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 Fra...