Beyond the Surging Sea: The Journey of Sor Martha de San Bernardo, First Filipino Nun

In a world built on walls of prejudice and gates of exclusion, a persistent spirit is often the only key to success.  In 17th century colonial Philippines, the dream of living a cloistered, consecrated life was reserved only for women with Spanish ancestry.  Indias, the brown-skinned native daughters of the islands, are in no way allowed to take on the habit, and embrace the life of a nun. 

 

But for a young woman from Pampanga, faith was stronger than fear, and vocation was louder than the silence of rejection.  Sor Martha de San Bernardo's story is a hymn to perseverance - a journey not just across oceans, but across barriers of race, class and custom.  Thanks to her courage and persistence, many other native women who wanted to pursue religious life were given the access that was previously denied their predecessors.

Roots of Faith and Aspiration

Born in Pampanga around 1600's, Martha Came from a distinguished principalia family. She was a ladina, who could speak and understand Spanish and Tagalog languages.  This could have been a great advantage on her part, but even her skill did not qualify Martha to be a suitable candidate for religious life.  

Martha has a strong fascination to religious life, particularly the Poor Clares of Manila - a strict contemplative order devoted to poverty, prayer and seclusion.  But ecclesiastical laws at that time were prohibitive of native Filipinas from entering the Real Monasterio de la Inmaculada Concepcion, the first and only monastery at that time, of the Poor Clares founded by Madre Jeronima de la Asuncion in Intramuros.  For women like Martha, no door seemed open.  Yet she dared to knock and it made all the difference.

Closed Door, Open Seas

Martha's devotion caught the attention of the Franciscan friars and some of the Spanish Poor Clares themselves, who believed the authenticity of her vocation and were convinced of her moral and intellectual fortitude.  Despite their recommendations, Martha was consistently denied entry into the monastery for one thing - her race.  Church and colonial authorities cited royal decrees that barred natives from entering Spanish religious communities - a discrimination more cultural than spiritual.

But Martha's yearning could not be contained by borders set by men.  Nothing can dissuade her from following her dream. If she could not find a convent in Manila, she would find one elsewhere.

Thanks to the help of sympathetic friars, an extraordinary plan was devised. Martha was to sail across the South China Sea to Macau, then a Portuguese colony, where a Poor Clare monastery had recently opened. There the restrictions imposed in the Philippines will no longer apply. In a breathtaking gesture of defiance and hope, she received the holy Franciscan habit - the symbol of her religious consecration - aboard the ship before even setting foot on a new, unfamiliar soil where she was to live as a Poor Clare until her death in 1639 or 40.

At sea, amidst the endless blue, Martha crossed not only geographic waters but the symbolic divide between exclusion and acceptance.   

Religious Profession in Macau

In 1633, Martha professed her solemn vows.  She officially became Sor Martha de San Bernardo - the first Filipina ever to become a nun.

In Macau, she lived the Poor Clare life in full:  Prayer, fasting, community life, silence and other forms of mortification. Although details of her daily experiences are sparse, the rigors of the Poor Clare rule, especially in a foreign land, meant a life of total surrender to God.  She had given up family, homeland, comfort - but she had gained what she sought most - to belong wholly to Christ, alone as His bride.

Martha's entry into religious life in Macau broke the invisible chains that shackled native Filipinas.  Her life is a testament that sanctity was not the monopoly of one race or nation.  

A Legacy Written in Silence

Sor Martha's quiet witness bore unexpected fruit.  Inspired by her example, the Manila Poor Clares began to reconsider their stance.  Slowly, restrictions relaxed. In time, other native women were allowed to enter the monasterio and other Manila convents as hermanas de obediencia and then later, as full-fledged hermanas. Later on, valiant native women such as Madre Ignacia del Espiritu Santo and the blood-sisters Dionisia and Rosa Talagpaz will establish a beaterio of their own. What Martha pioneered across the sea began to blossom back home.

Today, Sor Martha remains a hidden figure, almost forgotten even among Filipinos.  Her life is known only through scattered documents - but in those fragile pages breathes a spirit stronger than centuries of oblivion.  

On Courage and Vocation

Sor Martha's journey is not just an inspiring biography; it is a mirror for out time.  How often today do we encounter invisible barriers - of race, poverty, class, or even indifference - that attempt to limit vocation and dreams? How many feel their calling are "not for people like them?"

Sor Martha's refusal to accept human rejection as divine rejection challenges us.  Her story invites us to sail beyond our limitations, to trust that vocation  - whether religious, professional or personal - is a journey worth every hardship.

In her, we see the resilience of countless Filipinos who, against colonization and discrimination, claimed their rightful place in history - not with swords or revolts, but with the quiet, relentless force of fidelity.

In remembering Sor Martha, we are called not merely to admire her, but to imitate her; to defy injustice, to persist in love, and to trust that the God who calls us will also carry us across the sea.

References:

Santiago, Luciano P.R. "Sor Martha de San Bernardo: The First Filipino Nun." Boletin Eclesiastico de Filipinas, Vol. 91, No. 914 (Nov-Dec. 2015).

"Martha de San Bernardo" Wikipedia, accessed April 2025. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_de_San_Bernardo

"Give this Pampanguena a Memorial in the West Philippine Sea," accessed April 2025. https://www.positivelyfilipino.com/magazine/give-this-pampanguea-a-memorial-in-the-west-philippine-sea

Photograph taken from https://www.positivelyfilipino.com/magazine/give-this-pampanguea-a-memorial-in-the-west-philippine-sea