Feast Day: January 17

History: A Dominican, Ensayo II felt there was a necessity to build a permanent church upon the foundation of the parish in 1810. It was an Augustinian priest, however, Fr. Luis Toro who was commissioned to undertake the construction. In order to build the church, slabs and tiles cut out of rocks and stones found on hills and rivers. They bought the marble tiles for the floor from the city. Like other churches during the Spanish era, parishioners from the poblacion and barangay were forces to work in building the church.

After four full years of hard work, the main parts of the church were finally completed in 1814 under the incumbency of Fr. Serapio Gonzalez.

A story of martyrdom also happened inside the 1810 church. It was in 1873 when a parish priest, Rev. Fr. Isidro Badrena whose desire to spread catholic faith is strong that he sacrificed his life and died a martyr’s death at Sitio Balabago, Batga, Tubungan in the hands of the Babylans led by Ramos while holding the rites of the latter. The priest was buried inside the old church.

It was in 1900, when a Filipino priest from St. Vincent Ferrer Seminary became the parish priest, Rev. Fr. Felix Gedican. But only a decade later, he was replaced with Fr. John Janssen when the parish was turned over to the Mill Hill Missionaries.

The 1810 church was burned down by the USAFEE to prevent the Japanese army from using it as a garrison when the World War II broke out in 1942.

After the war in 1947, Fr. Andrew Jacobs built a bamboo church with salvaged galvanized iron roof inside the burned old church. However, in the 1948 earthquake, the church and the convent were destroyed. He built a new bamboo church fronting the ruins of the convent.

It was replaced with a wooden semi-permanent construction during the incumbency of Rev. Fr. Luiz Zotz in 1951. He donated much of his personal money for the construction. In 1958, the belfry was constructed and was finished two years later. Rev. Fr. Andres Sagra was able to continue several other renovations for the improvement and the restoration the grandeur that was once standing in the vast space in the middle of the plaza.

the catholic church of leon, iloilo

According to MRF Julean Martin in his Archivo Historico Hispano, the Leon Roman Catholic Church is the biggest stone edifice in the whole Panay. The Renaissance-Romanesque style church stands proudly in the heart of the town, fronting the plaza.

Although the town was established in 1866, the problem of where to build their house of worship surfaced. It was the Vicareate of Cebu that prearranged the church should be built in the most elevated section of the town. For two years, the governor of the town exempt from sending force labor.

this used to be the wall of the former church

Stones, primarily lime stones were quarried from the adjacent hills of Ayabang in the north and Cabobogan in the south. Stones were transported by sledges, rafts of human labor. It was then shaped into shapes called “tabla.”The builder and architec was Fr. Manuel Arizmendi. The scaffoldings were placed on both sides of the walls. It covers almost two streets, Sta. Catalina St. and Sto. Niño St. extending to about 300 feet. The altar that was made in Camando was transferred to the main building when it was about to be finished. The slabs were pasted with a gutate substance from the hinaramay tree with mixture of lime, water and white egg.

The altar was made of wood with lateral carvings molded with lime and then painted. It was placed in the interior wall bordering Sto. Niño Street. The high altar of configuration was made by Fr. Jose Gorosari in Camando. It has two rows of five niches on top of the other, with one niche at the top most with St. Catherine’s image on it.

The altar and the candelabra were made of hardwood covered by silver ornate. Columns of porches which divided the church into trees naves. Chandeliers of Arana de Luces were hanged along the columns. The choir loft was found in the entrance, there were an organ and a carillon. Don Juan de Cambronero donated Php 327.00 for the musical instruments in 1891.The church have three aisle of huge proportion that could be compared to the Cathedral of Leon in Spain. The church’s spacious transept is a blending of Doric and Byzantine design. It was said that the church was a result of fraternal rivalry between parish priests of Oton and Leon.

Fr. Serapio Gonzales officiated the first mass in 1873.

In 1898, when the Americans came they unroofed the crucero and the altar at the back and brought it to roof the school building on west side of the plaza. According to history, the mountains of Leon was a refuge during the time of unrest. Americans made it their haven during the revolution of 1898. The placed served as a prison for the natives during the Japanese era and served as their garrison as well.

The devotees made a barong-barong in lieu of the old church during the revolution amidst the debris and ashes of the old one. A church within a church was built by the Mill Hill fathers assigned in this parish with the rehabilitation fund in 1946.

Almost two decades later, in 1966 the plan for the reconstruction was started. Leonians here and abroad contributed to the fund that was to restore their house of worship back to its former glory.

Alimodian Catholic Church

Alimodian became an independent parish from Oton in October of 1574. A few months later, a house of worship made of cogon, bamboos and logs was established. In 1784, a new church made of briks and rocks plastered with lime was built under the leadership of Fr. Francisco Monasterio and was partially damaged by the earthquake in 1787.

The cornerstone of the new and permanent church was laid on the 5^th of December in 1859 amidst a lavish religious ceremony with the singing of Te Deun, Laudamus Litania de San Marcos, ringing of church bells and signing of documents of church and town officials. Coins (1 sicualohon (P0.6 ¼), 1 sicapaton (P0.12 ¼), 1 capatihon (P0.25), 1 salapion (P0.50) 1 pisoson (P1.00), a gold necklace and documents were burried on the church’s proposed main entrance. The visitors then were brought in the home of Capitan Timoteo Amarra. On December of 1864, five years later, the church was formally opened. In a tri-square form, a convent same size as the church occupy the north to south and winding westward was started immediately and completed in 1868.

the statue of st. john the baptist pouring water over christ's head inside the baptistery

This house of worship is another product of force labor. A quota was given to the cabeza de barangay or face lashing or palmeta. They gathered tabla from Camando (now a part of Leon) which is more or less 25 kilometers away. Labor was not paid and laborers were to bring their own food. Even women and children were employed in gathering lime stones and turning them into lime. (Lime is produced by roasting white stones in improvised oven for nine days and nights pouring cold water over them to cool then pounded to produce lime powder). It was mixed with clay and stomped with human feet or by carabao and shaped into rectangles or squares and burned in the kiln. Walls, roofs and floors of the church were made of tisa.

A stampede brought by an unidentified intensity earthquake that shook the building caused injury to many people on Sunday morning of the 20^th of June 1869.

The installation of new bells made of bronze of silver alloy was done on February 17, 1877. The bells were made from a foundry in La Villa de Arevalo a year before by Juan Reyes. In order to get the bells to Alimodian, two pairs of bull carts were arranged side by side while residents form a queue on the streets offering Spanish coins to settle the hauling expenses.

Hundreds of men were utilized to pull the bells using a big cable up to the belfry. One man died in the process when the cable snapped. The largest bell weigh about 1.5 tons, it was said that a man named Pino placed the largest bell on its place. Each bells had names inscribed on its surface such as: San Agustin, Sta. Monica, Ma. Consolacion de Leonisa, Sto. Tomas de Villanueva and San Ignacio de Loyola.

The roof made of bricks and limes were changed into galvanized iron in February 13, 1882. Five years later, on the same day in 1887, an earthquake rocked the building that caused the statue of San Agustin to fall from its niche over the main entrance of the church.

During the World War II, the convent became the refuge of wealthy families from the city. However, when the Japanese landed in Oton, people fled to the mountains, leaving the whole town bare and a magnet to thieves and robbers. In the fear that the church will be used as storage of supplies and hiding place of the enemy, the Civil Government ordered it to be burned. The only remnants of the old church were the base and walls made of tabla and bricks. Luckily two saints were saved from ashes: Sto. Tomas de Villanueva was saved by Tomas Claveria and Santo Entiero by Antonio Allonar.

Post-war damage claims brought new improvement to the church in 1946. Pews were donated and two side altars were roofed with nipa. But on the dawn of January 28, 1948, the infamous earthquake “Lady Kaykay” shook the whole island of Panay causing the major portion of the church, convent and two-thirds of the belfry to topple down, bringing all the bells except the largest one to the ground.

the old face of Alimodian Catholic Church

A temporary church was built on the southern part of the ruins and beside it is a convent made of wood, bamboo and nipa. After the assurance of the engineer of the safety of the façade, the parishioners decided to contribute and pool their resources to put up a permanent church — roof made of galvanized iron, cemented arches and iron bars reinforcement, and walls plastered with cement. Fr. Juan Nacawili modified the main and side altars while the walls behind the main altar were changed into hallow blocks. Mr. Manuel Alegrado donated new communion rails and a pulpit made of marble. The church was open for public worship in 1951. The next year, the ‘Caballeros de San Jose’ fixed the remains of the belfry and installed the bells.

the beautiful landscape beside the church

In the present, a huge concrete figure of Our Lady of Lourdes stands on the convent ruins, a triple arched concrete canopy broken with a bass relief of an Augustinian Emblem stood life-size images of St. Peter, St. Joseph and at the center, St. Thomas of Villanova. The walls and buttresses of this house of God reveal a robust baroque architecture.