Catholicism, for half a century, was without any challenge in southern Mindanao from other Christian sects. It prospered and penetrated remote settlements from the year Spanish conqueror Jose Oyanguren subjugated the Moro ruler of Davao River to the time when the Americans assumed the governance...
In the not so recent past, three Catholic priests were murdered. First to fall was retired 72-year-old Fr. Marcelito Paez, an activist cleric assigned in Jaen, Nueva Ecija after dropping off a political detainee who was just released; he was gunned down on December 5, 2017. Four...
Viewed as the oldest Catholic-run hospital in the region, the history of San Pedro Hospital dates to prewar times when five Dominican nuns from Canada travelled to Davao at the invitation of the PME Fathers, the missionary priests from Quebec, Canada, to establish a medical...
The 1897 Holy Week celebration at San Pedro Church in Davao was quite a sight, attended no less by five priests and three brothers. With a growing population of converts in and around the old town, the public reception, led primarily by dedicated public officials...
As head of the Jesuit mission in Davao, Fr. Saturnino C. Urios, SJ, was well aware of the love-hate rapport the people showed towards the colonial authorities, in part due to the strictures imposed and the rough treatment some of the natives received for committing...
The Jesuit missionaries confronted the slave system through a number of direct and practical strategies by establishing mission settlements designed to offer refuge to vulnerable populations. Indigenous communities were encouraged to settle near mission stations, where the presence of missionaries and sometimes Spanish detachments provided...
When Fr. Saturnino C. Urios, SJ, arrived in Davao on 15 September 1892 as its new local superior, many of the areas that were largely converted to Christianity continued to embrace their animist practices. Among the Bagobos, despite the stern warnings from the colonial authorities...
The start of the massive conversion of the Moros in Davao to Catholicism took place in 1894-95, just years before the end of Spanish colonial rule. On September 28, 1894, for instance, Father Urios baptized 127 Moros, many of them datus and panditas. By October,...
Deemed as one of Davao City’s famous historical landmarks, the Metropolitan Church of Saint Peter, also known as San Pedro Cathedral, dates its origin to 1848. The first makeshift chapel, dedicated to San Pedro, Roman Catholicism’s first pope, was built in its present location after the...
A decree issued on July 30, 1860 by Queen Isabel II led to the creation of a politico-military government in Mindanao and its neighboring islands. Under Article 13 of the edict, which was published in the Gaceta of Madrid on August 5, Mindanao was subdivided...