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When the 18th century was coming to a close in the Philippines, the longest office tenure of Spanish Governor-General Rafael Marie de Aguilar was bowing out. The same situation existed in Cebu, “The Cradle of Christianity” in the country. The long tenure of Msgr. Ignacio de Salamanca of the bishopic of Cebu was also winding up.

To Sibonga, however, the rolling in of the 19th century, emrged for her dawn of a higherecclesiastical status, from auxiliary to full-fledged parish. The diocesan authorities of Cebu had long taken notice of the zealous Catholicism of populous Sibonga, situated between the tandem of the long-established parishes of Carcar and Argao.

A decree from Msgr. Santos Gomez Maranon, OSA, Bishop of Cebu, in 1830 converted Sibonga into a full-pledged parish. Earlier, the Spanish central government gave approval to the new ecclesiastical status of the place.

The building of the church and convent started right then in the traditional concept of “alayon” collective and labor of love. Every Monday was set aside by the town’s male citizens to gather construction stones abounding in the area for the stoneworks.

Each one of the age turned into the church complex site two specification-sized chunks of stone. And the count says that even school children were given the task of gathering stones the size convenient for them to atke to the site. Volunteer skilled labor like the masons and carpenters, received minimal pay from the church and government authorities. In the SPanish era there was close collaboration between the church and state.

The duration of construction of the church and convent with the prevailing designs of the era staggered to seven (7) years. To the credit of the local people, their house of god measured 15 by 65 meter. The adjacent convent is commodious even for a bigger parish.

Rev. Fr. Mariano de la Asuncion, the curate of the subsidiary parish at the time, secured the diocesan approval for the building of the church complex on the same site where by tradition the people converged in a chapel to hear service. Today the site is laced by the national highway and municipal streets that two centuries ago was a dirt road.

His successors, Rev. Fr. Salustino Montes, and Rev. Fr. Prospero Puerto, bore the brunts of the construction years. In 1838, the construction props were dismantled to give way to the finished church and convent.

Sibonga, as a village attained its townhood or pueblo status in 1865. It took, however, another generation and another foreign regime to get the traditional blessings for the complex from the highest authority of the catholic church in the country. The long awaited event came on November 17, 1907 — or 60 years later — and took place under the new American rule.

That day, Msgr. Jeremias Harty, the Archbishop of Manila, officiated at the blessing rites. In one to head the diocese, Msgr. Thomas A. Hendrick , officiated at the Pontifical Mass along with 17 priests for solemnity. Giving the sermon was the youthful Auxiliary Bishop of Cebu, Msgr. Juan B. Gorordo.

The official patroness of the parish the Virgin of the Pillar, came to be venerated by the townspeople fervently. The zealous religiousity of the parishioners later on gave way to a secondary patroness the Virgin Philomena, which the Vatican some twenty years ago made further studies and research for her eventual sainthood.

In 1907, when the church complex of Sibonga was ultimately blessed by Monsignor Harty, the Archbishop of Manila, the parish priest was Rev. Fr. Francisco Latorre, with a long tenure of 18 years. The longest, however, was achieved by Rev. Fr. Natalio del Mar, who chalked up 29 years.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 25th, 2005 at 4:17 pm and is filed under Historical Spots, Travel/Tours, Visit Cebu Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.