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CATMON PARISH IN THE PAST
The territory designated for them to evangelize was between the rivers of cotcot (Compostela) and Naghalin (Catmon). In the process of evangelization, towns came into being and were being founded depending on the fertility of the terrain, on the facility of communications with the capital city of the province and most important thing taken into consideration was the rapid growth and development of the inhabitants. When the 19th century ended, a rather large �poblacion� composed of four towns and with a population of not less than 30,000 souls was established in the North. Danao spearheaded the formation of these other towns; Catmon (1835), Carmen (1851) and Compostela (1862). History recounts that an Augustinian Recollect born on 1771 from Salinas in the Diocese of Jaca, Spain, founded the PARISH OF CATMON. Before coming to Cebu, he was the Prior of manila in 1806 and was later transferred to Cebu where he became Prior. He was soon elected Provincial in 1828. This very distinguished priest (who gave the people of Danao a memorable heritage on the knowledge of cheese-making) was Padre MIGUEL (MARTINEZ Y LAFUENTE) DE JESUS. He died in 1844 while on the way to Cebu from manila when he was shipwrecked near eastern Mindoro. His remains were interred at Calapan, Mindoro.
Encountering many setbacks in developing the area, one of which was the aridity of the land, Padre Miguel decided to transfer the establishment to the sitio of MANOBO near the barrio of MACAO-ES (Macaas). This, however, did not prosper. So, he started looking for another more convenient and favorable site and he chanced upon a splendid location for a church building, atop a small hill overlooking the sea. And so, on the present location, he started his church. From there, he oversaw the improvement and development of his favorite town which he aptly called his VERSAILLES of the north. With the constant encouragement of the Bishop of Cebu, Fray Santos Gomez de Mara�on, OSA, the parish and the Town of Catmon slowly but surely boomed, despite the poverty and the roughness of the terrain which the priests assigned to her considered as one of the main problems for development. The name of Padre JUAN JUSEU who governed the parish for 14 long years will not be easily forgotten in the history of the parish as one of its most beloved parish priests. He taught his parishioners the use of the ploughshare (daro). And in spite of the seemingly insurmountable odds, this priest engineered the construction of the church. Construction materials were scarce in the present site, so he had these transported from as far as two leagues away. Masons and carpenters were also hard to find, so PADRE JUAN trained many of them and this in turn taught the populace the art. It was a painful and tiring task for the priest to undertake but slowly his perseverance and diligence bore fruit and the indifference and even the vagrancy that faulted the people soon disappeared. Another thing that pained the good Padre no less was the style of dressing among the womenfolk of the place and their willingness to undertake any kind of work even those not proper of their own sex. Eventually and due to the zeal shown by this indefatigable missionary, things changed for the better. Padre MANUEL GIMENEZ, successor to Padre Juseu, continued the work on the construction of the church, and at the end of his term, he was able to finish the walls of the edifice including the framework for the roof which he provisionally covered with nipa and cogon leaves. In spite of his being kept very busy on the church, Padre Gimenez still managed to construct some stone bridge, one near the municipal �tribunal� and the other at the exit of the town towards Sogod town. The completion of the church fa�ade and the dome of the belfry was taken cared by another Recollect priest, Padre RAMON MIRAMON, who was parish priest for six years. This amazing architectural feat only proved the fact that Padre RAMON was not only an engineer at heart but a genius of his time. He later on built another stone bridge in the sitio of Manobo. He was a real model for the priest of the �Indios�, consecrating his health and life for the assistance of the sick and the poor. Stories were told that he spent entire nights at their bedsides forgetting even to eat unless reminded by his companions or servants.   Following the footsteps of Padre Miramon, Padre FRANCISCO BERGASA undertook the project of his predecessors with equal zeal. By this time, his parishioners had aleady learned from their former priest the sharing of parish duties. But of course, sometimes with little persuasion. Thus, he was able to put up the tile-roofing for the church and also the altars within. His concern for the children of the parish was so great that he was endlessly bothered by their ignorance of the rudiments of the faith. So he constructed a school of stone masonry, which he called �Escuela Catolica�. Remnants of this edifice can still be seen overlooking the sea and the provincial road.   The parish priests who came after Padre BERGASA were no less indefatigable in their zeal for the evangelization and development of the SAN GUILLERMO PARISH of Catmon.
With P. Diez ended the glorious reign and administration of the Augustinian Recollects of the Parish of San Guillermo of Catmon. The priests who came and tended the parish during the absence or illness of the appointed parish piests were either �compa�eros�, �interinos� or �encargados� and they stayed only for some months, though others stayed for a longer period of time. Notwithstanding, the people of Catmon, especially those whom they served will forever remain grateful to them. Before his exit from the parish, Fr. VITORES DIEZ wrote a short history of the place. He mentioned that the parish of Catmon with San Guillermo as its Patron, separated from the mother-parish of DANAO on NOVEMBER 2, 1835. And here comes an apparent �contradiction� to his story: He names P. BERNARDO YBA�EZ as the first parish priest of the place! Yet it seems unthinkable that for 8 long years that P. MIGUEL DE JESUS started work on the evangelization and development of the parish from the year 1835 to 1843 no parish priest was assigned to the area! Thus, it can be logically concluded that he acted as parish priest until the time when P. Bernardo Yba�ez arrived from Spain in 1843 to take over the reigns of the parish from his predecessor and founder, P. MIGUEL DE JESUS.   Next to come were the pioneers of the Diocesan Clergy of Cebu who undertook the administration of San Guillermo Parish up to the present day. When the Augustinian recollects left the parish of Catmon, Fr. EDUVIGIO BRIONES, at that time parish priest of Sogod, became the priest-in-charge (encargado) of the place. He administered the parish for 6 months until the arrival of the permanent parish priest, Fr. EUGENIO MENCHAVEZ (a native of Sogod), on Februaary 18, 1899. Thus this priest officially became the FIRST parish priest of Catmon belonging to the DIOCESAN GLERGY.
P. Esteban Montecillo (1923-1924) and who later became Vicar General Five priests came in succession after Fr. Menchavez until the war broke out:
When the war came, P. JOSE ALOJIPAN who happened to be an Army Chaplain also, went to the mountains with the soldiers. There he tended to the needs of the all, soldiers and civilians who evacuated to the area. FR. GREGORIO MONTECILLO who was then the parish priest of Sogod took care of the spiritual needs of the people within the poblacion and the surrounding areas. When peace returned to the land, it was Fr. CESAR ALCOSEBA who became the new parish priest and started the work of rehabilitation. The church and the old rectory were spared from the destruction of the war, but the faith of the populace had to be strengthened and revitalized through constant reception of the Sacraments. The Christian Doctrine had to be taught to the people and more particularly the young generation of the post-war years. This became the obsession of the young priest. He formed a band of Catechists to teach the rudiments of the faith to the school children and propagated the devotion to our Lady during the Flores de Mayo celebrations. Later in his ministry, he constructed within the baptistery a beautiful baptismal font.  Next to Padre Cesar came P. DEMETRIO GONZALES. He left the church a memento of his serving the parish in the form of three plaza landmarks: a cross, a chalice with a host on top of it and an image of our Lady of the Pilar. Unfortunately, the cemented chalice was demolished by another priest to take the place of an unrealized project.  Following the heels of padre Etiong came P. NICOLAS NAVARRO. His dream for the parish was to build a new �convento� to replace the already dilapidated Spanish-time rectory from the early days of the Augustinian Missionaries. On the 16th of January, 1957, his dream became a reality when the new and modern �convento� was blest and inaugurated by the late JULIO CARDINAL ROSALES. Other notable achievements of Padre Colas were the building of a new and beautiful altar in the church and the replacement of the old wooden floor with ceramic tiles. The well-remembered Padre Colas was one of the builder-priests of the early fifties. 
Padre JOSE, as he was populary called by his fellow Catmonanons reopened the old cemetery near the Bawo river and made a portion of it a �cementerio familiar�, and when he died he was buried there with the rest of his relatives. It was during his incumbency as parish priest tha the Parochial Catechetical Institute of Catmon (PACIC) was reopened. This institute for future Catechists was established but unhappily was closed later on due to lack of instructors.
THE PRIESTS of the Seventies and the Eighties Basic Christian (BCC)-oriented, though they did not relinquish the idea of building also in stone or steel. Thus when PADRE PATRING came into the parish, he continued the Catechetical Training Institute of Cebu (CATIC) to hold seminars for the catechists in the parish. Sensing a need for a building in order to house the catechists during their meetings and seminars be built a �carmarin-style� edifice for them. However, this project was left ubfinished when he was transferred to another parish. Then came FR. SIN IRIARTE into the picture. As a young priest, FR SIN (no relation to Cardinal Sin) became acting director of the San Isidro Parish School in Talamban, Cebu City, and so his orientation was more towards the Teaching Ministry of the Church. He also saw the need for a seminar house or social center which could be used not only by the catechists but also by the entire community of Catmon. So he made plans for the expansion of the existing �camarin� into a complete Social-Center, housing even the Day-Care of the municipality.
SINCE THE time the Parish of Catmon celebrated its 150th Anniverary in 1985, it has continued to develop and flourish throughout the next decade. After eleven years serving as parish priest in Catmon, Rev. Fr. sindulfo Iriarte was replaced by REV. FR. ROLANDO MANAYON. His stay in Catmon was also fruitful. Then after four years, REV. FR. MANUEL NARSICO took his place as parish priest of Catmon until the present. During Fr. Manayon and Fr. Narsico's respective terms as parish priests, more projects were undertaken in the parish. Among these were thte construction of the new Parish Social Hall, constructed as an extension of the convent, and the ongoing renovation of the PACIC Center.
 
Source: Jubilee Book (Researched and written by Rev. Fr. Sindulfo Iriarte) References: 1) �Catalogo de los Religiosos Agustinos Recoletos de la Provincial de San Nicolas de Tolentino de Filipinas� por el P. Francisco Sadaba 2) �Sinopsis Historica de la Provincia de San Nicolas de Tolentino de las Islas Filipinas de la Orden de Agustinos Descalzos� por el P. Vitores Diez 3) Baptismal Records of the Parish from the years 1843 to 1985 |
IN THE YEAR 1755, the Augustinian Missionaries (Calzdos) passed on to their confreres, the Augustinian Recollects the work for the missions in the north of Cebu. This was confirmed by the Father Provincial, Fr. Mam�s de San Lamberto in a letter to the Vicar General on the 8th of July 1755.
While in Catmon, PADRE MIGUEL chose for his church site the sitio of Catmon (now Catmond-daan). There, he also constructed a guard-tower (Bantayan-sa-Hari) to protect the settlement from the depredations of the moro pirates plying the coastal areas. Ruins of this so-called FORT can still be seen within the compound of the Elementary School.
On January of 1984 the Catmon Parish Pastoral Council was organized. The CPPC officers took their oath of office during the Pontifical Mass celebration in the presence of the Archbishop of Cebu, Msgr. RICARDO J. VIDAL and Msgr. SANTOS DE LA SERNA, the Vicar-General of the North District. JUAN M. CONCHA became the first president of the newly organized body. From that time on, all the ministries of the Church (Teaching-Worship-Service0 were programmed under its wings. The Targeted-Maternal-Child & Health Program (TMCHP) even got an Achievement Award as one of the most outstanding Centers of the Archdiocese. The Catechetical Program too got an added boost when it expanded to cover most of the public schools within the area. The latest supervisorship pf the CPPC was the Family Life Enrichment Seminars. Its aims are to promote stronger ties between husband and wife, between parents and children, and among parents in the community. All the other religious organizations, like the Legion of Mary, Catholic Women�s League (with Catmon as the Vicarial headquarters), Adoracion Nocturna, Apostolado de la Oracion, lay Liturgical Ministry, and even the movements Cursillos de Cristianidad, together with the newly established Catholic Charismatic Renewals, made their own contribution in the evangelization of the Parish founded years ago.
The parish that FR. MIGUEL DE JESUS, ORSA, founded in 1835 is not anymore an idle and indifferent parish. In 1985, the parish celebrates its SESQUICENTENNIAL Anniversary since it separated from its mother-parish of Danao. It has now become the seat of the Vicariate when FR. SIN became the first VICAR FORANE of Catmon. Gone are the happy-go-lucky people of the yesteryears. In their stead a vibrant and purpose-minded generation has sprung up. Gone are the nipa huts and shanties that the missionaries were wont to visit and the �carretera municipal� that only a �cales� could pass. Catmon can now boast of wide and cemented roads and many beautiful residential houses. The �tribunal municipal� is now a thing of the past ans a magestic Municipal hall has arisen in it�s place. Gone too is the �escuela catolica� to teach the people the basics of the Faith and the �Abecedario�. In its place is the new and sparkling PACIC SOCIAL CENTER (which is now renovated). FR. SIN IRIARTE, the parish priest of Catmon that time, could say with equal joy and pride: �CONGRATULATIONS CATMON, VAYA CON DIOS and ADELANTE!�