Happy 241st Anniversary of Solemn Dedication...

Happy 241st Anniversary to the church of Cabuyao, built by the first Filipino parish priest, Fray Blas de Sta. Rosa in honor of our beloved patron, St. Polycarp, Bishop and Martyr...

 

1771-January 26-2012

 

 

 

 

Our Beloved Church will undergo yet another major and ridiculously awful renovation. It was already approved that a 'right wing' adjacent to the already existing left wing(former Sacristy) of the church will soon be constructed.This will mean making a hole at the side of the ancient Church, destroying the structure and its massive buttress which supports the walls. Worst, the Cursillo House, who has retained its original adobe walls will also be damaged by this un-necessary expansion. The construction of the second church of Cabuyao was initiated by the First Filipino Parish priest, Fray Blas de Sta. Rosa, a native pampango (kapampangan). Materials for its construction was personally hand picked by the priest himself, meaning to say, the church is truly historic not just in structure but in its components as well. He died soon before the church is completed, but he donated his lifetime savings just to continue its construction. The second church was inaugurated on January 26, 1771. Our church had suffered so much. I hope many will realize the value of loosing another part of our heritage.

 

isa lang poh ang nakikita kong dahilan nito kaya urgent ang construction... recently poh ksi nagkaroon ng dispute between cursillo and church... sabihin na poh nating 'revenge' itoh ng pari sa cabuyao...

 

 

How important is the church of cabuyao?

 

 

TERCENTENARY OF THE INSTALLATION OF THE FIRST

FILIPINO PARISH PRIEST: Bachiller Don Blás de Sta. Rosa (1703)

 

Dr. Luciano P.R. Santiago

 

The surname of Padre Blás was very typical of those of early Filipinos who adopted saint’s names as patronymics. This practice would later wreak havoc on colonial records and impel the Governor General Don Narciso Clavería to prohibit the assumption of saints’ names in his decree on the systemization of Filipino patronymics in 1849. (It should be noted that Spanish friars also carried saints’ names, but these they took only upon investiture.)

Sta.Rosa de Lima, the first saint of the New World, became very popular in the Islands after her canonization in 1671 when she was declared patron saint of the Americas and the Philippines. Henceforth, her name was used extensively both as first name for girls and as surname. This is borne out by examining any 18th century baptismal book of a Philippine parish. Available records indicate that Blás de Sta. Rosa was most probably born on February 3, 1678 (Feast of San Blás), or a few years after the canonization of Sta. Rosa. (1)

The Bachiller Sta. Rosa graduated from the University of Sto. Tomás in 1692 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He was one of the earliest native graduates of the venerable institution. Since the first Indios to be admitted to the Manila colleges, except Letrán, were Pampangos, it is very likely that Sta. Rosa originated from Pampanga. Sta. Rosa was also apparently a relative of another Pampango priest, Bachiller Don Gregorio de Sta. Rosa y Ramos, one of the Filipino priests ordained by Archbishop Cuesta in 1723. (2)

Manila Archbishop Diego Camacho y Ávila (1697-1706), founder of the Filipino clergy, ordained Sta. Rosa together with Br. Don Alfonzo Baluio y Garzía, another Pampango, on the ember days after Pentecost in May or June of 1703. On September 7, the same day that Baluio was proclaimed missionary of Abra de Vigan, Sta. Rosa was appointed proprietary parish priest of San Policarpio de Tabuco (now Cabuyao, Laguna). Thus, he became the first Filipino Indio pastor not only in the archdiocese of Manila but in the entire Philippines. The extensive parish of Tabuco had just been divided by the archbishop on December 9, 1702 into two curacies: that of Tabuco proper, which included the Dominican Hacienda of San Juán Bautista de Calamba, and the new parish of San Pedro de Tunazán which encompassed the town of Biñán. By competitive examinations, Sta. Rosa had won the now somewhat reduced parish of Tabuco, while the Spanish Maestro Don Protazio Cabezas later obtained the curacy of Tunazán on May 2, 1704. The latter was to become vicar general (1717-1741) and then bishop of Cebú (1741-1752) and a staunch supporter of Filipino priests. (3)

A few months after the arrival of Archbishop Francisco de la Cuesta of the Order of St. Hieronymus, Camacho’s successor, Sta. Rosa fell ill and was still convalescing in November 1707 according to a report of Mro. Cabezas, who had been appointed vicar forane of Laguna. The following year, in line with Cuesta’s notion that indio priests ordained by Camacho were incompetent and unworthy, the suspicious prelate through his secretary ordered Cabezas to conduct a secret investigation on the life and labors of the first brown pastor of the archdiocese. There were reports, apparently coming from friars of surrounding estancias (ranches), that he was negligent in celebrating The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and that he lived outside his parish. Without waiting, however, for the results of the inquiry, Cuesta, evidently assuming the charges to be true, went ahead and wrote his now famous letter to the king dated June 20, 1708 denouncing the incompetence and unworthiness of his predecessor’s native ordinees. Four days later, his vicar forane, Mro. Cabezas, filed a glowing report on Sta. Rosa to the archdiocesan secretary vouching for the Indio priest’s integrity and diligence! Citing witnesses, including Don Juán Ruiz Ximenes, the Spanish administrator of the Hacienda of Calamba, Cabezas affirmed that Sta. Rosa said Masses regularly for his parishioners, including on feasts marked with “two crosses” and Saturdays, which even his Spanish predecessors were not wont to do for many years before him. The only exception was when he was incapacitated by illness. He had a house on his farm, which was, however, no farther from his church than Binondo is from Malate. But he stayed there mostly at harvest time and for convalescence. (4)

He seemed to have been in frail health most of his life. In the middle of 1710, he applied for a sick leave and asked for another priest to replace him in his post. However, the Spanish presbyter who was sent to Tabuco, Licenciado Don Joseph de Alfaro, turned out to be unable to speak a word of Tagalog so that Sta. Rosa refused to turn the parish over to him. A month later, he was still begging for a sick leave and this time it was apparently granted. (5)

Despite his delicate health, it was he who built the parish church of Tabuco (Cabuyao). This is recorded in another extant letter of his, dated November 15, 1716, addressed to Archbishop Cuesta regarding the progress of the church construction. He recounted that since the town had transferred to a higher site fifty-one years earlier (1665), it had not had a permanent house of worship. He had personally gone up to the mountain (he was probably referring to Mount Makiling) to select the best timber for it. Now he was asking the archbishop and through him, the governor-general, to exempt the community from paying tributes for the duration of the work. (6) He was the first Filipino priest to build a church.

After a lifetime of service to his parish, he died in the middle of 1733 in the thirtieth year of his priesthood, when he was in his mid-50s. In his last will and testament, he bequeathed the then munificent sum of 998 pesos as a pious endowment (obra pía) for the maintenance of the church he had built during his long term. The church still stands today. He was replaced in the interim by his coadjutor, Br. Don Matheo Graña, another Indio Pampango. On September 15, 1733, the proprietary pastorship of Tabuco was won through synodal examinations by a more experienced Indio Pampango presbyter, Br. Don Joseph Nuñes. The parish remained in the hands of native priests to the end of the Spanish regime. (7)

 

Note: The principal reference for this article is: Luciano P.R. Santiago. The Hidden Light. The First Filipino Priests. (Quezon City: New Day, 1987) pp. 80-83.

ENDNOTES

1.Archives of the Archdiocese of Manila (AAM). “Letter of Mro. Don Protazio Cabezas, San Pedro de Tunazán, June 24, 1708.” Cartas escriptas al Mro. Don Phelipe de Molina (CPM) (1707-24); Narciso Clavería. Catálogo Alfabético de Apellidos. (Manila: 1849) Reprinted by the National Archives (Manila: 1973); BR 37: 145; 54-5 (Index): passim.

2.Archives of the University of Sto. Tomás (AUST). Asientos de Grados, Facultad de Philosophía. (1663-1713); USTAA. UST Graduate Listing. 1611-1971. (Manila: UST, 1972) p. 2-A; Horacio de la Costa, S.J. Readings in Philippine History (Manila: Bookmark, 1965) p.85; Evergisto Bazaco, O.P. Historia Documentada del Real Colegio de San Juán de Letrán. (Manila: UST, 1933); AAM. Libro de Gobierno Ecclesiástico (LGE) (1707-1723). folios 178-8vuelto.

3.AAM. LGE (1697-1706). ff. 255v, 257 and 277v; Hierarchia Catholica Medii et Recentioris Aevi. vol. 6 (1730-1799). p. 313.

4.AAM. “Letter of Cabezas, Tunazán, June 24, 1708.” CPM. Feasts marked with two crosses (daggers) in the liturgical calendar are feasts of lower rank.

5.AAM. “Letters of Sta. Rosa, Tabuco, May 22 & June 23, 1710.” CPM.

6.AAM. “Letter of Sta. Rosa, Tabuco, Nov. 15, 1716.” Cartas Escriptas al Dr. Don Francisco de la Cuesta, Arzobispo de Manila (1707-23).

7.AAM. Capellanías de Misas. (1910-15) D. (There is a 1748 list of capellanías and obras pías here which is misplaced.); Exámenes para Provisión de Curatos (1729-34); Catálogos del Clero Secular (18th and 19th centuries) passim.

 

 

We are sincerely asking for your prayers for the repose of the soul of Fray Blas de Sta.Rosa, The first Filipino parish priest in our country.............

 

 

Done