Katekismo Corner: On Christianity in the Philippines and the Devotion to Santo Niño: No. 8

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On Christianity in the Philippines and the Devotion to Santo Niño

In the Philippines, the 3rd Sunday of January is the Feast of Santo Niño. Connected with this Feast is our commemoration of the Coming of Christianity in the Philippines in 1521. The year 2021 is the celebration of the 500th year since the Cross of Jesus Christ stood and the First Holy Mass celebrated on our Land. Fray Pedro Valderrama, the Chaplain of the Magallanes’ expedition, officiated the Mass and the Baptism of the first natives to accept Christianity.

The Navigator Fernando Magallanes reached the shores of Samar on the 5th Sunday of Lent of 1521. He saw the many islands and named them as the Archipelago of Saint Lazarus because the Gospel of that day was the raising up from the dead of Saint Lazarus. The explorers continued sailing and reached the island of Limasawa where they were peacefully received by the King of Butuan, Rajah Culambo, who also ruled over Limasawa.

According to Antonio Pigaffeta, the chronicler of Magallanes, on the 31st of March of 1521, they disembarked and planted the Cross of Christ and celebrated Holy Mass for it was Easter Sunday.

On April 7, 1521, they reached the Island of Cebu where they were warmly welcomed by the King Rajah Humabon who had friendly relations with Rajah Culambo. Magallanes taught Catechesis and introduced Christ to the King and his subjects. When a prince who had been ill for a long time was healed because of Christian prayers, they wished to be baptized. Magallanes explained that accepting baptism should not be out of fear nor by force. After they expressed their willingness, with 800 others, the King and his wife were baptized and given the names Carlos and Juana and given gifts of the images of the Cross, the Blessed Mother and the Boy Jesus, called Santo Niño.

According to Antonio Morga, the first to write a history of the Philippines, another expedition reached our land in 1545. Led by Ruy Lopez de Villalobos, they renamed the Archipelago of Saint Lazarus to “Las Islas de Filipinas” after King Philip II of Spain. In 1565, the expedition led by Miguel Lopez de Legazpi with the Augustinian Fray Andres de Urdaneta arrived in the Philippines. When they landed in Cebu, they found the image of the Santo Niño that was Magallanes’ gift to Queen Juana and named the settlement as the City of the Most Holy Name of Jesus. Though forty years have passed since the death of Magallanes, the Santo Niño was in perfect condition for the natives treasured it well and even venerated it because it had wrought miracles for them. Legazpi entrusted the image to the Augustinians and is now enshrined at the Basilica of Santo Niño in Cebu.

The missionaries reached the Bicol Region in 1569. Led by Fray Alonso Jimenez, they landed in Masbate and later entered the island of Luzon through Ibalon in Sorsogon and went further inland until they reached Naga. They saw many rice silos and so they named the region as Tierra de Camarines. In 1575, Captain Pedro Chavez named the spanish settlement in Naga as the City of Nueva Caceres, in honor of Governor Francisco Sande who hailed from Caceres province of Spain. Evangelization of Camarines was entrusted to the Franciscan Order. Led by Fray Pablo de Jesus and Fray Bartolome Ruiz, there was such rapid growth and spread of the Faith that in 1595, the territoty was raised into the Diocese of Nueva Caceres with the Franciscan Fray Luis Maldonado as her first Bishop.

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