Conversion to Catholicism in the last decade of Spanish rule in Davao was intense, with the pagan natives and the Moros living in remote areas as primary targets. In Mati, the evangelization efforts netted more than what the missionaries expected. Fr. Juan B. Llopart, S.J., reporting...
In Samal, there’s a clan that carries the surname Uyanguren. The family name, however, has no genealogic relations to Don Jose Oyanguren, the conqueror of Davao City but ac-quired as a result of baptism assigned and entered in church records as official surname of the...
Two decades after the Americans took over the district of Davao—an event that also led to the arrival of American Protestant preachers four years later—the surviving Roman Catholic parishes organized by Spanish missionaries remained under the care of the Jesuits. Cartas y Noticias Edificantes de la...
The Spanish priests, authorized to appoint civil officials, also assumed the role of assigning names or appellations to missions they opened and helped sustain. The usual practice was to honor places in Spanish where the assigning cleric was from, especially when there were similarities in...
When the steamer Labuan arrived in Davao on March 9, 1899, to fetch the remaining Jesuits who were ordered to leave town on orders of the head of the congregation in Manila, it had just come from the Pacific coastal missions of Mindanao for the...
The late Jesuit historian Fr. Jose Arcilla, in his preface to the six-volume ‘Jesuit Missionary Letters from Mindanao,’ wrote: ‘One of the problems the Jesuits to contend with was the strong influence of the Muslims. Being strategically located, they were a force to reckon with. Occupying...
The mission of Caraga was established by Fr. Pablo Pastells, SJ, and Fr. Juan Terricabras, SJ, who earlier substituted for Fr. Gregorio Parache, SJ, in Hinatuan, Surigao del Sur. Fr. Pastells left his Surigao assignment on October 4, 1876 and arrived at Cateel on November 1....
The mission to attract pagans to Catholicism was hampered by realities on the ground. The natives of Samal, for instance, opposed the plan to pay tribute to the Church. Invoking the 1848 promise made by Don Jose Oyanguren exempting them from tithes, they left the...
A week before Christmas, a daily Mass in honor of the Virgin Mother was held in the parish of Caraga but with a moderate number of people in attendance. On the last day of the vigil of Christmas, a simple Belen was set up outside...
The unrest brewing in the district of Caraga (Tandag) in the first decades of the 17th century, quickly spread to Davao Oriental. To the village chiefs of Baganga, mistrust towards the Spanish authorities was mounting. They volunteered to join forces with Gonzalo Portillo, the new...