A SURREAL 'VISITA IGLESIA' IN NORTHERN SAMAR

In the middle of one day at Easter, Myrna and her friends asked me if I would like to go with them to visit some Churches in Northern Samar. (A province on an island in the Visayas, within the central Philippines.)

I said 'yes', not wishing to be left behind, and grabbed my camera.

We left the residence at UEP and proceeded to 'Our Lady of the Nativity Church' at Las Navas.

Everyone, including a small boy, got out of the car and went inside to pray.

As I am rather deaf, and never quite know what a preacher (or anyone else) is saying, I got out to take photos of the exterior and interior. (Religion is not one of my major interests - but I like churches.)

After a few minutes I was asked to get back into the car again. Then there was a long trip to another church.

This strange behaviour carried on for numerous churches. Sometimes they had to search for the boy who seemed to have lost interest in praying, but liked to look around outside.

I was told that after visiting churches we would be going to the graveyard where Myrna's elder brother had been buried a few days before. But we did not get there because at one stage the car broke down with a flat tire, so they ran out of time.

When I got back to Australia I looked up some of the locations on the WWW and came to realise that I had been taken on a 'Visita Iglesia' - (Bisita Inglesia) - to 14 churches, representing the 14 Stations of the Cross - of which I was totally ignorant.

For the benefit of others who may find themselves in the same situation, on this page I have included a good pictorial diagram of the 14 stages.

Because this page is fairly long I have divided it up into six parts.

There is a horizontal navigation bar under the first image of each section, to assist the reader.

The siege of Catubig lasted from 15 to 18 April 1900. A few days before the battle the US 43rd infantry regiment was sent to Catubig to stop guerrillas from getting supplies from sympathizers.

On the Sunday morning of April 15, hundreds of Filipino guerillas attacked them and let loose a tremendous volley of cannon and rifle fire that drove the entire regiment into the church.

After two days of withstanding withering fire and attempts to set the church ablaze, the Americans decided to retreat to the river. Setting fire to their barracks, the Americans made for the river, but 13 were killed and 3 wounded.

The American survivors reached the river bank and dug makeshift trenches with their bayonets. They held out for two more days until a rescue steamer, the Lao Aug, arrived.

In the period 1752-1754 the Pambujans, forced by raids of Moro Pirates, moved to the present site of Pambujan. It was approximately during this period that the foundations of the now existing Roman Catholic Church were laid.

The subsequent events, which were characterized by the take over of the Franciscans in the religious affairs of the pueblo from the Jesuit Missionaries in 1768, triggered the completion of the church edifice. Unfortunately, it was razed and turned into ashes during the Spanish–American War in 1898.

"I join Bishop Emmanuel Trance in condemning the brutal killing of Fr. Lucero. Last September 6, 2009 around 8:30 in the morning Rev. Fr. Cecilio P. Lucero was ambushed by unidentified gunmen armed with high powered firearms. Fr. Lucero suffered several gunshots on his head and different parts of his body and died on the spot and 2 of his companions were seriously wounded. Fr. Lucero was known to be a human rights activist, and the brother of our incumbent Vice Governor Boy Lucero and former Congressman Wilmar Lucero."
Congressman EMIL L. ONG, 9 September 2009.