In the decades before the Americans took possession of the islands in 1898, Davao was a frontier where faith, culture, and power clashed. Jesuit missionaries, who returned to Mindanao in after nearly two centuries of absence, found themselves in one of the most complex and...
The advance Protestantism gained in its first 13 years in Davao created animosity with the Catholic preachers in Davao. From being without rival before the Americans took over, the new wave of evangelists, more aggressive and superior in number, did not lose time in braving...
Fifteen years into the American regime, the population of Catholics in Davao region was anywhere close to 80,000 which, in terms of ratio, was 45 to 55% of the estimated demographics. This was followed by animist and indigenous believers at 20 to 30%; Islam followers,...
The Canadian missionaries took over the Davao mission from the Jesuits in December 1939, and started opening new parishes. That same year, Fr. Cote opened the Kingking (Pantukan) parish. To the south, new parishes were also formed. Fr. Poirier founded the Saint Joseph Parish of...
Founded on Feb. 2, 1921, in Quebec, Canada, the Foreign Mission Society of Quebec is known more by its PME initials, or Société des Missions-Étrangères du Québec in French. The first attempt to send Canadian missionaries to the Philippines to conduct pastoral work in the Chinese...
Long before Davao del Sur was created as a province, the entire area was known simply to the residents as Santa Cruz, a sprawling territory that was home to the Bagobo tribespeople. Over time, the once vast forest and coastal expanse was systematically subdivided into...
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...
Fr. Saturnino Urios, SJ, after whom a university he founded in Butuan was named, was born in 1843 in Valencia, Spain, during a time of significant religious and political upheaval in Europe. A man of deep faith and academic rigor, he entered the Society of...
A Jesuit missionary from Spain, Fr. Mateo Gisbert, SJ, was among the earliest Christian evangelizers to bring the Roman Catholic faith to Mindanao during the Spanish colonial period. His mission in Davao, which took place in the latter half of the 19th century, marked a...
Characteristically calm, soft-spoken, amiable, and smiling, Fr. James P. Noonan was a devoted Maryknoll priest whose life was marked by leadership, compassion, and a deep commitment to serving poor communities across the globe. As head priest of Compostela, Davao de Oro, parishioners looked up to...