminate the Spaniards. In the beginning the missionaries were to be
spared, but at the instigation of the pagan priests (walian-walian) they too
were to be included in the generral massacre. On 10 August 1644 more
than 10.000 Alifores rose up against the Spaniards. Nineteen persons
were slaughtered and twenty-two taken prisioner. A few days later also
Lorenzo Garralda was murdered during this spontaneous rebellion. Fray
Juan Iranzo gives a rather detailed report on these last days of Spanish
hegemony in Minahasa and on the heroic grandeur of Lorenzo Garralda.
I translate as literally as possible:
"Fray Lorenzo Garralda had been informed by two chiefs about this
treason and rebellion. At midnight Lorenzo warned me and proposed to
take shelter at the shore. But our friends had not given detailed informa-
tion about the exact time of this rebellion; neither had they told us that
5
us. Twice I sent Fray Lorenzo an order through native messengers to
withdraw to a shelter on the shore of Manado. I for myself decided not to
leave, even in case they might kill me. Lorenzo answered me that he ne-
ver would take refuge without his superior. and that he was totally dis-
posed to die for God. Every moment he exspected to die and he suggested
that I should come to his village, Kali. I for my part did not wish to leave
Tomohon, a relatively safe place where I remained, because I was
convincced that it was impossible to escape if there was nobody to help
me. And if it should be true what Lorenzo himself had told me, our
enemies had already blocked all escape routes . And indeed, this was the
case as became evident later on.
On the same day, the tenth of August, more than ten thousand
Alifores rose up against the Spaniards.Twenty-two persons were taken
prisonner and nineteen were murdered. Fray Lorenzo Garralda withdrew
into the mountains, convinced that I myself and all my friends and
companions had already been murdered, as they told him.
As soon as I had been informed about this whole situation, I sent one of
my friends with some other Christians to make inquiries into the
whereabouts of Fray Lorenzo. But they did not dare to go out, because
our enemies since two days had blocked the roads with armed soldiers
to hold me. Also from Kali, his own village, one of his friends went out
to look for Lorenzo but he could not be found in his little monastery.
After three days he was found by four inhabitants of his own vil-
lage, indeed the most degenerated ruffians you could imagine. When our
Fray Lorenzo spotted them, he went down on his knees and raising his
hands implored them to enslave him. Mocking and hooting ,they beat
him with a blow of their hand but did not instantly murder him. One of
them said: these missionaries are sorcerers and they hide the magic in-
struments of their witchcraft under their clothes. Immediately they lifted
his monk's frock and pierced him with a lance, that went through his
body. After that, they cut his head and brought the dead body to the
village amidst cheers of joy and songs in honour of their false gods,
claiming that they had given this victory.
Afterwards they tied up his body with his frock and capuchin (hood) at a
stake in the mid of the square and danced around his blessed head
During a whole year they celebrated and sang in honour of their gods,
the men covered with flowers and the women half naked, holding creeses
and daggers. During a whole year they made great feasts and sacrifices
for their gods".