SANTA MARIA, ILOCOS SUR

  CHURCH     

Apo Santa Maria Asunta    

Updated 01 August 2002

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     The Santa Maria Church in the Archdiocese of Nueva Segovia in the Province of Ilocos Sur is the most magnificently located of all the churches in Ilocandia.  Perched on a hill, it surveys the coastal plains and surrounding hills for miles and the blue China sea.  It is approached by three broad stairways - one from the eastern side where lies a now abandoned cemetery with a quaint chapel, another from the southwest side at the back of the church and the main stairway with 83 steps from the northwest.

    The church facade itself is not too impressive, being blocked from view by the convent.  But its rose-tinted stonework is worth a second look.  So are the Moorish floral and foliate designs around the water recesses.  The svelte octagonal bell tower nearby seems a stark contrast to the church's solid body.

    The parish was established in 25 April 1765 and served as a station of the Augustinian missionaries in 1822 on their  way to evangelize Abra.  The first parish priest was Fray Jose Cuadrado, OSA.  The original Ermita of the small village once known simply as Purok was in sitio of Bulbulala in Barangay Maynganay Norte.   It started as a visita of Narvacan.  As the community grow, a twin chapel was built at the center of the town in the present of Poblacion.  This is rarity in Philippine colonial architecture. The southern chapel was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary and the northern chapel was dedicated to Senior Sto. Kristo.  These chapel were located just at the foot of the hill where the present church was built.  The construction of the church begun in 1810 apparently obeisance to the wishes of Blessed Virgin Mary whose image would periodically be found there by the foot of a large guava tree growing right at the spot where the main altar now stands.  This God-fearing community deemed it wise to follow the heavenly hint and transferred the church on top of the hill where it now dominates the surrounding countryside like a massive fortress with brick buttresses and thick ramparts.  The fortification and cemetery was the work of Fray Lorenzo Rodriguez, OSA, in 1863. The convent was built in mid-1880's by Fray Benigno Fernandez, OSA.  On this shrine, The Virgin Mary serves as a perennial beacon and guide to her children in Ilocos where she is known not only as Apo Asunta or Asuncion but also as Apo Caridad, Apo Esperanza, Apo Carmen, Apo Rosario and La Inmaculada Concepcion.

      The statue of Apo Baket is made of wood in ornate style with ivory face and hands.  It is 112 cms. tall.  Her hands are extended wide and her head is looking upward portraying her assumption into heaven. Her blue cope is decorated with silver floral designs and her white dress is embroidered with gold thread floral motif.  She stands on a pedestal of clouds surrounded by angels' heads.  This image were her bejeweled dress was kept in an elaborately carved wooden chest believed to have been used for cargo in a galleon ship.  Her feast day is 15 August.

        The entire church site was designated as a National Historical Landmark in 1 August 1973 and included in UNESCO's World Heritage List in 11 December 1993, together with three another churches as a classic example of Philippine earthquake baroque architecture and this Ilocano town's contribute to global art and culture.