Augustinian Recollect Legacies to Arts and Culture in the Philippines
Augustinian Recollect Legacy to Arts and Culture PROLOGUE: The Augustinian Recollect priest of yore1 An Augustinian Recollect priest assigned to remote parishes and mission stations in the Philippines of the past centuries, even late into the tumultuous 19th century, was fully cognizant that his pastoral work was no easy job. Proficient in the native language of his parish, he was not merely at the forefront of the evangelization task. He was not just a minister of God, who took care of the spiritual and sacramental needs of his flock. He was, first and foremost, a community builder. In many cases, the priest was tasked to set up towns, build roads and bridges, supervise the construction of churches, rectories and parochial schools in those sparsely populated territories, isolated islands or poverty-stricken mission stations. He even constructed markets, cemeteries and stone stairways leading to church edifices on elevated land. In the early decades of colonization, oftentimes the Recollect priest constructed stone forts, watchtowers, palisades and fortress-like temples to defend his parishioners from Moro surprise raids. Such mission territories were precisely the lot of the Order of Augustinian Recollects in the colonial Philippines. From the Iberian Peninsula through Mexico they came in 1606, the last of the religious orders to evangelize the Spanish colony. On the whole, Augustinian Recollect missionaries—Italian, Mexican, Portuguese, Spanish peninsular, insular or creole—were dispatched to far- flung territories in Mindanao, Camiguin, Dinagat, Sorsogon, Siargao, Zambales, Bataan, Calamianes, Palawan, Cuyo, Sibuyan, Tarlac, Siquijor, Negros and Bohol. They further received missions and parishes in islands of Masbate, Romblon, Marinduque, Tablas, Aurora and Mindoro.
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