VISITA IGLESIA 2014 - Part 1 of 5

SANTO DOMINGO CHURCH

This year’s  Visita Iglesia is the first time that some of my friends joined me. Besides having my sister Elaiza, and her sons Joshua and Marc and my other nephew Matthew join us,  my friends RJ Marasigan, Krisvi Barrios and Ian Songco joined us for our visita Iglesia this year.  Having done this thing the past three years, I think I became wiser in chosing the day and the routes to take to be able to finish the 14 Churches by dinner time. Here are the churches we went to and some things about the church which I looked up either in the net or through the markers found in the churches.

The church of Sto Domingo was formerly made of wood which was made by the Dominicans with the help of Bishop Domingo de Salazar OP in Intramuros, Manila in Jan 1, 1588.  The church was left to ruins in 1589, eventually built again but this time in stone together with the convention of Father Alonso Jimenez O.P in  1592. An altar was made on the miraclous Our Lady of the Rosary because on the occassion of the Battle of La Naval in 1593. 

There was a fire that destroyed the church once again in 1603 and was rebuilt in 1613. It was then slightly destroyed by an earthquake in 1645 but was renovated that same year.  Another earthquake destroyed it again in 1863 and was rebuilt by reknowned neo-gothic architect Felix Roxas in 1867. The last time it was destroyed was when the Japanese bombed Manila in 1941. It was eventually transferred to where it is now and the the first stone was laid in 1952. It was inaugurated by Rufino Cardinal Santos in 1954  and was declared National Shrine of our Lady of the Holy Rosary of the same year. 

Translated Filipino Marker 

OUR LADY OF LORETO CHURCH

 This site was donated  to the Franciscans in 1613 by Pedro de Chaves.  First chapel built in honor of our lady of Loreto in 1613 and set on fire in the chinese uprising in 1639. 

Second chapel built under the supervision of Andres de Puertellano O.F.M. Present church built in 1666 under  the direction of the Francisco de Santa Catalina O.F.M. Associated with the convent of Sampaloc . There functioned here from 1692 to 1808 one of the best printing presses in Manila.

From a 1935 building marker 

SAINT ANTHONY SHRINE

Saint Anthony’s feast is celebrated every June 13. He is well-known as the saint from Padua, in honor of the city he loved, where he spent most of his final days  and where his remains  are buried and his incorrupt tongue venerated.  IN the Philippines the devotion to St. Anthony dates back to the arrival of the Franciscans in July 2,1578.  Since then, it would be exceptional for a church to be without a statue or image of the famous miracle –worker. 

The present St. Anthony Shrine in Sampaloc Manila was build in 1947 through the efforts of Fr. Mariano Montero OFM, where the devotion to ST. Antony in Intramuros Manila was transferred. Originally, in this same location a chapel was constructed in 1794 for the use of the Secular Franciscans under our lady of the Piligrims statue. ( A statue now enshrined at the right side of the shrine santuary.)