St. Augustine Metropolitan Cathedral, Cagayan de Oro City

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 San Agustin Cathedral Cagayan de Oro City

Door Entrance San Agustin Cathedral

NAVE  San Agustin Cathedral

Gaston Park and
 San Agustin Cathedral

Spanish Arrival

In 1622, two Augustinian Recollect missionaries first came to Huluga, then called Himologan. Here they met a mixed stock of Bukidnons and Visayas who lived in a settlement perched on a cliff, overlooking a river. The men had massive tattoos, like those of the Visayan pintados, and the women wore intricate jewelry, some made of gold.

The priests were Fray Juan de San Nicolas and Fray Francisco de la Madre de Dios. According to their journals, the natives were polytheistic animists, not Muslims. But they paid tributes to Sultan Kudarat through his emissaries.

Conversion to Christianity
In 1626, a 26-year old Augustinian Recollect friar arrived in Cagayan. His name was Fray Agustin de San Pedro, a Portuguese. Before his priesthood, he studied mathematics, architecture, gunnery, and military strategy at the University of Salamanca.

Fray Agustin persuaded the leader of Himologan, Datu Salangsang, to transfer his settlement down river, to the area of today's Gaston Park and San Agustin Cathedral. Here, Fray Agustin built a church of native materials. Inside, he baptized Datu Salangsang and his wife, and later his people.
Fortification of Cagayan
In response to the conversion, Sultan Kudarat sent a fleet of warriors to drive away the Spanish missionaries and to regain the lost tributes.

Kudarat's attacks prompted Fray Agustin to build a wooden fortress and watchtower in Cagayan to protect Salangsang's people. He called the fortress Fuerza Real de San Jose, and it occupied an area now filled with Gaston Park and San Agustin Cathedral. Fray Agustin's defense of Cagayan earned him the title "El Padre Capitan".

The fortress was rebuilt with stones in 1730. But Lt. Col. Jose Carvallo, the Spanish politico-military governor of Misamis, demolished it in 1875 and used the stones to pave the streets of the town.
Church Construction
The Recoletos made Cagayan their mission center in 1674. But only on August 28, 1780 did they declare San Agustin the patron saint of Cagayan.

In 1845, Fray Simon Loscos de Santa Catalina reconstructed the church, using marine stones from China. It had protruding buttresses and a single belfry. Inside were a magnificent altar and sanctuary with carved wooden niches and paintings.

This church was destroyed during the Japanese bombing of Cagayan in 1945, exactly a hundred years later.

Cagayan de Misamis
In 1818, the Manila Spanish divided Mindanao into politico-military districts, one of which was the Segundo Distrito de Misamis, the largest district in Mindanao. This area was composed of today's Misamis Oriental, Misamis Occidental, Camiguin, Bukidnon, Lanao, Zamboanga del Norte, and the northern part of Cotabato.

The capital was the town of Misamis, today called Ozamis City, where a fort and garrison bigger than those in Cagayan were constructed.

On February 27, 1872, the Spanish Governor General Carlos Maria de la Torre issued a decree declaring Cagayan the permanent capital of Segundo Distrito de Misamis. All Spanish politico-military governors of Misamis, who were all lieutenant colonels, lived at the Casa Real de Cagayan, built in 1831, the site of today's city hall of Cagayan de Oro. During this era, the name of the town was "Cagayan de Misamis". 

1. Old Churches in the Philippines

Malate Church

Malate Church (formally known as Our Lady of Remedies Parish Church) is a church in Manila, Philippines. It is a Baroque-style church fronted by Plaza Rajah Sulayman and, ultimately, Manila Bay. The church is dedicated to Nuestra Señora de los Remedios ("Our Lady of Remedies"), the patroness of childbirth. A revered statue of the Virgin Mary in her role as Our Lady of Remedies was brought from Spain in 1624 and stands at the altar.
Malate used to be known as Maalat due to the saline waters of the bay; and as Laguio or Lagunoi, the name of the street which separated it from Ermita. it is located by Manila Bay, very close to the sea. One main street crosses it at the center; it is wide and beautiful and leads up to Cavite. The numerous trees make this road a pleasant walk. It lies just three kilometers from the center of Manila.

In 1591, Malate had only one church and one convent. In 1645, the church and convent dedicated to the Nativity of Our Lady (Conception) were damaged by an earthquake. San Agustin describes the latter as "a magnificent work of arches and stone." Church and convent suffered heavily during the earthquake of 1645.Then in 1667, both structures were destroyed on orders of Gov. Sabiniano Manrique de Lara due to the threat posed by the pirate Koxinga.
In 1669, the father provincial placed the convent of Malate under his immediate care and authorized the prior to use the "repository of alms for the dead" for the construction of the buildings. Fr. Dionisio Suarez began the construction of a new church [the second one] and convent made of bricks and stone in 1677-1679. It was completed by Fr. Pedro de Mesa in 1680.
In 1721, the convent was in ruinous condition, and the coffers of the house empty. The father provincial sent a circular to the various ministries of the Tagalogs available. Furthermore, the convent was relieved of the obligation to pay rent to San Agustin Monastery. The money raised amounted only to 400 pesos, just enough to buy the materials. The construction work proceeded very slowly because the prior depended almost completely on funds of the provincial.
In 1762 during the British occupation of Manila, the British occupied the church and turned it into their headquarters. Serious damage was inflicted on the structure. There are no records as to who restored the buildings after the British had taken leave. A typhoon occurred on 3 June 1868 which destroyed the church.
Fr. Francisco Cuadrado constructed the third church, the present one in 1864 almost in its entirety except for the facade in 1864. Fr. Francisco Cuadrado, then the parish priest, started the reconstruction. The "just one," as he was called by his parishioners, toured the city and nearby provinces to raise the necessary funds. His efforts paid off. He apparently got more than what he needed. Thus, he was known for gathering the poor fishermen of his parish and sharing with them his "savings."
There were some restoration work which was headed by Fr. Nicolas Dulanto and was also responsible for the completion of the upper part of the facade between 1894 and 1898. The next decades saw the church attract more devotees. But when the holocaust of 1945 came, the church and convent ended up in complete ruins and the records were also burned to ashes.
During the Japanese occupation, both the church and the convent were burned down leaving only the walls, the Japanese had earlier taken away Fathers Kelly, Henaghan, Monaghan, and Fallon, plus other parishioners, never to be seen again.:145 Rebuilding of the church was undertaken by the Columban fathers during the 1950s. They rebuilt the roof, the altar, the dome and the transept while the interior was painted, and the bricks and the stone outside were returned to their pristine color in 1978.
The old convent was demolished in 1929. Fr. Gary Cogan built a new one in 1930. One of the remaining bells displayed at the entrance of the new convent has this inscription: "Nuestra Senora de los Remedios. Se fundio en 30 de Enero de 1879.

Saint James Parish in Dapitan City

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Saint James Parish in Dapitan City takes pride in being the oldest in the diocese. With the Jesuit priest Pedro Gutierez as its first superior, it was made a permanent mission of the Society of Jesus in 1631 but dependent on Cebu, then on Zamboanga (1639) and on Loboc, Bohol (1643). It became independent sometime near 1645 under the administration of Fr. Melchor Hurlado, S.J. The Jesuits ministered the flock in Dapitan until their expulsion in 1770. The Augustinian Recollects took charge of a century. In 1871, the Jesuits came back. It was not until 1946 that the Dapitanons received a fellow Filipino and a diocesan priest to be their pastor in the person of Fr. Epifanio Baleares. Two years later, a fellow Dapitanon became their shepherd, Fr. Antonio Hamak, who served them for twenty years. Those who succeeded him include Fr. Engracio Rivera, Msgr. Salvador Mora and Fr. Esteban Gaudicos, Fr. Ranulfo Suarez, Msgr. Emigdio T. Socias, Msgr. Wilson P. Cadano. At present, Fr. Virgilio Belleno, administers Saint James Parish with Fr. Bonifacio Alcantara and Fr. Noel Salderiega assisting him.

The laity has also participated prominently in the life and history of the parish. From Manook and his daughter, Maria Uray, to the present lay leaders, ministers, catechists, charismatic and mandated organization members, they have acted as lay evangelizers. As a consequence, the on-going parochial program focuses also on the enhancement of family life and the formation of the laity. With the support of various parish groups and chapels, the parish moves gradually to the establishment of basic ecclesial communities.

The Society of Jesus came to the Philippines in 1581. When the country was divided in 1598 among four religious congregations, the Jesuits were given the Diocese of Cebu which included Dapitan. At first, they were chaplains for the Spanish naval force, but in 1629, the Mexican Jesuit, Pedro Gutierez, was sent specifically to found the Dapitan mission. He established a permanent Jesuit residence there by 1671 and became its first superior. The Jesuits worked for the conversion of the Subanen, the original inhabitants of the peninsula, at times offering their lives as martyrs like Francisco Paliola 1648. Despite promising success, the Bourbon monarchs expelled them from Spanish lands in 1768 and from the Philippines shortly thereafter. Augustinian Recollects took over the Dapitan mission in 1770. The Royal Decree of 1852 allowed the Jesuits back. They returned to the Philippines, to their old Mindanao mission, and in 1870 to Dapitan. When it was established as a full fledged parish in 1896 Fr. Jose Vilaclara, spiritual advisor to the national hero Jose Rizal, was its first parish priest.

Dapitan is famous mostly for the four years which Rizal spent here in exile. Each Sunday he would attend Mass at the Church of St. James, which had been built by the Jesuits in 1883. Dapitan had been so harassed by pirates that the Jesuit missionaries chose James the Greater as their patron saint. James is said to have appeared during the legendary battle of Clavijo in 844, riding a white horse and brandishing a sword, to help the vastly outnumbered Christians beat the Islamic Moors led by the Emir of Cordoba. So it was hoped that he would help the people of Dapitan protect themselves from the Moro raiders. A statue of James astride a horse stands in the town square.

1. Old Churches in the Philippines