Philippines / Metro Manila / Sightseeing / San Agustin Church

On orders from Philip II the area on which San Agustin stands was designated by Adelantado Miguel Legazpi to the Augustinian order. San Agustin Church is the oldest church in the Philippines, completed in 1606. But it was not the first church built in Manila by the Spaniards, and it was not even the first San Agustin Church. At the same site the Spaniards had built other churches before, constructed of wood. The first church was consecrated here June 24, 1571, the day Manila became capital of the Spanish colony. But in the following decades the wooden buildings burned down three times. So in 1599, the construction of the current stone church began.

As Filipinos were not stone-masons the work was done by Chinese workers who ironically left several stone-carved Chinese dogs to guard the Christian edifice. They must have done their job well.

San Agustin is the only church in Manila which has resisted all earthquakes and the bombings of World War II. It has lived up to the motto "Firmiter Aedificata" (strongly built), given to it in early times.

To the right of the main altar is a chapel con-taining a tomb with the skeleton of Miguel de Legazpi.

For centuries, San Agustin Church has been the center of the Agustinian Order, not only for the Philippines but for all of Asia. And even now, it is used as an Agustinian seminary. This is the reason why not all of the facilities are open to the public.

The halls of the lower floors and a part of the second floor were converted in 1973 into a Museum that displays Hispanic-Filipino religious art. The Recibidor and Refectoro has frescos, statues, carvings and antique furniture from the collection of the late Don Luis Araneta. There is a crypt (Cripta) where prominent Filipinos and Spaniards are entombed as well as a memorial to 141 POW's killed by the Japanese in WW II. The Sala de la Capitulacion,according to tradition, is where Gov Gen Fermin Jaudenes prepared the draft for the surrender of Manila to the US in 1898.

A collection of very fine liturgical vestments is on display in the Sacristia. Also on display are the collection of the Intramuros Administration and a 19th century photo collection of churches built throughout the Philippines by the Augustinians.

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