There's something interesting going on at the Janiuay Church

21 January 2015
© fergus jm ducharme & historicphilippines.com 2015
All Rights Reserved
1
The new 2015 HP concept presentation
Baclayon Church, A Unesco World Heritage Site photo by: Tonyo Cruz
written & photographed by: fergus jm ducharme
St Julian of Cuenca Church in Janiuay, Iloilo is the subject of major changes

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
2

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
3

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
4
Several weeks ago we were in Janiuay for a family function; and as we passed
St Julian’s Church I was stunned to see some extensive construction going on.
Obviously, this is something we would have to investigate.
You’ll recall, from our first report in 2012, that although the Augustinians
founded the first chapel in Janiuay in 1752. It wasn’t until the 1840’s that they
were able to undertake the construction of a ‘proper’ church.
In 2012, when we first visited and reported on the Church for our website:
historicphilippines.com, we found a mixture of old and new; that is to say the
ruins of the original church that was originally built by Friar Miquel Carod,
Janiuay’s parish priest between 1830 and 1871.
Friar Carod started construction in 1849 and it went well until November 1871
when he died with the ‘finishing touches’ yet to be made to the church. Friar
Nicholas Gallo replaced Friar Carod and finished the church and later built the
adjoining ‘convento’ in the same style as the church.

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
5
An original painting by Janiuay Artist Ian
Celebrar depicting the church & convento
shortly after completion in 1871 (oil on brick).

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
6
The ruins of the ground floor of the old
church and the convento have been
preserved over the years since their
complete destruction during the war.

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
7
The parish and its church flourished until the Japanese Occupation of World
War II, which started in 1942. Unfortunately, the church was torched in early
1942.
It is unclear whether it was torched by the Filipino Resistance to prevent its use
by the Japanese or by the Japanese themselves to extinguish any resistance
from the citizens against their regime of occupation, which was very brutal
indeed. Although, in truth, most long time residents will tell you ‘unofficially’
that it was the Resistance who did the deed just to deny the “Japons” use of it.
The “Japons” were known to use the Churches as ‘concentration camp’ type
prisons and the Priests’ residences as housing for their officers, since the
convents were the most “luxurious” housing available…
Our ‘Nanay’, Avelina, who was a little girls at the time, tells us of her memories
of the burning smell and the red skies for a few days when it happened and the
family continuously hiding from the dreaded “Japons”.
In any event, the church and adjoining convento were destroyed and were not
restored until 23 years after liberation. The new church; the one you can visit
today, was built immediately adjacent to the ruins of the original and it was
finally consecrated in 1968.

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
8

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
9
On our last ‘official’ visit to the church in 2012
or 2013 we noted that the lower part of the
ruins were actually being used as an overflow
when the church was full during regular and
special services.

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
10
The ground floor contained a magnificent altar
of carved wood & other ‘accessories’ carved of
the same wood.

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
11

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
12
On reaching ‘the roof’ or the second floor this is
the view towards the east that greets you. You
clearly see the outline of the former roof and in fact
some of the room partitions that occupied that
area. This section was where the fathers, lived at
the time.

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
13
If you look to the west over St Julian’s
shoulder, you see beautiful downtown
Janiuay and into the countryside in that
direction.

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
14
When in Janiuay last time, we explored and
examined the ruins a little more closely and
what we saw was very interesting.

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
15

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
16

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
17

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
18
This is the bell tower from the ground. The sign was new at our last visit in March or
April of 2014. At the time they were intending on building a new rectory and convent.
Things may have changed and we are checking it out.

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
19
To be remembered from our original visits and reports of 2012 & 2013, the ‘old church
and convento, were almost entirely built with bricks that were made on site in a kiln
that was commissioned by Friar Caro. He brought brick making technology to the area
in the early 1840s.

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
20

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
21

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
22
We had a look around the property, as it was the last time we made an official
visit and you can clearly see from the photos provided the actual condition of
the ruins as they stood in March and April of 2013.
Last week, our historicphilippines.com team spent the best part of a day in
Janiuay discussing the project with the people of the parish and this is the
result of our explorations and discussions.
We hope you enjoy what we were able to discover during our time in there.
For the record we spoke at length with Monseigneur Rabindarath Catalan the
newly arrived Parish Priest at St Julian of Cuenca from whom we learned that
Father Francisco Nicolasora, Janiuay’s long serving parish priest, had been
transferred to our home Church: Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception in
Oton.

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
23
On arrival at St Julian’s, the three
musketeers (Nilo, JoMarie and I) headed
directly to the Convento to let folks know
that we were around and what we were
doing.
We asked if we could speak with the Parish
Priest so that we could learn more about
the activities in and about the Church.
It was 10:45AM and we were told that the
Monseigneur was conducting a funeral and
would be finished at about 11:00AM.
The man works fast because no sooner had
we been told about our 15 minute wait than
he appears…at the Sacristy door.
He notices us and heads directly for the
‘big, Americano’ and welcomes us as if we
were long lost friends. What a nice guys,
says I to myself…we talk and get the
niceties out of the way and eventually get
down to business.

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
24
I explain to him what we want to accomplish and why. My life insurance industry
training comes in very handy in such situations.
That’s because, when you’re selling life insurance, you don’t have much time to
be able to build some interest in the prospect so that he’ll allow you to visit
longer and tell him about the kind of work you do for your clients.
The ‘talk’ is called, the “Elevator Talk” because the time you spend riding in an
elevator is about as much time as you have to interest someone to invest more
time in you to hear your full story. It’s usually less that 3 minutes.
I use this same technique, almost every time I meet someone new and have to
introduce our website and the type of work we now do for future generations.
Monseigneur Catalan was very kind to the three of us and offered to show us
around the construction sites which are the new Convento and Residence for
the Parish’s priests. In fact, he took us on a brief tour and showed us his new
home which will be officially opened next Sunday on the Feast of St Julian, at
the end of Fiesta, when the Archbishop will be in Janiuay for the ‘dedications’.

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
25
Monseigneur Catalan, shows us all
there is to see as the work goes on
furiously to meet the deadline of
Sunday’s dedications.

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
26
We’re shown the dining area and the ‘parlour’ as
the workers continue with their appointed tasks

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
27
The two dark coloured doors at the end of the hall are
the rooms for the Fathers with their private facilities.

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
28
We’re shown the guest room, with it’s private
washroom on the left…

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
29
We bid our new friend the Monseigneur a fond farewell,
with the promise that we’ll return soon to visit with him
some more and to bring She Who Must be Obeyed with
us. We went on our way only after Monseigneur took a
few more minutes to explain to us what the work on the
ruins was to accomplish.

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
30
Contrast and Compare:
This is the Old Convento that has served for over 70
years...it’s well past it’s “use before date” isn’t it. And
it’s past time for it to be retired…

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
31
…and replaced with the new one, which has all the modern
conveniences for men who ceaselessly do the work of
GOD, which work is not always the most pleasant and is
often very difficult. They need their personal refuge.

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
32

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
33

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
34
As we approach the ruins we note that although work is proceeding on the roofing of the
shell, the actual lower levels of the structure definitely needs some restorative work to be
done in order to ensure a long lasting renovation.

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
35

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
36
We enter the lower level through these massive and very heavy wooden doors. We are
surprised by the sheer size of this level, it appears bigger than the present Church…

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
37

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
38

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
39

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
40

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
41

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
42
During our exploration of the ground floor
we see some interesting things, including:
three stations of the Way of the Cross, that
do not appear to damaged and may have
survived since the early 1870’s when the
original church was ‘consecrated’. In
addition to that the statue of the Blessed
Virgin, which we have seen for the first
time. We will be following up on this to see
if we can discover the back story behind
the statue.
On one of our first visits we had spotted
the magnificently carved antique wood
altar depicted on the next page. This visit
we had a chance to see, up close, the
other pieces of the set. They consisted of a
massive lectern, two side tables, two small
chairs and a “Cathedra”. They are all
pictured on the pages that follow.

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
43

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
44

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
45
Behind the massive carved wood altar, for
the first time we saw this water feature
and pool that reaches up to the second
level. A very interesting sight.

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
46
Next to the water feature, on the left is a
sort of grotto which contains what appears
to be an original painting of St Joseph
holding the baby Jesus.
More investigation is needed on several of
these artifacts to determine their age. They
are truly beautiful pieces of art which
should be safeguarded & preserved for the
children of the future generations.

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
47

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
48
As we continued our explorations of the ground floor we happened upon for more plaques
representing stations of the Way of the Cross. Whether or not they have any value is a
matter for experts to determine. To my completely untrained eye – they appeared very old
and perhaps valuable. They were carelessly piled on a window sill exposed to all the
elements. We carefully moved them to a more protected area ostensibly so that we could
photograph them…here is what we found.

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
49

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
50

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
51
Someone who really knows archeology and
old artifacts from the 18th and 19th centuries
really needs to take a look at the things we
discovered to determine their true value.
And, if in fact they are as old as I suspect
they might be then every effort should be
made to preserve them for posterity.
As we were leaving the ground floor to
head to the second. We came upon this
section of wall which in my untrained eye
showed the construction method that was
used when the original church was built. If I
am correct it would be an example of
‘tabique’. And it looks like this.
The wall was constructed in two parts. The
first part are the external shell which are in
effect to facing brick walls built over a solid
wall made of coral and other stone held
together with a mixture of lime and egg. A
sort of stone and dirt sandwich between
two slices of brick…Oh, and hold the mayo!

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
52
As we head upstairs, we see our old friends
the paintings of the original church and
convent as well as the painting of the
historic Town Cemetery both painted by
local artist Ian Celebrar a few years ago. He
was painting them when we were in Janiuay
on our first visit in 2012 on the walls of this
stairwell.
Unfortunately, they are now damaged and
look just awful – it’s a shame that such
beautiful works of this type are not
respected and taken care of as they should
be.

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
53
St Julian of Cuenca Church & Convento , Janiuay, Iloilo 1871 – 1942
Original oil painting by: Ian Celebrar

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
54
The Janiuay Cemetery built by Augustinian Friar Fernando de Llorente
between 1874 & 1883. Consecrated in 1883 by Manila Archbishop Pedro
Payo. A National Historic Landmark of the Philippines.
Original oil painting by: Ian Celebrar

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
55

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
58
I wondered what all the black stains
on the brick and stone walls was.
On closer inspection, it became
clear to me and to Nilo and Jomarie
who were also trying to figure it out
that these were soot marks left by
the soot of the fire set by the
resistance in 1942 when they burned
the church so that the Japanese
could not use it during their
occupation.

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
61
The roofing work is progressing well and
we leave to workmen to their jobs and head
back down to the ground level to see if
there is any thing new we can discover.
There are areas on both levels that are still
covered with the original slate floor tiles
pictured to the right. These areas of
flooring must be preserved for future
generations.
And new artifacts keep appearing on an
almost regular basis such as this ‘vase’ we
spotted on the roof level placed, for
safekeeping, we presume between four
pieces of rebar sticking out of the floor. If it
is of any real value it should be moved to a
secure location for safe keeping.

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
62
It is hoped that once the restoration work
is done that this section of hollow block
wall will have been removed and
replaced with the original type of grating
that we destroyed in the 1942 fire.

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
64
There is a small grotto on the ground level
of the old bell tower. It’s not very fancy and
in fact it’s a place for people to make an
offering and light a candle for their
intentions. Those intentions being colour
coded to the candles used…

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
65
As we are examining this small space,
Jomarie chances to look up at the roof
line and sees something extremely
interesting. What must have been the
window casement of this space has some
wooden boards that supported parts of
the stone walls which are scorched as if
they had been in a terrible fire – which in
fact they were. We were elated by his find.

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
76
As we mentioned earlier, eventhough the roofing project is laudable in itself, it is
incumbent on the parish council, the municipal authorities, the National Government
elected officials – the Senators and the Members of Congress who represent the
region to lobby for additional funds to ensure that a national treasure such as this
one is fully refurbished and renovated for the use and enjoyment of future
generations of Janiuaynons. The ball is in your court to take this further. It is
important to preserve the past so that everyone knows where they came from…
As we finished our exploration and before heading back home we took a few minutes
to sit in the Adoration Centre, say a prayer or two and contemplate what we had seen
today!
That was a brilliant conclusion to a great day On the Road Again!
Before concluding our visit I should let you in on what we were told about the use of
the renovated sections by the Monseigneur. According to him, there will be little
change in the use of the lower level. It has over the years served as an overflow
chapel when masses in the main church were full and now it will be used primarily as
the overflow for regular and feast days masses but also for the many funerals that
take place on a weekly basis.
The upper floor will serve as the Parish Activity Centre as well as having one or two
meeting rooms that could be made available for public ‘remunerated’ use…

21 January 2015
All Rights Reserved
78
Your historicphilippines.com team:
Roselyn J Parrenas: my wife, my translator and the big boss, she is:
‘She Who Must be Obeyed’.
Jomarie Acallar: friend, navigator, facilitator & assistant discoverer
Fergus JM Ducharme: writer, photographer and chief discoverer
Nilo Jimeno: friend, driver, facilitator & assistant discoverer

There's something interesting going on at the Janiuay Church

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

More from Fergus Ducharme

More from Fergus Ducharme (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (19)

There's something interesting going on at the Janiuay Church