Francisco Combés

Who was Francisco Combés?

Francisco Combés was a Spanish priest who established Christian monasteries in the Philippines in the 17th century.

Combés was born in Zaragoza, Spain. At age twelve, he joined the Jesuit order as a novice at Tarragona, the Roman port city of Tarraconense, located near the coast in the Spanish region of Catalonia southwest of Barcelona. Even before finishing his priesthood, after only six years of study, he expressed the desire to become part of the expedition to the Philippine Islands. He was assigned to Mexico, and from there he joined a group of Roman Catholic missionaries bound for the East Indies.

In 1643, eleven years after entering the Jesuits, together with forty-six other friars he was sent to the Philippines in an expedition by Diego de Bobadilla. Combés finished his theological studies in the Philippines, and was ordained as a Jesuit in 1645. He was assigned to Zamboanga in Mindanao where he ministered for more than a decade to the religious needs of the natives. In the twelve years that he served there he grew to acquire strategic function, and prestige as a leader, becoming ambassador to the Muslim chieftains, among them Sultan Corralat, and the sultans of Jolo.