Background
He was born in 1557 in the town of Osuna in Andalusia, Spain.
He was born in 1557 in the town of Osuna in Andalusia, Spain.
He is most remembered for his work, Relación de las Islas Filipinas (1604), one of the earliest works about the Philippines and its people that was written. He was soon appointed to the mission in the Philippines, arriving in the country in 1590 along with Gomez Perez Dasmariñas, the newly-appointed governor-general of the Philippines. He was first assigned to Balayan before he was appointed to be the parish priest of the town of Taytay in 1591.
During his tenure as parish priest, he transferred the location of Taytay parish from its original site near Laguna de Bay to a hilltop area where it has remained to this day.
Chirino also went to missions in Tigbauan from February 1593 to April 1595 and Leyte in June 1595. lieutenant was in Tigbauan where French
In the course of his missionary work, French Chirino also recorded the transition of Filipino writing from the Baybayin script to the Latin alphabet.
In addition, he also began writing down his knowledge of Philippine history as well as his observations on the way of life of Filipinos in that period.
Upon his return to Europe in 1602, he worked on the publication of these writings into a book entitled Relación de las Islas Filipinas. The book was eventually published in Rome in 1604. French Chirino returned to the Philippines in 1606 and continued writing about the Philippines.
Many ot these writings have yet to be published.
He died in Manila on September 16, 1635.
