Recollects vs. Jesuits

The early missions in Davao, over two centuries before the conquest of the gulf, were not spared from dissent between religious orders over issues not of their own making. At the time, Cebu was a diocese after it was set up as Abbacy nullius in April 1565 which, early on, lost its territory to the Diocese of Manila in 1579, but still given guiding control of the Mindanao area.

The Augustinian Recollects were the first to reach Cateel and Caraga after Bishop Pedro de Arce, OSA, of the Diocese of Cebu consented to the creation of new doctrinas in Mindanao. However, in 1624, Spanish governor general Alonso Fajardo divided Mindanao into two: the northeast and eastern regions, which run from Punta Sulauan down to Cape San Agustín, was assigned to the Recollects while the Jesuits took charge of the southwest territory.

As a result, Bislig became a vicariate of Caraga district. The Tandag church, during this period, was supervised by eight Recollects assigned in Tandag, Butuan, Siargao, and Bislig. Cateel, Baganga, and Caraga, classified as mission fields of Bislig until 1771.

By 1642, Bislig became a parish with two preachers handling the pastoral works in Hinatu-an, Cateel, Baganga, and Caraga. But it was in 1671 when an edict was issued giving voice Cateel, Baganga, and Cateel in the appointment of the Recollect superiors. By 1674, the parish priest of Bislig reported to the Recoleto Chapter that in the villages of Cateel, Baganga, and Caraga had around about 800 ‘jungle dwellers’ residing along littoral areas. A later data showed the inclusion of the pueblos of Cateel, Baganga, and Caraga as part of the old Caraga Province.

In 1753, the Recollect Provincial wrote the Vicar General in Spain about the secret intention of the Jesuits to convince the authorities to give the entire Recollect territory in Mindanao to them. Interestingly, the Jesuit procurators who went to Rome were informed of the lobbying in Madrid.

But later events would be devastating. In 1767, King Carlos III of Spain expelled the Jesuits from Spain and her dominions. The following year, the Society of Jesus was also expelled from the Philippines. In 1773, Pope Clemens XIV officially suppressed the Jesuit order.

As a consequence, the bishop of Cebu requested the Recollects to take over the pastoral care of Jesuit parishes in Mindanao. A royal decree was also issued for “the resettlement, by attraction and Christianization,” and the repopulation of Caraga, Baganga and adjacent areas into organized littoral villages. Without caretakers, Caraga provincial governor Juan Hipolito Gonzalez wrote the governor-general in 1797, stating that the chieftains of Caraga and Baganga visited him in Cateel, offering that if a priest were assigned in their place and a garrison was set up to protect them from the Moros, they would resettle in Caraga and help in the construction of the chapel.

In 1800, according to records, Recollect Fray Pedro de Blas ended his pastoral duty as parish priest of Cateel. This would result in more complications that affected Caraga as a reduction. Fortunately, two years later, it was rebuilt as a new settlement after its depopulation, its name as a mission changed to San Salvador.

From here on, things looked promising. In 1804, Fray Joseph de Santa Orocia, a former Recollect Provincial, reported the progressive conversion in San Juan de Baculin, the first Man-daya mission of Davao Oriental, which was given the title of Our Lady of Pilar.

The following year, impressed by the developments there, Caraga provincial governor Salvador Ximenez Rendon donated to the Caraga Parish a life-size statue of Salvador del Mundo. Two years later, Recollect Fray Joseph de Santa Orocia, parish priest of the missions of San Juan de Baculin and San Salvador of Caraga, passed away.

The Recollects would further be involved in Davao when in 1848 when Jose Oyanguren, conqueror of the rivermouth of Davao Gulf, invited Fray Francisco López to assume as the first cura parroco of San Pedro Parish. Two decades later, the Jesuits took over the parroquia.