In celebration of the 500th Year of Christianity in the Philippines in 2021, Loyola School of Theology is organizing batches of Philippine Heritage Tours in the Provinces of Rizal, Laguna and Pampanga, under the guidance of LST Philippine Church History and Loyola Schools Fine Arts Professor, Fr. René Pio B. Javellana, S.J.
These Philippine Heritage Tours are open only to LST Students and Faculty. Each tour can accommodate only 45 participants (1 bus).
The First Rizal-Laguna Heritage Tour is scheduled on the Saturday of the Octave of Easter, 18 April 2020 from 6:00 am to 7:00 pm with the following itinerary: the towns of Antipolo, Morong, Baras, Tanay and Pililla in the Province of Rizal, and Pangil, Pakil, Paete, and possibly Lumban and Pagsanjan in the Province of Laguna, if time allows.
Actual transportation cost per person is PhP 445.00 but students can pay the discounted fee of PhP 300.00, thanks to the generosity of LST benefactors. For further funding assistance, students may email admin@lst.edu. In order to reserve a seat, participants should make the full PhP 300.00 payment at the LST Cashier as soon as possible. The reservation fee is non-refundable.
The fee does not include meals. Participants can bring their own snacks and lunch. The tour includes a stop in a restaurant for lunch.
As a “first come, first served” reservation arrangement, those who cannot be accommodated will be informed as soon as all seats have been taken and will thereby be prioritized for the next tour.
The Franciscan Mission in Rizal, Laguna and Southern Luzon
The Ordo Fratrum Minorum (Order of Friars Minor, OFM) is a mendicant religious order founded by St. Francis of Assisi. The first 15 Franciscans arrived in the Philippines in 1578, the second religious order to come to the country. The first were the Augustinians (1565). They were then followed by the Jesuits (1581).
They took charge of the evangelization of the southern towns of Bulacan like Obando, Sta. Maria, and Marilao, to cite a few, near Manila (the northern part were taken by the Augustinians). It is in the present provinces of Rizal, most part of Laguna, Quezon and the entire Bicol region that they founded and established many towns and cities as well as built impressive stone churches that still stand today. The beautiful churches of Lucban and Tayabas in Quezon, the ornate ones in Pakil and Paete, all in Laguna, as well as the massive Naga City Cathedral, San Jose, Sagnay, and the quaint Lagonoy churches in Camarines Sur are just a few of these still extant edifices that they built. There are also ruins, especially in Bicol, and a few watchtowers like in Gumaca, Quezon, testament to the devastating muslim slave raids. (https://simbahan.net/2010/02/01/the-franciscans-in-the-philippines-1578-1898/)
Baras, Pakil Interior, Morong
Pililla, Paete Interior, Tanay
About Our Guide, Fr. René B. Javellana SJ
Fr. René Pio Barrio Javellana, SJ is currently Associate Professor at Loyola School of Theology (Church History) and at the Fine Arts Department at the School of Humanities, Ateneo de Manila University, where he was Director from 2003-2009.
He is chair of the Board of Trustees of Jesuit Communications, the media organization of the Jesuits in the Philippines and province archivist of the Jesuits in the Philippines. He has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Museum of the Philippines since 2010 and actively engages in the Museum’s work of writing and curating.
He has written both scholarly and popular works. His most recent scholarly publications on Philippine colonial art, La Casa de Dios: Filipino-Hispanic Churches in the Philippines, was short-listed as a finalist for the National Book Award, 2011. In 2017, he published Weaving Cultures: The Invention of Colonial Art and Culture in the Philippines, 1565-1850. In October 2017, the exhibit he curated, Early Naturalists in the Philippines, opened as an inaugural exhibit for the newly established National Museum of Natural History (https://shop.vibalgroup.com/products/understanding-valuing-and-living-art-art-appreciation-for-college).
Last 8 May 2019, the School of Humanities of the Ateneo de Manila University awarded Fr. René with an Outstanding Achievement in the Humanities for his “lifetime pursuit of scholarship in the arts and humanities which illumines which is Filipino, for his promotion of art education in the Philippines through his publications and administrative work, and his attitude of curiosity that invites ever further and broader inquiry” (citation).
