The Church of St. Mary the Virgin is the main Episcopal church in

Sagada Sagada, officially the Municipality of Sagada is a 5th class municipality in the province of Mountain Province, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 11,510 people. Sagada is from Bontoc, the provincial capital ...

Mountain Province Mountain Province is a landlocked province of the Philippines in the Cordillera Administrative Region in Luzon. Its capital is Bontoc. Mountain Province was formerly referred to as ''Mountain'' in some foreign references. The name is usually short ...

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

. It was built in 1904 by American missionaries under the auspices of the

Episcopal Church in the United States The Episcopal Church, based in the United States with additional dioceses elsewhere, is a member church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. It is a mainline Protestant denomination and is divided into nine provinces. The presiding bishop of ...

(Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America) led by Rev. John Staunton when the Philippines was opened to American Protestant missions after the country was ceded to the United States from Spain in 1898. In 1918 the Rev Albert Frost was appointed as Staunton's assistant. St Mary's, Sagada was notoriously Anglo-Catholic under Fr Staunton's leadership, but Frost introduced a number of new devotions: the proper observance of Candlemas and Corpus Christi,

May devotions to the Blessed Virgin Mary May devotions to the Blessed Virgin Mary refer to special Marian devotions held in the Catholic Church during the month of May honoring Mary, mother of God as "the Queen of May". These services may take place inside or outside. A "May Crowning" i ...

, June devotions in honour of the

Sacred Heart The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus ( la, Cor Jesu Sacratissimum) is one of the most widely practised and well-known Catholic devotions, wherein the heart of Jesus is viewed as a symbol of "God's boundless and passionate love for mankind". This devo ...

, November intercessions for the

Holy Souls All Souls' Day, also called ''The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed'', is a day of prayer and remembrance for the faithful departed, observed by certain Christian denominations on 2 November. Through prayer, intercessions, alms an ...

, and

Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, also called Benediction with the Blessed Sacrament or the Rite of Eucharistic Exposition and Benediction, is a devotional ceremony, celebrated especially in the Roman Catholic Church, but also in some other C ...

as a regular feature of Sunday worship. In 1918 Bishop Brent was translated to a diocese in New York, and jurisdiction of the Philippines was transferred to Bishop Graves of

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

. Graves undertook a visitation in November 1918, and held that the singing of hymns before the

Reserved Sacrament During the Mass of the Faithful, the second part of the Mass, the elements of bread and wine are considered to have been changed into the veritable Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. The manner in which this occurs is referred to by the term transu ...

and the statue of the Virgin were illegal. He issued a directive, prohibiting such veneration. Despite threats to resign, Staunton and Frost remained in post, and the practices of Sagada continued. However, the appointment of Brent's successor,

Frank Mosher Gouverneur Frank Mosher (1871 – July 19, 1941) was Episcopal Missionary Bishop of the Philippine Islands. He was born at Stapleton, New York ( Staten Island) and studied at Union College, Schenectady and Berkeley Divinity School in Middletown, ...

, led to a final row: in September 1924 the Bishop invited the Chaplain of Brent School to open the communion rail to non-Episcopalians. Staunton declared this to be a "Pan-Protestant virus", and both he and Frost resigned at the end of 1924. American historian William Henry Scott was buried in its grounds on October 10, 1993. The church is subsequently a member of the

Episcopal Church in the Philippines The Episcopal Church in the Philippines (ECP; tl, Simbahang Episkopal sa Pilipinas; Ilocano: ''Simabaan nga Episkopal iti Filipinas'') is a province of the Anglican Communion comprising the country of the Philippines. It was established by the ...

References

Churches in the Philippines Protestantism in the Philippines Churches in Mountain Province {{Philippines-church-stub