ANNIVERSARY NUMBER 1919 



93 



TONDO PARISH CHURCH. ONE OF THE MOST HISTOR. 



ICALLY INTERESTING OF MANILA CHURCHES OUTSIDE 



OF THE WALLED CITY. 



to the legend, the padres traded off the image 

 in 1630 to Alonso Cuyapit of Pace for another 

 of more intrinsic value. "During that earth- 

 quake (1645)" says Fr. Felix J. Huertas, the 

 Franciscan historian in his Estado Geoerafico 

 etc., page 14, "the image went by itself from 

 the small altar on which it had been placed 

 to a window that looked toward Manila, and 

 falling on its knees on a small box remained 

 crying four days and nights, and when replac- 

 ed four times on its altar, by D. Alonso each 

 time returned to the window." 



In September 1668, Governor Diego Sal- 

 cedo was arrested by the Holy Office of the 

 Inquisition as a heretic and confined in this 

 church pending his transfer to Mexico. The 

 church of the Third Order of San Francisco 

 standing in the same square was first built 

 in 1618, the present building dating from 1723. 



SANTO DOMINGO CHURCH 



This church is one of the largest and most 

 substantial buildings of its kind in the city. 

 The present structure is modern and stands 

 on the site of the original church and convent 

 raised in 1587. When the Dominicans arrived 

 in the Islands, the land on which the Ayunta- 

 miento, the University of Santo Tomas, this 

 church and convent, and other continuous 

 buildings stand, was a swamp and buta small 

 part of it was terraplened. The Domin- 

 icans bough the land for 300 pesos and had 

 to take possession of it and take out the site in 

 a banca. The first church was built in 1587 

 at a cost of 3,000 pesos. A stone structure 

 was raised on the same site in 1593, but burn- 

 ed down in 1603. It was built the following 

 year, again in stone, only to fall in the earth- 

 quake of 1610. Again reconstructed, it stood 

 until 1864 when it wasdestroyed by the earth- 

 quake of that year. The present structure 

 was raised in^870. Thfs church is noted for 

 its image of Nuestra Senora del Rosario carv- 

 ed 300 years ago by a Chinaman who later 

 became a Christian. To the "prayers" of 

 this image is said to have been due the naval 

 victory of the Spaniards over the Dutch in 

 Manila bay in the early days, and she was 

 looked to in 1898 to bring about the destruc- 

 tion of the American fleet under Dewey, but 

 somehow the combination failed. 



SAN NICOLAS DE TOLENTINO (RECOLETAN) 



The first priests of this order reached Manila 

 in 1606 and immediately established them- 

 selves on what is now the site of the Army 



Morgue on Bagumbayan where they built 

 the church of San Juan Bautista, later de- 

 stroyed as a military measure as the British 

 in 1762 seized it and used it as a fort in the re- 

 duction of Manila. The present church was 

 commenced in 1612. Subsequent earthquakes, 

 specially that of 1645 did much damage to 

 the building but the present structure is 

 substantially the original one. Among the 

 famous images on its altars are Nuestra Se- 

 nora de Consolacion and Nuestra Senora de 

 Salus, both brought from Mexico in 1653. 



SAN IGNACIO 



Built in 1878 as a monument to St. Ignatius 

 by Padre Juan Bautista Heras, S.J. Prior 

 to their expulsion from Spain and Spanish 

 possessions in 1768 the Jesuits had an ex- 

 tensive establishment in the Philippines. 

 While much has been said from time to time 

 of the massive structures raised in the city 

 and its suburbs by the Augustinians, Fran- 

 ciscans, Dominicans, and Recoletos, little is 

 generally known of the great work done by the 

 early Jesuits. It was a Jesuit father who 

 designed and directed the work on the first 

 stone fortifications that comprise Fort San- 

 tiago and much of the city wall. 



On the open space in front of the Delmonico 

 Hotel in the walled city there once stood a 

 church that was equal to any in the city 

 today, raised by the Jesuits, but destroyed 

 by earthquakes. This church was built in 

 1596 by Father Sedeno, S.J., who introduced 

 the art of brick and tile making into the islands 

 and the use of stone in public buildings. He 

 was in fact the city architect. It was then re- 

 built in stone throughout and withstood many 

 severe shocks until 1873. The Jesuits were 

 also the founders of the girls' college that after- 

 wards became known as Santa Potenciana. 



Ever in the front rank of progress the Jes- 

 uits were the first to introduce the use of 

 electrical light and the telephone in the is- 

 lands, illuminating Malacanang Palace on 

 the occasion of a fiesta in 1878 and installing 

 a telephone from the Ateneo Municipal to 

 the Normal School. In 1859 after their re- 

 turn to the islands the Jesuits purchased prop- 

 erty on Calle Arzobispo where they built a 

 temporary home, using the church of the Roy- 

 al College of Santa Isabel for public worship. 

 After the destruction of the church by the 

 earthquake of 1863 they decided to build one 

 for themselves. The plans were prepared 

 by Felix Roxas, father of Felix M. Roxas, 

 ex-mayor of Manila, and the corner stone 

 was laid in 1878. The granite for the facade 

 was brought from Hongkong and the marble 



used in the interior from Italy. The bells 

 of the original church were installed in the 

 new one which was completed in 1881. The 

 statues and all the exquisite carving through- 

 out this church was the work of Filipino 

 sculptors. 



SAN VICENTE DE PAUL (MARCELINO) 



The most recent construction of its kind 

 in Manila, the foundation having been laid 

 in 1911 on land purchased in 1875. Built 

 in Renaissance style of architecture, in the 

 form of a Latin cross; the nave is 50 meters 

 long and 25 wide at the cross section. The 

 dome and towers are built on a hundred 

 wooden piles. The building cost all told 

 PI 00,000. The plans were laid by Francisco 

 Perez Munos and the building constructed 

 under contract by R. Loper. It is of rein- 

 forced concrete throughout. Among notable 

 things in the church is the magnificent altar 

 cloth made by the sisters of La Concordia and 

 valued at over Pl.OOO. The statueson the 

 altars are among the most beautiful in Manila, 

 and were carved by Filipino sculptors. 



TONDO CHURCH 



When the early Spaniards reached Manila 

 they found two large settlements, one Manila 



Cper, fortified and dominated by Rajah So- 

 an, and Tondo dominated by Rajah La- 

 candola, Soliman's uncle, both of them Moros 

 as were most of the leading men of both settle- 

 ments. The evangelization of the people 

 was at once begun by the Augustinians and 

 the first mission to Tondo established itself 

 on the site of the present magnificent church 

 in 1572. A temporary church was raised and 

 Alonso Alverdao was chosen the first prior 

 of the district which then embraced Taytay, 

 Cainta, Pasig and Bay, Laguna. Little is 

 known of the nature of the several buildings 

 that succeeded one another as the earthquakes 

 continued their destruction except that prior 

 to 1863 a pretentious building existed. The 

 present church dates from 1874 and was the 

 work of Padres Casimiro Herrero and Manuel 

 Gonzalez, both Augustinians. 



Many of the most notable men of the Au- 

 gustinian corporation have served as parish 

 priests of Tondo, among them Augustin de 

 Alburqueque, 1575, the author of the first 

 Tagalog dictionary; Diego Mojica, 1577; Je- 

 ronimo Marin, 1578 and Juan de Pena, 1579, 

 all three indefatigable missionaries. Diego 

 Munoz, 1581, the first Commissary of the In- 

 quisition, and Cristobal Tarique, 1582; Alon- 

 so de Castro, 1583, and Juan Dejgadillo, 1584, 

 who had a part in the raising of the first per- 

 manent stone church and convent. 



METROPOLITAN CATHEDRAL OFMANILA. REMARKABLE FOR HEIC.HT OF NAVE AND FOR HISTORIC TOMBS IT CONTAINS. 



