The National Shrine and Parish of Saint Anne, commonly known as the Santa Ana Shrine or Hagonoy Church, is an 18th-century, Baroque Roman Catholic church located at Brgy. Santo Niño, Hagonoy, Bulacan, Philippines. The parish church, under the aegis of Saint Anne, is under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Malolos. It was declared a National Shrine in 1991. In 1981, a marker bearing a brief history of the church was installed on the church by the National Historical Institute, precursor of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines.

Sources tell that Hagonoy was already a thriving community before the arrival of the Spanish Missionaries with claims that the local chieftain of prehistoric Hagonoy, along with the chieftains of Betis and Macabebe, confronted Miguel Lopez de Legazpi during their conquest of Manila in 1571. As for the beginnings of the Catholic institution in the town, Hagonoy was said to have been established as a visita of Calumpit as early as 1581 when Don Gonzalo Ronquillo de Peñalosa, then Governor General of the Philippines, handed over Hagonoy to Sargento Juan Moron to be included in Encomienda of Calumpit. Juan Moron later handed over his jurisdiction over Hagonoy to Fray Diego de Ordoñez de Vivar and the priest establish Hagonoy as one of the visitas of Convento de Calumpit. Proof of the establishment of the visita of Hagonoy can be found on the documents from a private meeting of the Augustinian dated January 17, 1582, with Fray Diego Ordoñez de Vivar as signatory for Hagonoy. Another meeting on September 21 of the same year 1582, confirms the existence of the convent of Hagonoy with Fray Diego Vivar as its first minister.

Fray Diego Ordoñez de Vivar erected parochial structures made of lights materials in barrio Quinabalon (now Barangay Santa Monica) and placed it under the guidance of Saint Anne. From 1731 to 1734, a stone and brick church was built by Fray Juan Albarràn, possibly still on the Brgy. Santa Monica site. The said church was razed by fire on August 12, 1748. As for the present church, its foundations were laid in 1747 on its current site in Barrio Sto. Niño during the time of Fray Eusebio Polo. The site was moved to its present location due to flooding on the former site. Fray Buenaventura Roldán completed the church in 1752. Another church was said to have been built from 1815 to 1836 by Fray Juan Coronado. The said church was razed by fire in 1856, which also damaged 30 houses in the town center. Fray Manuel Alvarez, appointed as parish priest in 1862, started building another church, bigger than the previous ones to accommodate a larger number of people. Besides the expansion of the church, its design was also remodeled into one that was described as unique for that era. The church walls were partially damaged by an earthquake in 1871, and repairs followed soon after it under the leadership of Fray Ignacio Manzanares. Secular priest from Archdiocese of Manila has started to administer the church in 1900 upon the evacuation of Augustinian order due to Filipino Revolution against Spain. Church renovations were done in 1936 and 1961 (the year when the porte-cochere was added by Father Celestino Rodriquez). Gradual renovations continued from 1968 to 1970 under Monsignor Jose B. Aguinaldo. The present façade, with the predominant images of saint resting atop the pilasters is attributed to him.

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THE NATIONAL SHRINE & PARISH OF ST. ANNE, HAGONOY, BULACAN:

by: Kendrick Ivan Panganiban, M.A. Theo., M.A. Past. Min.

1581 - The parish was founded by the Augustinian missionaries (Order of St. Augustine - O.S.A.) serving as one of the first mission stations in the conglomerate of towns that formed the present province of Bulacan. According to Gaspar de San Agustin, O.S.A’s “Conquistas de las Islas Filipinas”, the convent of Hagonoy was first dedicated to “La Concepcion de la Nuestra Señora”. Later on, the records of the Augustinian records show that the parish of Hagonoy was dedicated under the advocacy of St. Anne, Mother of the Virgin Mary. It is the second oldest Annesian parish in the country until the 1700’s after the Franciscan Sta. Ana Church in Manila changed its titular patroness to Our Lady of the Abandoned.

Fray Diego Ordoñez de Vivar, O.S.A., who is know for having established the Augustinian missions from Western Bulacan to Southern Pampanga served as the first minister of Hagonoy as noted in the private meetings of the Augustinian Chapter based in Tondo on January 17 and September 21, 1582 respectively. According to the records, the site of the parish was still in the original site of Quinabalon (from the Kapampangan word "balu" which meant "well known" ~ which was then a part of the pueblo of Calumpit). However, due to a fire that razed the parish and convent to the ground, traces of records from Vivar and his succeeding ministers can no longer be retrieved.

1748 - The parish was once again erected in the site of Quinabalon, now named Sta. Monica in honor of the mother of the father founder of the Order. It was razed to the ground once more on a fire on August 12, 1748. However the records have been kept with the first Libro de Bautismo (Baptismal Register) in 1731.

1747 - The parish was rebuilt by Fray Eusebio Polo, O.S.A., but now in the current site, which according to records was a higher ground than the previous area. At the back of the church’s present site, the Augustinian friars would traverse until they reached other parts of Bulacan and Pampanga. Hence this small creek was called “Sapang Pari”.

1752 - Under Fray Buenaventura Roldan, O.S.A. the church was completed in 1752, though it was rebuilt time and again under Fray Juan Coronado, O.S.A. from 1815-1836 and Fray Manuel Alvarez, O.S.A. in 1862.

1841 - Fray Manuel Alvarez, O.S.A., as the longest-serving parish priest in the parish’s history, commissioned an image of St. Anne and the Blessed Virgin Mary. Now known locally as “La Verdadera”, this antique image in the record currently enshrined in the retablo mayor of the parish. This is according to the parish’s catalog or “Cargo y Data” as noted by Bulacan Cultural Heritage Chairman Fr. Vicente B. Lina, Jr.

1871 - After being damaged by an earthquake, the parish church was once again renovated under the tenure of Fray Ignacion Manzanares, O.S.A.

1898 - At the peak of the Philippine Revolution against Spain, the last Augustinian curate of Hagonoy, Fray Emilio Bulliz, O.S.A. left the parish. From there, secular priests took over, under the succeeding tenure of Fr. Clemente Garcia.

1901 - A priest from Bulakan town, Fr. (later on Msgr.) Mariano V. Sevilla was appointed as the first official Filipino curate. During his tenure, a series of developments came about. Upon his suggestion, the names of the barrios of Hagonoy were changed to the names of saints for the people to imitate their example. As the translator of the May Flower devotion in Italy in 1865 through the “Dalit kay Maria,” the vernacular for Flores de Mayo, based on Italy’s “Misa de Maggio”, he introduced the devotion to Hagonoy. Hagonoy since has been one of the vibrant centers of the Flores de Mayo devotion in the country. The rise in priestly and religious vocation were also noted during this time due to the encouragement of Filipino parish priests from the tenures of Msgr. Sevilla, Fr. Celestino Rodriqguez who accompanied the people during the Japanese invasion and founded the parochial school, Fr. Exequiel Morales and Fr. Arsenio Nicdao, the first Hagonoeño parish priest of the community.

1970’s - The further enhancement of the church was held after the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council under a Hagonoeño parish priest, Msgr. Jose B. Aguinaldo. The priests’ association of Hagonoy was formally organized in 1971 and a priests’ cemetery was formed at the back of the church. According to Fr. Pedro G. Galende, O.S.A.’s reference “Angels in Stone: The Augustinian Churches in the Philippines”, the “façade is pierced with 5 windows: three semicircular arched ones and two rectangular ones on the first level. A porte-cochere with a balustraded top mars the view of the bottom part of the façade. Much of the design of the façade has been changed after the 1970s renovation. The façade now sports three arched entrances, all featuring hardwood doors carved with great details. Tuscan capitals were incorporated into the four pilasters and were now capped off with huge images of Augustinian saints. A rose window and a tableau of Saint Anne and the Virgin Mary were also added into the center of the pediment. The entire façade is capped off with a cross held by two cherubs. To the left of the church rises the six-level rectangular bell tower.”

1989 - Through the next decade, Msgr. Aguinaldo worked for the further enhancement of the church and the promotion of the devotion to St. Anne. The parish received an official first class relic of St. Anne from the Basilic of St. Anne in Beaupre, Quebec, Canada. It has been venerated in the shrine every Tuesday, which is considered as the day in honor of the patroness. The Confraternity of St. Anne or "Kapatiran ni Sta. Ana" was also introduced and was registered as an affiliate of the international Archconfraternity of St. Anne. Brought by these efforts, Malolos Bishop Cirilo R. Almario, Jr. decreed the Parish of St. Anne as a Diocesan Shrine on June 30, 1989.

1991 - With Bishop Almario’s recommendation as Bishop of Malolos, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) officially decreed that the shrine was now declared a National Shrine on July 21, 1991. The shrine was officially elevated on October 29, 1991.

2000 - Upon Aguinaldo’s retirement in 1991 he was succeeded by Msgr. Macario R. Manahan whose tenure was spent in developing the shrine and forming more ecclesiastical organizations.

2010 - After the brief tenure of Fr. Reynaldo Mutuc, Msgr. Luciano C. Balagtas, P.C. was chosen to hold the reins of the shrine for a decade. Renovations and developments have been made during this time, especially with the expansion of the parochial school to different campuses.

2020 - The national shrine council was formed by the authority of Msgr. Balagtas and a formal set of shrine statutes have formed in order to update the shrine’s obligations in accord with the changes in the administration of shrines in the New Evangelization.

REFERENCES:

Aguinaldo, Msgr. Jose B. Ika-400 Bantayog ng Simbahan. Hagonoy: Parish of St. Anne. 1981.

Blair, Emma Helen, Robertson, James Alexander, eds. Philippine Islands: 1493-1898. with notes by Edward Gaylord Bourne. Vol. VIII: 1591-1593. OH: The Arthur H. Clarke Co., 1903.

Order of St. Augustine – Province of the Holy Name of Jesus. Libro de Gobierno dela Provinica del Santisimo Nombre de Jesus de Filipinas. Valladolid and Madrid: Augustinian Archives. Libro I. fol. 40v.

___________________. Libro de Gobierno dela Provinicia del Santisimo Nombre de Jesus de Filipinas. Valladolid and Madrid: Augustinian Archives. Libro V. fol. 95, 96, 138.

Galende, Rev. Fr. Pedro G. O.S.A, Angels in Stone: Augustinian Churches in the Philippines. Manila: San Agustin Museum, 1996.

Jose, Regalado Trota. Curas de Almas: A preliminary listing of parishes and parish priests in the 19th century Philippines based on the Guias de Forasteros, 1834 – 1898,Vol. 2: Curatos A-J. Manila: UST Publishing House, 2008.

Parroquia de Santa Ana, Hagonoy, Bulacan. Libro Primero de Prothocolo de los Bauptizados en esta Yglesia de Sra. Sta. Ana del Pueblo de Hagonoy en el que fe contienen los Bauptismos des el Año 1731 (1731).

San Agustin, P. Gaspar de, O.S.A. Conquistas de las Islas Filipinas: 1565-1615. Bi-lingual Edition, trans. Luis Mañeru. Manila: San Agustin Museum, 1998.

Prior to the Mid-20th century renovation, the church façade is bare of ornamentation save for volutes founds on the end of the imaginary triangular pediment, circular reliefs and buttress-like pilasters capped with roof tiles. The façade is pierced with 5 windows: three semicircular arched ones and two rectangular ones on the first level. A porte-cochere with a balustraded top mars the view of the bottom part of the façade. Much of the design of the façade has been changed after the 1970s renovation. The façade now sports three arched entrances, all featuring hardwood doors carved with great details. Tuscan capitals were incorporated into the four pilasters and were now capped off with huge images of Augustinian saints. A rose window and a tableau of Saint Anne and the Virgin Mary were also added into the center of the pediment. The entire façade is capped off with a cross held by two cherubs. To the left of the church rises the six-level rectangular bell tower. Originally a five level tower, a sixth level and a cupola was added during the latest reconstruction of the church. The bell tower is bare of detailed ornamentation except for the balustraded semicircular arch windows and buttresses placed at the corners of the tower.

Other declared national shrines under the Roman Catholic Diocese of Malolos:

• National Shrine of the Divine Mercy
• National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima
• Parish of San Pascual Baylon and National Shrine of Nuestra Señora Inmaculada Concepcion de Salambao

• Media related to National Shrine of St. Anne (Hagonoy, Bulacan) at Wikimedia Commons
• National Shrine of Saint Anne on Facebook
• Archival Photos of the National Shrine of Saint Anne from the Filipinas Heritage Library

• Official Website of the National Shrine and Parish of Saint Anne - Hagonoy, Bulacan