400-year-old church in Pila is Laguna’s first national shrine

CHURCH TREASURE The San Antonio de Padua parish church in Pila, Laguna, now a national shrine, is among the treasures of the Catholic Church in the country. —CHRIS QUINTANA/CONTRIBUTOR

SAN PEDRO CITY — The lakeside town of Pila in Laguna province, known for its historical and cultural treasures, will soon become a major pilgrimage destination after the Catholic Church elevated the status of its more than 400-year-old San Antonio de Padua church to a national shrine.

Msgr. Jerry Bitoon, vicar general of the Diocese of San Pablo, said church officials were grateful for the “honor” that having a national shrine brings. It is the first national shrine under the diocese and the 25th in the Philippines.

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), in January, approved “unanimously” the petition to declare the church a national shrine, the oldest in the Philippines named after the patron of things lost or of people looking for healing, Bitoon said.

On Tuesday, Davao Archbishop Romulo Valles, CBCP president, led a “solemn declaration” elevating the church’s status from being a diocesan shrine since 2002.

Landmark

Rosauro Sta. Maria, head of the Laguna tourism, culture, arts and trade office, said local officials were expecting a boost in the province’s “faith tourism” with the change in the church’s status. Among the popular sites for pilgrims in Laguna are the Lolo Uweng ng Landayan (Diocesan Shrine of Saint Sepulchre) in San Pedro City and the Our Lady of Turumba (Diocesan Shrine of Nuestra Señora de los Dolores de Turumba) in Pakil town.

The San Antonio de Padua church is a central edifice among dozens of centuries-old houses at Pila’s town center. The government has been leading efforts to preserve the town plaza as a “heritage village” that has become comparable to Vigan’s popular Calle Crisologo.

In May 2000, the National Historical Institute (now National Historical Commission of the Philippines) declared the church and the plaza a “national historical landmark.”

Smaller

The construction of the original church, made of adobe bricks and stones, was completed in 1671 at Barangay Pagalangan (which later became part of Victoria town).

But the original site was constantly flooded that the governor general in 1794 ordered the church moved to another location.

“Story has it that the transfer was done piece by piece,” Bitoon said in a telephone interview.

The church was rebuilt on its present site in 1816. However, accounts said it was smaller than the original structure in Pagalangan.

‘Pinagpala’

People believed Pila derived its name from “pinagpala” (blessed), after the town survived heavy bombing during World War II.

Story has it that Pila was miraculously spared as American soldiers fighting off the remaining Japanese forces “only saw water” when they came across the town, Bitoon said.

He said not even the Parish of St. Paul the First Hermit or the San Pablo cathedral survived, but the Pila church did.

In a statement, the CBCP said it hoped people would “grow steadily in Christian piety, reach maturity in the Catholic faith and constantly live the mandate of Christian charity,” when they visit the national shrine.