WALA LANG
Whoever it was who stole and/or sold pulpit panels, paintings, gold, silver, and ivory objects, and other valuables of Boljoon church ignored as worthless the documents and parish records in cabinets and bookcases. These are mainly lists of baptisms, marriages, and deaths. The earliest are in records of baptism in pigskin-bound books dating back to 1793. Earlier lists were evidently destroyed in 1782 when the town, including the church, was burned by slave raiders from Mindanao.
A few are records of parish activities, among them three sets of inventories. The earliest has entries beginning in 1795 upon completion of church reconstruction. The inventory was updated in various years until 1831. A second inventory was taken in 1914, again updated in various years until 1939. The third inventory was taken in 1947. The Augustinians and briefly the Jesuits had been administering the parish of Boljoon and other towns of Southern Cebu from early in the 1600s when the population was converted to Christianity. They were scheduled to turn over administration to secular priests under the Bishop of Cebu in 1948 and the inventory must have been taken in preparation for the turnover. Updates were subsequently made, the latest in 1973. Losses began to be noticed by parishioners soon after.
The 1795 inventory is in a volume entitled Libro de Alajas de esta iglesia de Bolhoon and begins with an enumeration of the gold objects adorning the patroness’ image (Nstra. Sra. del Patrocinio de Maria Santísima). Then follow objects of silver for the administration of the sacraments, for the altar, and for processions. Images are listed, some of ivory and precious metals, some for the church’s three retablos and barrio visitas, and others for Holy Week and other processions. The inventories lengthen as more objects are acquired.
The jewelry of the Patroness’ image included gold objects—crown, rostrillo (face frame), pendant, rosary, earrings and bracelets, bejuquillos (fine mesh necklaces), and three relicarios. Silver objects included altar frontals, altar tablets, candlesticks, sanctuary lamp, ciriales (cross, guidon, candles) borne on silver poles at the head of processions, objects for use at Mass (chalice, ciborium, monstrance, cruets, incense burner) and the administration of the sacraments (holy oil containers, a shell-shaped cup for baptismal water, etc.). Images included a Santo Cristo and a Niño Dormido (the sleeping infant Jesus venerated at Christmas) of ivory and the large images in the church’s three retablos and in barrio visitas. Trunks-ful of gold-embroidered vestments for priests and for images are also listed in the inventories.
Neither the pulpit nor the now-famous pulpit panels were listed, being probably considered as part of the church building and of low value being of wood.
There are no descriptions detailed enough to be able to identify with certainty a missing object, although some objects have been photographed by San Carlos University’s Cebuano Studies Program and possibly others. There may also be snapshots of baptisms and weddings that incidentally show some already missing object. Moving forward, there is an obvious need for professional photographs to be taken of remaining church valuables with detailed descriptions and measurements. This will help prevent outright theft and unauthorized disposals of remaining church antiquities.
Photographs of key details should help prevent a devious practice noticed by historian and archivist Regalado Trota whereby a replica is substituted for an original image. A person in authority (often the parish priest) approves or orders the “repair” or “restoration” of an image or relieve to be done by an “expert and trusted” artist or restorer only for the latter to return with a newly carved and beautifully painted lookalike. The real thing is then quietly sold to an unwitting collector or co-conspirator as the case may be. This has apparently happened on more than one occasion, with the typical parishioner remarking how much better the image looks with its shiny new paint. Restorations, particularly of large relieves, should be done only when absolutely necessary and preferably in situ.
Prof. Jose also suggests that church and art history be included in seminary curriculum, noting that “An appreciation of church cultural heritage and history (not necessarily knowledge, which could be assigned to specialists) would be very complementary in the formation of priests. The only seminary I know of that has this kind of formation is the UST Central Seminary, which has a course on Christian Archaeology. During the course, field trips are taken to a selected region to visit heritage churches and museums. We need much more of these.”
More knowledgeable priests would appreciate the beauty and uniqueness of the Philippine churches. Don’t we love color, whether in clothes, calesas, jeepneys, or for that matter, in churches?
- Surviving behind San Agustin’s pipe organ are traces of the nave’s originally multi-colored walls of reds, greens, and yellows. At Santa Ana church, a professional analysis done in New York of the baptistry’s paint layers (there were about 15) revealed that as originally painted in the early 1700s, its walls were red and yellow with strips of black.
- Remaining bits of paint in the National Museum’s Dimiao retablo show that it used to be incredibly colorful and with gilding of real gold leaf. Most surviving retablos have by now lost their uniquely Filipino touch, having been stripped down to the underlying wood, varnished brown with “gold” trimmings a la Forbes Park’s Santuario.
Over the years, I’ve come across remarkable features of various churches, a few surviving but many regretfully swept away.
- When I first visited a church in Ilocos (it may have been Narvacán), the walls of the nave had painted curtains of red with yellow tassels. On my next visit years later, the walls were all white. It seems a balikbayan thought it was badúy and donated the paint to obliterate the unique feature.
- I badgered my Tia Juli to attend Mass at Intramuros’ San Agustin church when I was a kid and I noticed its flooring of thick wood planks. That was about 1950 and now all is ordinary tile. The garden in the inner court used to be sectioned, each defined by a foot-high adobe border that made it more interesting.
- Manila’s Santa Ana church has preserved many of its 18th century features, notably the Camarin de la Virgen behind the main retablo with a ceiling painted with scenes in the life of the Virgin and the platform that bore the image of Nstra. Sra. De los Desamparados on its journey from Acapulco aboard a Manila Galleon and with its original Ming porcelain tile floor; the choir loft with a trellised border; the multi-level dome with paintings of the Apostles; and the convent with its original capiz windows.
Surely it would help improve the care of our few remaining monuments if priests and parishioners know that “baroque” is not a synonym of “old” and that there are such things as mannerist, rococo, neoclassic, art nouveau, art deco, and of course modern and that not all frailes were like Padre Damaso and Padre Salvi. Surely there were better custodians of Boljoon than the Filipino priests who in the 1970s and 1980s oversaw the loss of what 200 years of Augustinian frailes gathered and treasured.
Note: Reference: Manalo, Ino, “Reading the Records of Boljoon,” Bersales, J. Eleazar and Manalo, Ino, Integración/Internación: The Urbanization of Cebu in Archival Records of the Spanish Colonial Period (Cebu and Manila: University of San Carlos Press and National Archives of the Philippines, 2017), pp. 132-161.
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