Basilica de San Martin de Tours Postcards

Minor Basilica de San Martin de Tours (Taal Cathedral) is considered as the largest in Asia and biggest church in the Philippines. San Martin de Tours is the Patron Saint of Taal with the feast day every November 11th of the year.

Taal Cathedral Postcard 1

The church was first built by father Diego Espina in 1575 in present day San Nicolas but abandoned in 1754 due the eruption of Taal and rebuild in 1755. Then an earthquake shook it down in 1849. Construction of the present church was started in 1856 that was supervised by an architect, Luciano Oliver.

Taal Cathedral Postcard 2

The Taal Basilica is quite famous with its high ceilings, ornate chandeliers and unusual facade. Its façade is baroque and consists of a single mass of stone shaped into rich complex designs. The church, however, is a fusion of styles with arched openings, alternating segmental canopies and arches of assymmetric shapes. It stands 96 meters long and 45 meters wide and is situated in a plateau in the heart of Taal.

Taal Cathedral Postcard 3

SOURCE:
Basilica de San Martin de Tours

Minor Basilica of Our Lady of the Visitation of Piat Postcard

Our Lady of Piat is a 400-year old image of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary. The itinerary of the Blessed Image of Our Lady of Piat started in Macao (China) from where it was brought to Manila. From Manila she was taken to Lallo and from there to Piat. Spearheaded by the archbishop Diosdado Talamayan and said to be partly built of the old bricks from the original ermita, the new shrine broke ground in 1988, blessed by the Cardinal Sin in 1995 and was regarded as a minor basilica in 1999.

Our Lady of Piat Postcard

No description of the image is given by any of the historians, though it is often mentioned that is "of talla" (a sculpture or statue, as opposed to a painting or canvass).Perhaps the greatest attraction is the miracles. Famous is the early story about the drought. In 1624, the region was suffering from a terrible one. Facing famine, the people turned to their priest, who advised them to “make their peace with God by going to the Sacrament and making a novena to the Blessed Mother.” The people did, going to confession, receiving Holy Communion and reciting a novena to Our Lady of Piat. In the middle of their novena, rain fell.

SOURCES:Our Lady of Piat Homepage
A Short Heritage Tour of Cagayan

Basilica of St Lorenzo Ruiz Postcards

Minor Basilica of St. Lorenzo Ruiz (Binondo Church) was founded by Dominican priests in 1596 to serve their Chinese converts to Christianity. The original building was destroyed by a bombardment by the British in 1762 during their brief occupation of Manila at that time.

Binondo Church Postcard 1

Binondo Church was greatly damaged during the Second World War, although fortunately the western facade and the octagonal bell tower survived. The current granite church was completed on the same site in 1852 and features an octagonal bell tower which suggests the Chinese culture of the parishioners.

Binondo Church Postcard 2

Minor Basilica of San Lorenzo Ruiz was named after the sacristan, San Lorenzo Ruiz. Saint Lorenzo Ruiz (c.1600 - Sept. 29, 1637), served at the convent of Binondo church as an altar boy. After a few years he earned the title of escribano and soon became a member of the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary.

Binondo Church Postcard 3

He was working as a clerk at the Binondo Church when he was falsely accused of killing a Spaniard in 1636. He sought asylum on board a ship with three Dominican priests. The boat landed at Okinawa and the group was arrested on basis of their Christian religion. They were tortured, but they did not denounce their faith and died as martyrs.

Binondo Church Postcard 4

Lorenzo Ruiz was beatified in Manila on Feb 18, 1981 by Pope John Paul II. He was canonized on Oct 18, 1987, becoming Philippines' first saint. A large statue of the martyr stands in front of the church.

Binondo Church Postcard 5

SOURCE:
Binondo Church, Manila

Basilica of San Sebastián Postcards

The Basilica Minore de San Sebastian (San Sebastian Church) is a Roman Catholic minor basilica in Manila. It is the seat of the Parish of San Sebastian and the National Shrine of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. The Church of San Sebastian was raised to the status of a minor basilica by Pope Leo XIII on June 24, 1890.

San Sebastian Church Postcard 1

Completed in 1891, San Sebastian Church has been recognized by the UNESCO as the only all-steel church or basilica in Asia. It has also been implausibly reputed to be the first prefabricated building in the world, and more plausibly claimed as the only prefabricated steel church in the world. In 2006, San Sebastian Church was included in the Tentative List for possible designation as a World Heritage Site.

San Sebastian Church Postcard 2

The prefabricated steel sections that would compose San Sebastian Church were manufactured in Binche, Belgium. In all, 52 tons of prefabricated steel sections were transported in eight separate shipments from Belgium to the Philippines. The walls were filled with mixed sand, gravel and cement.

San Sebastian Church Postcard 3

The connection between Gustave Eiffel (the French engineer behind the Eiffel Tower) and San Sebastian Church was reportedly confirmed by historian Ambeth Ocampo while doing research in Paris. Ocampo likewise published a report that in the 1970s, the famed architect I. M. Pei had visited Manila to confirm reports he had heard that Eiffel had designed an all-steel church in Asia. When Pei inspected San Sebastian Church, he reportedly pronounced that the metal fixtures and overall structure were indeed designed by Eiffel.

San Sebastian Church Postcard 4

San Sebastian Church has two openwork towers and steel vaulting. The basilica's central nave is twelve meters from the floor to the dome, and thirty-two meters to the tip of the spires. The interior of the church displays groined vaults in the Gothic architecture style. The steel columns, walls and ceiling were painted by Filipino artist Lorenzo Rocha and his students to give off a faux-marble and jasper appearance.

SOURCE:
Basilica of San Sebastian, Manila Wikipedia Entry

Manila Metropolitan Cathedral-Basilica Postcards

The Minor Basilica of the Immaculate Conception (Manila Cathedral) was the seat of the Archbishop of Manila during the Spanish colonial period in the Philippines, and still remains the ecclesiastical seat of the Archdiocese of Manila.

Manila Cathedral Postcard 1

Fernando Ocampo came up with a new and modern cathedral with an appearance similar to its predecessor but with a more functional use of space. Ocampo’s cathedral was made more spatially and visually interesting by its striking Neo-Romanesque façade, Byzantine motifs, bronze doors, pineapple finials, and many other artistic ornamentations.

Manila Cathedral Postcard 2

The Manila Cathedral covers an area of almost 3,000 square meters. The present structure has a Latin-cross plan which closely follows the distribution of spaces of the previous cathedral—aisles are separated from the nave by arcaded colonnades, and several chapels flank the nave.

Manila Cathedral Postcard 3

Chapels are paved by highly polished Carrara marble prefabricated in Italy. The main altar, which has a two-meter high statue of the Immaculate Conception, is featured with lovely columns built out of green Carrara marble.

Manila Cathedral Postcard 4

Paving the rest of the cathedral floor are cream slabs of marble. Marble also found its way in the altars of the side chapels where reliefs and mosaic panels add further decorative accents. Likewise, the pulpit and the Episcopal throne are made out of Italian marble.

Manila Cathedral Postcard 5

SOURCE:
Manila Cathedral Wikipedia Entry