Philippine Churches. The Church of San Geronimo, Morong, Rizal

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 Franciscans Fray Juan de Plasencia and Fray Diego de Oropesa were the first to evangelize this part of the colony and they chose Morong as the appropriate center for their work of evangelization.  They also established visitas in the sitios around the Morong mission which gave rise to the parishes of Baras, Tanay, Pililla, Cardona, Binangonan and Teresa.  Pueblo de Morong was designated the provincial capital of the Franciscans. 

Fr. Plasencia, who was excellent in Tagalog, compiled a dictionary of the vernacular and wrote a draft of a catechism which was later used for writing the Doctrina Christiana (1593), the first book printed in the Philippines.

Later, the visita of Pilang was separated and became the town of Pililla, followed by Binangonan in 1621.

Fr. Plasencia and Fr. Oropesa chose San Geronimo as the titular patron of the parish.  San Geronimo (St. Jerome) was a priest who lived in the 4th century and was responsible for translating the Scriptures from Hebrew to Latin.  

Through the missionary works of the Franciscans, the people of Morong were taught the faith and were later baptized as Christians.  

Although the town of Morong is mentioned in written history as early as 1572, the recognized year of the establishment of the parish of Morong is 1586, the year when the first church in the area was built under the leadership of the first resident parish priest, Fr. Blas de Madre de Dios, who succeeded the first two Franciscan missionaries.

According to Fr. Felix Huertas in his Estado Geografico (1885), a church made of bamboo, nipa and wood was built in the barrio of San Pedro on the southern side of the Morong River.  The church remained strong and standing despite the frequent overflowing of the river which caused flooding in the pueblo, but it did not survive the fire that consumed and damaged a large part of the town of Morong in 1612.

Three years later, a more solid stone church was built by Chinese artisans on the other side of the river, on top of a hill overlooking the entire town and safe from fires and floods.  The church was almost 42 meters high and 12 meters wide.

The Morong Church, dedicated to the priest St. Jerome, is the most beautiful and tallest church ever built by the Franciscans in the Philippines according to the account of Fr. Mariano Martinez (1887).  The architectural design, which is in keeping with the baroque style that fascinates many devotees and tourists today, is the product of many renovations to the original structure in 1855.  The then parish priest, Fr. Maximo Rico, wanted to build a bell tower for the old church, but the structure could not support a bell tower and the space in front of the church was too narrow to be utilized for the purpose and it would also cause an obstruction if there will be an expansion in the church in the future. So he made the decision to simply incorporate the bell tower into the facade of the church.

The construction began in the facade of the church with the bell tower designed by Don Bartolome Palatino of Paete, Laguna on June 24, 1850 and was completed on February 2, 1853.  It was a massive project that was carried out by the people, not only men but also women and youth, under the system of forced labor, who hauled large stones from the nearby Kay Ngaya hill and sand from the river.    Meanwhile, the wood was brought down from the mountain called Kay Maputi. 

The Morong Church facade and bell tower is considered as one of the most striking of all church facades along Laguna de Bay.  The central portion of the facade surges outward and the catenated balustrade above give the whole a dynamic felling.

The structure of the church facade is divided into three stories or tiers that seem to rise towards the sky.  The design of the first tier consists of 6 pillars with their own pedestals and cornices; three on each side of the door (two each in the center that run through the door and one each on each angled end of the structure).  The second tier consists of four pillars in the center with a large window in the middle and one again on each angled ed of the structure.  The same arrangement of pillars is found in the third tier of the structure.  Found at the center of the third tier is a beautiful statue of the patron saint, San Geronimo and above the niche of San Geronimo is the coat of arms of the Franciscan Order carved in bas relief style. On the top of the structure is the octagonal bell tower surrounded by eight pillars and four windows.  The bell tower is also surrounded by a cornice 8 inches thick that supports the baluster.  At the bottom of the bell tower are four statues representing the four cardinal virtues on its four sides.  In the vault of the bell tower is an angel statue standing on a pedestal, holding a sword in his right hand and a cross-shaped flag in his left.   There were 5 bells in the bell tower, 1 in each of the four windows, and one at the center. 

Over time, the church remained standing despite numerous calamities such as typhoons and earthquakes that tested its structural integrity. The church also became a shelter and defense for the people during the violence caused by the Filipino uprising against Spain and the Second World War.

After World War II, under the direction of Fr. Hugh O'Reilly, a Columban missionary, renovations were made to the church's dome.  On January 30, 1949, the church with its new dome featuring the four evangelists painted by National Artist Carlos "Botong" Francisco of Angono, Rizal, was blessed and re-inaugurated.

The administration of the Morong parish has alternated between the Franciscans, Augustinians and Jesuits, and then the Columbans over its centuries-old history.  It began to be governed by the diocesan clergy when Fr. Arnold Layoc was appointed as the first Filipino parish priest.

The church holds a relic of St. Jerome.  The first class relic was given to the parish in the year 2005, through the effort of then parish priest Fr. Lawrence Paz, when he led a pilgrimage tour to the Holy Land and Vatican City.  Two years later, another much bigger relic was gifted to the church by the main chaplain of the Church of St. Jerome in Rome.  This relic is now incorporated into the church's main altar, which is kissed by the priest at Mass. 

Recently, Morong Church was declared a National Cultural Treasure by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts.  

St. Jerome, priest and Doctor of the Church, titular patron of the Parish

Saint Jerome (Latin: Eusebius Hieronymus) was born in 347 in Stridon, Dalmatia and died in 419 in Bethlehem, Palestine.  His feast day is celebrated on September 30.  He was a translator of the Holy Scriptures and a monastic leader who is traditionally considered to be the foremost in wisdom among all the Latin Fathers.  

He lived as a hermit, became a priest, and served as secretary to Pope Damasus I and in 389, founded a monastery in Bethlehem.  His numerous writings on Scripture, asceticism and monasticism, and theology were highly influential in the early medieval period.  He is best known for his Latin translation of the Bible, the Vulgate.  He was also recognized as a scholar and doctor of the Church.

References:

A Pilgrimage of Faith with Mary: Diocese of Antipolo Silver Jubilee Celebration (2011).  Roman Catholic Diocese of Antipolo.

The Morong Church retrieved from http://ofmphilarchives.tripod.com/id7.html on June 8, 2020.

Photos: CTTO