Legazpi founded Manila on June 24, 1571 and he became the country's first Governor-General. Manila was bestowed the title “Insigne y Siempre leal Ciudad de España” (distinguished and ever loyal city of Spain) by King Philip II in 1574. It was called ''Intramuros'' (walled city) and later, ''Ciudad del Feliz Romero'” (city of happy travelers).
Early on, despite an alliance forged with Rajah Sulayman, the ruler of Manila at that time, the well-armed Spaniards faced a stout battle against the resisting natives. Manila's conquest was concluded with the defeat of the defiant Sulayman in the battle of Bangkusay. Lagazpi formed a peace pact with the native rulers—Rajah Matanda and Rajah Lakandula—and organized a city council with two mayors, 12 councilors and a secretary. That was deemed an incipient civil government of Manila. Erstwhile Tondo province formed part of the central government of Manila, and today currently exists as a congressional district of the city.
Manila and the whole archipelago became a Spanish colony for more than 300 years. However, in his book titled The Friars in the Philippines, published in 1899, Rev. Ambrose Coleman, a Dominican, contended that “there was no conquest in the strict sense of the term…The Spaniards in most places simply showed themselves to the natives; and the missionaries of religious Orders who accompanied the conquistadors and soldiers persuaded the untutored savages to submit to the King of Spain, through whom they would obtain the two-fold blessing of civilization and Christianity.”
Manila rose as the capital and seat of the Spanish colonial administration in the country, the entire Asia-Pacific and the rest of the East Indies (Philippine archipelago, Guam, Palau, Micronesia, for a time some parts of Formosa, Sabah, and parts of Moluccas). Manila proudly stood like a European medieval city with cathedral and churches, palaces and administration hall built in the Hispanic baroque style. Manila was about to catch up with the New World, the modern Americas we know today, whose civilization and Christian faith was introduced by Christopher Columbus, a navigator-explorer in 1492.
Manila was placed under the Diocese of Mexico in 1571 until it was separated and established as another Episcopal See in Feb. 6, 1579 by a decree of Pope Gregory XIII. Fray Domingo Salazar, a Dominican, was appointed Bishop of the new diocese and arrived in Manila in May 13, 1581. He was with twenty Augustinians, eight Franciscans and Fray Christoval Salvatierra, the lone Dominican survivor out of his original twenty companions from Europe via Mexico to Manila. Twelve out of the twenty of the Dominicans died during the perilous journey before reaching Mexico. Others were seriously stricken-ill and stayed behind in Mexico.
In the early Spanish rule, Quiapo at the heart of Manila was a marsh-and-canal village, a place of several islets with criss-crossing waterways. It was a fishing village with some portions planted to vegetables. Quiapo's name was derived from a water lily called “kiapo” which grew in the canals and marshes, different from the water lily we see floating in the Pasig River nowadays.
Franciscans had already built the first church in Quiapo in 1579, using bamboo and nipa palm. Saint John the Baptist has since been the parish patron Saint of Quiapo Church known today as Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene. Fray Pedro Bautista, a Franciscan missionary and martyr (who was canonized by Pope Pius IX in June 8, 1862) was one of its founders. His image is placed at a side niche of the church. He also founded many churches in what is now Metro Manila and suburbs as well as in Laguna province. In February 17, 1590, he founded San Francisco del Monte—an elevated area of 250 hectares with thick woods, surrounded by a creek and eight water springs. The parish church had been named after him—now the Santuario de San Pedro Bautista. It also housed the Holy Cave for Franciscans who went on mission to China and Japan during those difficult years. It is considered the second oldest church in the Philippines.
After the Augustinians in 1565 were the Franciscan friar-missionaries in 1578 who established their central mission post in Namayan kingdom, which was ruled by King Lakan Tagkan and his consort-wife Bouan. Namayan was also known as the Kingdom of Sapa, one of the three major kingdoms which dominated the upper eastern side of Pasig River running along the coast of Laguna de Bai, the largest in the country. They named the central mission post Santa Ana de Sapa in honor of Sta. Ana, mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary and in reference to the nearby Pasig River whom the natives fondly called “sapa.”
Franciscans were inspired by Fray Juan de Plasencia's system of “Reduccion” whereby re-settling natives in central locations, gathering them into towns, scattered people formed into “doctrina.” Plasencia was with the first batch of Franciscan missionaries in the Philippines and became Custos or Superior of the Franciscans in 1579-1580. But this did not impede him in his work with the native language. For Plasencia—who authored several religious and linguistic books, most notably, the Doctrina Christiana, the first book printed in the Philippines, which also had Tagalog and Chinese version—the role of mastering the native language in order to facilitate evangelization, religious instructions, and the training of an effective missionary has a more basic role to play than his administrative job. With his untiring work and missionary zeal, he founded several towns in Laguna and Tayabas, in Bulacan and Rizal—Tayabas, Caliraya, Lucban, Mahayhay, Nagcarlan, Liliw, Pila, Santa Cruz, Lumban, Pangil, Siniloan, Meycawayan, Morong, Antipolo and Taytay (1579).
In 1589, Plasencia authored the book "Relacion de las Costumbres de Los Tagalos." which had exceptional effects to the early legal system of our country. It preserved the formerly unwritten customs, traditions and beliefs of the natives and gave us the first “Civil Code” used by the alcaldes-mayores in their administration of justice.
Earlier in 1579, the Franciscans had already established a mission outpost in Taytay in a populated area scattered along Laguna de Bai known as Mabulo which was later named Barrio Sta. Ana in honor of a revered headman Francisco Sta. Ana. They also built a church out of light materials and they called it Visita Santa Ana de Sapa which was under their central administration of Santa Ana de Sapa (in Manila).
In 1583, the mission in Taytay was separated from Santa Ana de Sapa and had Fray Pablo de Jesus, a Franciscan, as its first parish priest. Still, its patron Saint was John the Baptist, the same as that of Quiapo parish when Manila was inaugurated as a new diocese in 1579. Taytay became under the ecclesial jurisdiction of the Diocese of Manila.
Then in 1586, the Franciscan central mission outpost of Santa Ana de Sapa became a town of the district of Manila founded by the decree of Governor-General Santiago de Vera; henceforth, became a new parish with Fray Antonio de Nombella as its first parish priest. In 1720, a new stone-church was built and the parish became the Our Lady of the Abandoned Parish, as it is today. But Sta. Ana, the original patron of the parish, has not been forgotten; her statue stands in a niche directly above the exquisite image of Our Lady of the Abandoned that Fray Vicente Ingles brought from Valencia, Spain in 1717. The name of Sta. Ana town remained and is now the 6th Congressional District of Manila.
Also in 1586, Fray Pedro Bautista [Quiapo founder] was elected as Custos in the Philippines. After three years, he turned the seal of the new Franciscan Province (of St. Gregory the Great in the Philippines, created by Pope Sixtus V) over to Fray Pablo de Jesus [Taytay parish priest], his newly elected successor who became the first Provincial of the Franciscans.
“San Juan del Monte”
Franciscans were the first evangelizers of the vast territory now known as the Diocese of Antipolo. They zealously began their missionary works as early as 1578. Taytay was the center of mission and Antipolo was attached to Taytay as a mission outpost. After more than a decade of hard work, the Franciscans gave up both towns due to lack of personnel. The jurisdiction was transferred to the Jesuits by the ecclesial authorities in 1591.
Fray Pedro Chirino, a notable Jesuit historian and missionary, took his turn as parish priest. On March 25, 1591, feast of the Annunciation, Chirino celebrated his first Holy Mass as a missionary in a swampy place in Taytay near the lake where the church stood. He delivered his first homily in Tagalog in a Holy Mass held on a hilltop in Antipolo they named Pinagmisahan on the 15th of August of that same year, feast of the Assumption of Mary. Taytay served as the “bridge” of the missionaries to reach the heights of Antipolo where the seat of the Diocese now resides. (A much later legend has it that Taytay got its name from the word “tai-tai' which meant “bridge” to the Aetas wandering in the hills of Taytay in those days.)
Taytay was a farming community with thriving harvests on the well-watered land. The people loved the water. Houses were built right up to the edge of the river. It was said that even the crocodiles with which it was infested could not deter the locals from their daily dip. The town was perennially flooded several months of the year; so was the simple church and its rectory, even up to the altar platform. There was some high ground nearby but the people were taken aback to move the church and the town there for the place used to be a cemetery. Thus, Fray Chirino took the four datus of the town to the choir loft of the church and showed them the expanse of water below. Unless a new church and rectory were built in a dry place, he was moving out to reestablish somewhere in Antipolo hinterland.
Soon the whole community moved their houses to a higher ground where the small church was built. Like Fray de Jesus, his predecessor, Fray Chirino placed the new town under the patronage of Saint John the Baptist and christened it “San Juan del Monte.” In 1601, the first stone-church outside of the Jesuit central post in Manila was built on this site by Fray Diego de Santiago; and in 1630, the second stone-church by Fray Juan de Salazar, an expert Jesuit architect and also the builder of the churches of Antipolo and Silang (Cavite). Of the three churches "that of Taytay is well-wrought and sufficiently spacious, but, when compared to the other two, is truly small: all three are of stonework, well made, sturdy, solid, unencumbered, and brilliant," according to Jesuit Fray Pedro Murillo Velarde (1749), a distinguished historian. The said site of Taytay Church is believed to be the very same place where the present church—the third stone-church—stands today. Nevertheless, the people continued to call the town Taytay, and it has remained Taytay up to this day.
A Cofradia [de la Anunciata] was established by the Jesuit missionaries in Taytay. It accomplished good works of visiting the sick, helping them die well, getting converts to confession, and teaching the faith to the unbaptized. The old custom of excessive feasting at funerals and betrothals was abandoned.
Every barrio had its cross in the street where young people gathered around for prayers every evening. When a plague of locusts threatened the crops in 1598, the people pleaded to the Blessed Mother and promised her a special celebration on the feast of the Immaculate Conception and generous alms for the poor and orphans for the favor. The prayers were answered, and the promise was fulfilled. The devotions to Our Lady fervently continued and passed on to generations. And the people of Taytay gained a high reputation throughout the land for good character, so much so that the Provisor of the Archbishop of Manila and even secular officials, sent persons who were in need of correction to live in Taytay for a period of time and be under the good influence of the townspeople.
Whereas in 1666-1668, Taytay also became the training ground of the newly-canonized Saint, the young Pedro Calungsod, whose mentor was the Blessed Fray Diego Luis de Sanvitores who was then the parish priest of St. John the Baptist; both went on mission and martyred in Marianas (Guam) in April 2, 1672.
Civilization and Evangelization continued. From being a part of the province of Tondo and the first Jesuit mission, Taytay was under the civil authority of Distrito delos Montes de San Mateo in 1583. Two-hundred seventy years later, (1853) the new political subdivision of Antipolo, Cainta and Taytay from the Province of Tondo; and Morong, Baras, Tanay, Pililla, Angono, Binangonan and Jalajala from the Province of La Laguna was formed with Morong as the capital. This was changed to Distrito Politico-Militar de Morong in 1857.
In 1860, the Province of Tondo became the Province of Manila. Mariquina was the capital of Manila during the revolutionary government of Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo. The Province of Morong had for its capital the town of Antipolo for the period of 1898-1899, and the town of Tanay for 1899-1900.
In 1901, a civil government in the Provinces of Manila and Morong was sought to be organized. This resulted to the creation of the province of Rizal, named after Dr. Jose P. Rizal by virtue of Act No. 137 by the First Philippine Commission. Rizal province was composed of twenty-six municipalities, fourteen from the old Province of Manila (Las Piñas, Malabon, Makati, Parañaque, Mandaluyong, San Juan, Navotas, Muntinlupa, Taguig, Pateros, Pasig, Marikina, San Mateo, and Montalban); and 12 from the Distrito Politico-Militar de Morong, (Angono, Baras, Binangonan, Cainta, Antipolo, Cardona, Jalajala, Morong, Pililla, Tanay, Teresa and Taytay). The seat of the provincial government was Pasig.
In 1975, the 12 towns of Las Piñas, Parañaque, Muntinlupa, Taguig, Pateros, Makati, Mandaluyong, San Juan, Malabon, Navotas, Pasig and Marikina were incorporated to the newly created Metro Manila by virtue of Presidential Decree No. 824. The remaining 14 towns of the Province of Rizal were Taytay, San Mateo, Montalban (now Rodriguez), Cainta, Angono, Antipolo, Binangonan, Teresa, Morong, Cardona, Tanay, Baras, Pililla and Jalajala. Antipolo became a component city of Rizal Province in 1998 and now the new seat of the provincial government replacing the old Capitol in Pasig which has long been outside the jurisdiction of Rizal Province.
Antipolo City has become the seat of the Diocese and the Provincial Capitol, the center of both civil and ecclesial authority in Rizal. And Antipoleños greatly honor and celebrate their patroness, the Nuestra Señora de la Paz y Buen Viaje (Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage) on her Debember 8 feastday.
What now of St. John the Baptist Parish Church since the time it was heavily-vandalized and desecrated by the raging Chinese tumult from Calamba in 1639, where even a large part of the town was burned down? How is it now since the time when about 1,000 civilians were massacred in March 19, 1899, where the whole town was in total ruin, and the Church razed by the angry American troops in June 3, 1899? What we have now is the third stone-church painstakingly built from 1962 until l983, completed just in time for the canonical erection of the Diocese of Antipolo, separated from the Diocese of Manila.
The Taytayeño has proven to be of hard-as-a-rock faith, of undaunted spirit. They must have been inspired by the humble act of the illustrious prophet of old in Biblical history “who prepares the way of the Lord”—John the Baptist—“pouring water of baptism on our Lord Jesus.” And they are also deeply appreciative of the act of dousing water using the firetruck’s water canon—by no less than the town Mayor—during the procession celebrating the feast of our patron, Saint John the Baptist. Oh, what a gesture of harmony and cooperation!
And so, how’s our beloved town of “San Juan del Monte,” the Taytay we know? It is a first class, densely populated municipality in the province of Rizal. It is the third most populous municipality in the country. It is proudly the "woodworks and garments capital of the Philippines," and efforts are paying off for its continuing development. Few more steps, maybe “ilang tulog na lang,” the dream of cityhood will be achieved; and lo, Taytay flies high!
Much has been said. But that's only a glimpse of the gargantuan past, its heritage, and the wonder that is Taytay—and beyond. Taytayeños have ever sought to bestow the town the honor it deserves, and with great impulse of gratitude to its humble patron, St. John the Baptist, who has since been the driving spirit, “the voice in the wilderness” of our town's socio-civic and eco-political endeavors, cultural and historical heritage.
However things may have changed from what they were before in the course of time, though, perhaps very different, what has not changed, what is no different today is our folk way of integrating devotion and celebration, piety and revelry.
Celebrating June 24, the feast of the nativity of Saint John the Baptist, is in order. Indeed, for true Taytayeños at heart, the “San Juan paligo” tradition is but a keen celebration of the past we are today so busy and eagerly rediscovering.
Yes, Pista ni San Juan Bautista, Araw ng Taytay!