The Wise Friar

Fray Gregorio Lima Hontomin, OP (1909 - 1982) Gregorio Andres Lima Hontomin (1909 - 1982) was born on November 21, 1909 in the barrio of Savidug of the small island town of Sabtang, in the province of Batanes to Angel Hontomin and Anatolia Lima who were both farmers as most of the people in Sabtang were.  He was the eldest of 6 children.  His siblings were Bienvenida, Emilia, Evaristo, Juana Bibiana and Jorge.  His parents were devout Catholics and were among the respected leaders of their town.   The scenic Batanes group of islands  holds two distinctions: it is the northernmost and the smallest province of the Philippines in terms of population and likewise, a point of entry as well as exit of tropical typhoons which make the people resilient in taming the wind. It was the Dominicans who pioneered in the evangelization of the habitable islands of Batanes. Sabtang, the island where Gregorio came from, is known for its baskets and for its boats. He could h...

A Heart Burning with Love: The Life of Sr. Maura Pelaez, SPC   Sr. Maura of the Sacred Heart Sr. Maura of the Sacred Heart C. Pelaez, SPC (1913 - 1974) was a professed member of the Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres, a religious congregation of women founded in France in 1696 by a young parish priest, Fr. Louis Chauvet.  In the Philippines, the Sisters of St. Paul arrived in Dumaguete City in 1904 and has since branched out to many other communities across the country. The sisters aim for integral human development and evangelization which they carry out through the apostolate of education, nursing, social and pastoral services, and ministry to the mountain tribes.  There were attempts by the SPC congregation to open the cause of Sr. Maura's beatification but it seems that Sr. Maura doesn't want to be officially recognized as a saint.  An unknown source says: "Sr. Maura, the bilocating "saint" never wanted to be canonized.  Known for her holiness and love for the...

More than a dance form, Subli is a religous ritual that venerates the Holy Cross Dance has always been an essential component of worship of people of various religious and cultural traditions. Man of times past up to the present, uses a variety of movements of his body – hands, hips, arms, legs and head in rhythmic successions and  combinations as a form of prayer, to express worship and reverence to God. In the historic town of Bauan, Batangas exists a traditional religious dance form called the “subli” which people perform to venerate the santo patron – the Mahal na Poong Santa Cruz . The ceremonial worship dance is usually presented during the town’s fiesta which is traditionally held every May 3.  It has also been tradionally practiced that every May 1 and 2 each year, the towns of Alitagtag and Bauan celebrate the Anubing Sublian Festival to pay homage and reverence to the Mahal na Poong Sta. Cruz .  The festival highlights the dancing of the Subli.  Short ...

Devotees dancing the pandanggo The celebration of Fiesta is a tradition that has deeply penetrated the veins of every Christianized Filipinos of whatever ethnic group. The commemoration of the Santo Patron’s feast day is a celebration of the best that the town has to offer in thanksgiving for the many blessings that had been bestowed to the people and the devotees in the previous year through the intercession of the town’s patron saint and to pray for the same abundance and blessing for the coming year. The highlight of the celebrations would be the Misa Concelebrada to be presided usually, by the Local Ordinary with priests from other parishes in the diocese concelebrating, and a grand procession in the afternoon participated in by the townsfolk and devotees coming from different places to pay homage and reverence to the Santo Patron.  The Three Patron Saints of Obando Fiesta in the Town of Obando But in the town of Obando, Bulacan, the celebration of the fiesta has been made ...

Other Casssandra Martyrs of Charity The Cassandra Martyrs is a collective term used to designate a group of 12 missionaries; 7 nuns, a priest, 3 lay Church workers and a protestant pastor who offered their lives to save passengers of the MV Dona Cassandra which capsized off the Coast of Northeastern Mindanao on that fateful day of November 21, 1983 during a typhoon.  The term "Martyrs of Charity" was first used by Pope John Paul II when he authorized the canonization of St. Maximilian Kolbe, a Franciscan Conventual Friar as a martyr of charity in October 1982. He over-ruled the recommendation of a theological commission which he created to determine whether Maximilian Kolbe could be canonized a martyr which voted that Kolbe's self-offering did not meet the theological and canonical criteria for martyrdom and proceeded canonizing St. Maximilian Kolbe not just as a confessor, but also as a martyr.   Recently, Pope Francis has issued a motu propio "Maiorem hac dilect...

Short History The Church of San Geronimo in the historic town of Morong, Rizal province was one of the first built by the early Spanish missionaries who set out from the center of the colony in Manila in their desire to spread the Catholic faith throughout the island of Luzon.   However, the first to reach Morong were not the missionary religious orders but members of the Spanish Army.  On January 16, 1572, a military expedition led by Captain Juan Maldonado went eastward from Manila, barely a year after Miguel Lopez de Legaspi founded the capital city.  They reached a highly civilized native settlement on the shores of Laguna de Bay.  They called it Moron, which later became Morong from a Spanish town of the same name.  This settlement became the center of their administration in those lands and was called Rinconada de Morong or Pueblo de Morong .   Six years have passed before the first missionaries arrived to spread Christianity.  The Fra...