Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/730

710 In 1566 Archbishop Montúfar gave him permission to erect a hospital. In it the congregation of Brothers and order of Charity had origin, its object being the succor and care of the indigent and the sick. Subsequently, Father Álvarez founded other hospitals, to wit: in Oaxtepec, Jalapa, Perote, and Puebla, this last in or about 1593.

The number of brothers having gradually increased, and also the resources at his command, Álvarez enlarged his plans. The San Hipólito in Mexico being too small, he obtained from the archbishop and viceroy the site and chapel adjoining it, and with his own resources and the aid of friends erected a spacious and solid building to which the sick were transferred. After he had begun the work the capitalist Alonso de Villaseca, of whom I have spoken as the friend of the Jesuits, offered him one hundred thousand pesos, if he would permit to be placed on the building his coat of arms, and a motto expressive of the fact that he, Villaseca, was its patron. Álvarez declined, as he could not dedicate the place at once to God and to man. One day he was without means to feed the poor, who were many. So he started with an image of the ecce homo, accompanied by two little boys through the arcades of the petty traders, crying, "In the name of God, give for the living stones of Jesus Christ." He soon returned, it is asserted, with seven hundred pesos in money, a number of blankets, and other articles.