The Archdiocesan Shrine of St. Vincent Ferrer (commonly known as ''Leganes Church'') is a neoclassical church dedicated to Saint

Vincent Ferrer Vincent Ferrer, OP ( ca-valencia, Sant Vicent Ferrer , es, San Vicente Ferrer, it, San Vincenzo Ferreri, german: Sankt Vinzenz Ferrer, nl, Sint-Vincent Ferrer, french: Saint Vincent Ferrier; 23 January 1350 – 5 April 1419) was a Valencian D ...

Leganes, Iloilo Leganes, officially the Municipality of Leganes ( hil, Banwa sang Leganes, tgl, Bayan ng Leganes), is a 4th class municipality in the province of Iloilo, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 34,725 people. It is lo ...

, Philippines under the

Archdiocese of Jaro The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Jaro is an archdiocese of the Catholic Church headquartered in Jaro, Iloilo City, the Philippines. It is based with the Jaro Cathedral (officially the Metropolitan Cathedral of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, also the N ...

. Its current structure is a result of the numerous restoration efforts which was necessity because of both man-made and natural disasters.

History

The current San Vicente Ferrer Church was a product of repairs and reconstructions. The first was completed in 1889 under the patronage of Father Eladio Zamora using the materials of ''tabigue'',

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, bu ...

and brickwork. It replaced the old chapel which was constructed out of local indigenous materials. The adjoining

convent A convent is a community of monks, nuns, religious brothers or, sisters or priests. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The word is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglican ...

was made out of local wood while the adjacent cemetery was bordered by a bamboo fence. Strong winds and rain damaged the church and rendered the convent useless during the typhoon that happened on May 10, 1896. Repairs were initiated by Father Fulgencio Rodriguez on the church. Two years after the tragic event,

Augustinians Augustinians are members of Christian religious orders that follow the Rule of Saint Augustine, written in about 400 AD by Augustine of Hippo. There are two distinct types of Augustinians in Catholic religious orders dating back to the 12th–13 ...

handed the church over to the secular priests who have given assistance to the natives since the evangelization started. On January 25, 1948, the church was severely damaged when the Lady Caycay earthquake with a magnitude of 8.2 struck the whole of

Panay Island Panay is the sixth-largest and fourth-most populous island in the Philippines, with a total land area of and has a total population of 4,542,926 as of 2020 census. Panay comprises 4.4 percent of the entire population of the country. The City ...

. The shocks lasted for 70 seconds which devastated almost all the heritage churches within the island. Also recovering from

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the church reconstruction only went underway during the 1950s with an addition of a separate

bell tower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tower ...

and other supplementary buildings.

Architecture

The facade is neoclassical expressed through the columns and the

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedimen ...

s at the center with fenestration of arched doorways and windows. The whole of interior is filled with colorful stained glass windows. One of which is an

oculus Oculus (a term from Latin ''oculus'', meaning 'eye'), may refer to the following Architecture * Oculus (architecture), a circular opening in the centre of a dome or in a wall Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Oculus'' (film), a 2013 American ...

located at the sanctuary wall that lights up the sculpture of

St. Vincent Ferrer Vincent Ferrer, OP ( ca-valencia, Sant Vicent Ferrer , es, San Vicente Ferrer, it, San Vincenzo Ferreri, german: Sankt Vinzenz Ferrer, nl, Sint-Vincent Ferrer, french: Saint Vincent Ferrier; 23 January 1350 – 5 April 1419) was a Valencian D ...

. Life of the saint is depicted through these stained windows which include his birth, his baptism, the apparition of the

Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother o ...

to him, and his death. It has a central

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

and two

aisle An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, certain types of buildings, such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, parl ...

s with lower ceilings flanking it. In front of the right aisle is a simple altar of Jesus and Mary while the

baptistery In Christian architecture the baptistery or baptistry (Old French ''baptisterie''; Latin ''baptisterium''; Greek , 'bathing-place, baptistery', from , baptízein, 'to baptize') is the separate centrally planned structure surrounding the baptismal ...

ends the left aisle.

References

External links

{{Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Jaro Leganes Churches in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Jaro