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Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish Church
Enrique Villanueva was erected as a town and parish close to 50 years after the creation of the first five parishes in the island of Siquijor. It wasn’t part of the cluster of five parishes that were already established by 1877 under the religious administration of the Augustinian Recollects. Formerly known as Talingting, from the…
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Our Lady of the Divine Providence Parish Church
A mission of Spanish priests and laymen arrived in Siquijor from neighboring islands in 1790 and set about christianizing the inhabitants. They went from one community to another and came upon a place that surprised them for its abundance of molawin and other local hardwood trees. It was occupied by a settlement of Boholanos that…
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San Vicente Ferrer Parish Church
Known today as Larena, this town in the Province of Siquijor was once named Cano-an and it became a separate parish back in the early 19th century. Since it was the religious order that started administering to communities in the early part of the Spanish colonization around the mid 16th century, many towns started out…
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San Agustin de Hippo Parish Church
Perhaps the clear water that springs from beneath a huge rock and flows to form an aquamarine pool before rushing off to sea reminded the Spanish friars of the life and times of St. John the Baptist and led them to name this place northeast of Siquijor island as San Juan. Long before it was…
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Lazi Convent
The San Isidro Labrador Parish convent was patterned after the “balay na bato,” a residential style introduced by the Spaniards in the Philippines. Fr. Toribio Sanchez, who took over as Lazi parish priest in 1882, laid in 1887 the cornerstone for what later became the largest convent in the country and throughout Asia. Construction of…
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San Isidro Labrador Parish Church
Lazi started out as a visita that was regularly visited by priests based in the parish of Siquijor. Augustinian Recollects, who administered the island beginning in 1794, would come to Lazi and hold masses in a makeshift structure of nipa and bamboo that served as chapel. When its population reached over 7,000 in 1857, Lazi…
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St. Francis of Assisi Parish Church
Siquijor was established on Feb. 1, 1783 and was the first and only parish in the island for more than 50 years. Dedicated to St. Francis of Assisi for his love of nature, which the island has in abundance, the parish was administered by secular clerics until the Augustinian Recollects took over in 1794. The…
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Welcome to Siquijor
A small island ringed by bigger neighbors, Siquijor is better known for its moniker Isla del Fuego. It is also known for a group of inhabitants known locally as mangkukulam that dabble in witchcraft and the mystic arts. Just as widely established but not as publicized is its popular standing as a religious pilgrimage destination…