Stories from the Walls of the San Agustin Church and Convent

 

Today January 25, the Roman Catholic Church celebrates the Conversion of St. Paul, patron of San Agustin Church. 

 

When asked why do I go back to Intramuros when I have seen this place so many times before? My answer is simple: I what to see something new from something old. And one of the places I frequently visit in Intramuros is the San Agustin Church and Museum. 

 

 

Being the oldest church in the Philippines and the first to be built in Intramuros (and the one that would outlast other churches and buildings within the walled city), the San Agustin Church and its convent-turn-museum can offer so much for someone who takes time to discover something out of anything that was probably overlooked during the previous visits.  

 

 

A good source of information while touring the church and museum, aside from the brochure given at the porter’s lodge is the book authored by the affable museum curator Fr. Pedro Galende, OSA, San Agustin: Art and History 1571-2000. The book is available at porter’s lodge and in major bookstores.

 

 

 

The San Agustin Church

 

This ecclesiastical and historical institution that withstood fire, earthquakes and even great wars is a legacy of the first religious order to evangelize the Philippines –the Augustinians.  

 

The church was built by soldier and architect Juan Macias from 1587 to 1606. The façade is baroque in design. One of the two bell towers remained intact after the 1880 earthquake that destroyed the other. 

  

 

The richly carved doors of the main entrance show images of Santa Monica (mother of St. Agustin) and San Agustin surrounded by ornaments that resembles shells and flowers.

 

 

 

The images of Santa Monica and San Agustin on the entrance door that resemble that of a Chinese god and Chinese Fu Dogs lining the façade and the courtyard indicates the strong Chinese influence in Filipino design and architecture.  

 

 

 

 

The side portals along General Luna Street show images of San Nicholas de Tolentino with his partridge and lily and Santa Rita de Cascia holding a skull. 

 

 

Upon entering the church, one would instantly marvel at the amazing trompe l’oeil painting over the vaulted ceiling and dome by two Italian artists Giovanni Alberoni and Caesar Dibella in 1875. Viewed from below, the intricate design appears as three-dimensional.

 

 

Above the narthex is the magnificent coro or choir loft, the only one of its kind in the country. The Coro has sixty eight intricately carved kamagong choir stalls encrusted with narra inlays.

 

 

The focal point of the coro is the giant lectern that holds the cantorals (choirbooks) made of cowhide which dates back in the sixteenth and seventeenth century. The ivory statue of the Virgin that used to crown the giant lectern is exhibited in the Antesacristia

 

The eighteenth century pipe organ was restored. Pakil-born musician Marcelo Adonay played classical music in the coro.

 

 

The remains of conquistadores Legaspi, Martin de Goiti, Juan de Salcedo, and various early governors and archbishops are buried in a communal vault in a side chapel to the left of the main altar. Their remains were mixed up when the British desecrated the graves during the sacking of Manila in 1762.

 

 

The reclining bronze statue of Miguel Lopez de Legazpi was commissioned by Spanish sculptor Juan Miguel Iriarte.

 

 

 

Halls of History

   

The monastery complex was built in many stages with structures added through the years.

 

A huge iron cast bell greeted us upon entering the convent from porter’s lodge. Inscribed on the bell are the words “The Most Sweet Name of Jesus.” The bell was cast in 1829 by Benito delos Reyes.  It was taken down from the belfry damaged by the earthquake. The first hall, the Sala Recibidor was a former classroom. It houses the ivory collection of art patron Luis Ma. Araneta.

 

 

Along the four corridors of the ground floor cloister are fine frescoes and paintings that portray Augustinian saints and luminaries.

 

 

A retablo dedicated to San Nicholas de Tolentino and Saint Helena stands on one end of the corridor. 

 

The spacious halls of the monastery stood witness to several historical events. The Antesacristia or old Vestry has become to be known as the Sala de la Capitulacion because it was in that room where the drafting of the terms of surrender of Manila to the Americans by Governor-General Fermin Juadenes took place. 

 

I normally don’t enter the Antesacristia alone because of stories about the women who were raped and murdered by the Japanese enemy inside the hall. It was said that the spiral staircase (caracol) leading to the upper floors of the monastery was stained with blood of rape victims.  

 

Today, the room houses a collection of priceless church vessels, paintings and furniture. Adjoining the Antesacristia is the Antigua Sacristia which was noted to be the most beautiful hall in monastery. Faded traced Aztex-inspired frescoes are still visible on the walls.

 

The Sala Refectorio, the former dining room or adjoined by the crypt called the Sala de Profundis which was an anterefectory (members of the order used to converge here to says grace before and after meals). This room was converted into a crypt for the Augustinians and later for Filipino families. 

 

Entombed in the crypt are the remains of the scions of the Ayalas, Paternos, Pardo de Taveras, the Luna Brothers (Juna Luna’s remains were entombed in niche number 87) and even nationalist historian Teodoro Agoncillo. 

 

I visited the Sala de Profundis during the 150^th birthday of Juan Luna which was celebrated last October 24 instead of the date of birth inscribed on his tombstone (October 23). Historian Ambeth Ocampo, identifies the source of the confusion on actual date of birth of Juan Luna in his essay Questions about Luna. 

 

 

There is more to Juan Luna than when he was alive. Another interesting story about this artist is when his cremated ashes from Hong Kong made an odyssey to Manila, from a pail on which his son Andres Luna de San Pedro kept under his bed to the ashes of a house destroy in 1945 then to its final resting place at niche number 87. 

 

During the 1945 Battle of Manila, the Japanese soldiers used San Agustin as headquarters and concentration camp for the residents of Intramuros. Weapons were stocked in the cloister and mounted on the belfry. About 7,000 Intramuros residents were imprisoned in the cloisters. At time when Filipino-American forces were winning the Battle of Manila, the hostages were crowded into old basement which the Japanese set on fire with explosives. 

A Memorial of the Fallen commemorates the victims of Japanese atrocities.

 

Antique carrozas line the ground floor corridor.  The carrozas are used to bear an image of a saint during a religious procession done either inside or outside the church. 

 

 

The grand staircase or gran escalera has forty-four pieces of Piedra China cut stones. It has a brick-covered dome, six rectangular windows and its walls are lined with eighteenth and nineteenth century paintings. 

 

 

Upon ascending the stairs, we were welcomed by a mellow atmosphere brought by the natural lighting filtered by the stained glass windows that open to the inner patio.  

 

One of the rooms in the convent that gives me the creeps is the Antecoro. For some reason I get the feeling of an unknown presence when I pass this room to get to the Coro or choir loft (oh well, probably “it’s just in the mind” and so I tell myself). Until I’ve learned about the Fr. Sepulveda Murder Case .

 

 

Information source:

San Agustin: Art and History 1571-2000 by Fr. Pedro Galende

 

Click here for the next related article.  

Click here to begin the tour at Plaza Roma.