Colegio de San Juan de Letrán. Courtesy of the Guam Public Library System.

School rector and priest

Father Domingo Medina de Santo Tomás de Aquino served for fourteen years in the Marianas Islands between the years 1790 and 1804.

Father Domingo was a priest in the mendicant Order of the Augustinian Recollects (OAR). Father Domingo was born in 1729 in Spain and arrived on Guam in 1790 where he was rector (principal) of the Colegio San Juan de Letran, a school and seminary for boys.

Father Domingo not only served on the island of Guam but was also assigned to serve the church on the island of Rota, the island located thirty miles northeast of Guam. He initially served the parish of Hagåtña, at Dulce Nombre de Maria Church (Sweet Name of Mary), for one year beginning in 1790 and then was transferred to the parish in Rota from 1791-1794.

While in Rota he was in charge of the church and was appointed vicar provincial of the Marianas. He returned to the parish church in Hagåtña in 1794 and served for four years. He was transferred back to the island of Rota in 1800 where he served an additional four years.

Father Domingo returned to Guam in 1804 where he died at the age of 75.

By Velma Yamashita

For further reading

Driver, Marjorie G., trans. The Augustinian Recollect Friars in the Mariana Islands 1769-1908. MARC Educational Series no. 24. Mangilao: Richard F. Taitano Micronesian Area Research Center, University of Guam, 2000.

–––. The Spanish Governor of the Mariana Islands and the Saga of the Palacio. Mangilao: Micronesian Area Research Center, University of Guam, 2005.