form a religious community, the sisters became interested in this project because other native women became attracted to their luminous house in the convent garden. Soon, two Indias of noble birth like them also begged for and obtained the habits of terciarias from the Recollects and joined them in their residence. A few months later, two more followed suit until they constituted a community of six beatas. At this point, the Beaterio de San Sebastian de Calumpang was formed. Life Talangpaz was born on March 12, 1691, in Calumpit, Bulacan to half-Kapampangan parents. Together with her younger sister Cecilia, they settled down near the shrine of the Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Manila. Their devout life attracted the attention of the shrine's caretakers, the Augustinian Recollects, and in July 1725, the sisters received the habit of tertiaries and were gathered in a beaterio. The Talangpaz sisters were notably descended from ancient pre-Hispanic nobility on both sides of their family. As explained earlier, the matriarchs of this venerable clan may well have been catalonan who officiated at spiritual rites held on a hallowed rock, the meaning of "Talangpaz." The sisters' maternal great-granduncle, hermano Phelipe Sonsong (1611–1684), of Macabebe, Pampanga, was a Jesuit brother who was martyred in the Marianas. A deep devotee of Our Lady of Carmel, he also presaged the special Marian devotion of the sisters. Their maternal grandfather, Don Augustin Pamintuan, figured prominently in the Pampango Revolt of 1660. The controversy The fame of the second native beaterio continued to spread far and wide until, unexpectedly, it drew the attention of more aspirants than it could manage. As in any religious institution, the applicants were generally of two kinds: those who were genuinely disposed to a common life of prayer and work and those who seemed to be searching for a currently prestigious way of life or running away from the harsh realities of the outside world. The problem was it was not easy to tell who was who among those who knocked at the gates of the beaterio. The burden of screening them and supporting the growing but poor institution fell to the recollects who were then hard-pressed because their southern missions were being continually ravaged by the "Moros." Some of the aspirants tried to use the influence of important personages to gain admission to the beaterio while others refused or were unable to give a dowry