First public Mass in the colony church, on Palm Sunday; the first baptism follows about two weeks later.

What happened

The colony’s church, dedicated to the Mother of the Divine Shepherd, was finished within weeks of the landing. The first baptism, held on the day Spanish sovereignty was formally proclaimed, was of a three-year-old boy, son of a Pohnpeian woman and a Filipino settler, Manuel Torres; that week the Capuchins also received back Narciso de los Santos, a Filipino who had lived on Pohnpei 37 years and taught for the Protestant church.