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Date Posted: 00:47:06 10/16/04 Sat
Author: By Bambi Harper
Subject: Sense and Sensibility : Filipino religiosity

Sense and Sensibility : Filipino religiosity

By Bambi Harper
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A15 of the October 16, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


IT'S quite interesting to observe the difference in the Christian fervor of the early Filipino converts and later devotees. In the early 18th century Father Martinez de Zuñiega was already complaining that we were not well instructed in the Christian doctrine. An 1886 Franciscan manual for parish priests deemed that the majority of Filipinos had no real understanding of their religion; they just memorized what they were told. Primo de Rivera, then governor, felt that our religious beliefs were confined to the observance of outward practices but didn't make any deeper impression.

French traveler Jean Mallat observed that we were particularly superstitious with lots of stories about ghosts, phantoms, nocturnal visitations, monsters and sorcerers. (We have since added fortunetellers, spirit of the glass, and now feng shui) There was even a story of a parish priest in Magalang town in the province of Pampanga who committed 57 murders after being made to believe that his mother had been placed under a spell.

Early missionaries found that methods of government and religious beliefs were based on customs and traditions. Some traditions were preserved in memorized songs which the people learned as they were sang during work, play or celebrations and funeral rites when they were children. Genealogies and the deeds of the gods were also recounted.

Many of the spirits, known as “anito” and ancestors, played an important part in the pre-Christian religion of the Filipinos. In 1595, Franciscan friar Diego del Villar found in the town of Lumbang about 200 important “likha” or images and figures. Some were covered with gold; others with beaten silver and studded with diamonds and other precious stones, with enchasing and filigreed work. He threw them into the fire much to the chagrin of collectors, antique dealers and their ilk 500 years later.

The people had an abundance of fine earthenware for use in their religious practices, as well as various kinds of instruments used by the ministers of the idols, among them, old women who acted as priestesses.

Many newly converted natives were so fervent in their faith that they knelt all throughout the Mass and they heard not just one Mass but as many as they could. In the Bicol region, before receiving communion they would fast, do the discipline (self-flagellation) and abstain from carnal relations, even with their wives. Of their own free will, they would fast three times a week and throughout all of Lent. Some gave up rice and ate only boiled roots during the Holy Week.

They would make their own "Books of Hours" (a book containing the prayers of the Office of Our Lady for the various days of the week), which they would write in their own character and letters. Lives of the saints and that of Our Lady and other women saints were also written down and read frequently.

Penance and abstinence were also practiced with zeal. Some abstained from putting salt in their food; others stopped bathing -- a great penance and sacrifice for Filipinos who were brought up to bathe daily. It was also quite ordinary for them to wear sackcloth, a practice that the priests tried to discourage as they did with self-flagellation so that they do not endanger their health. They would also get up to pray matins (chanted in monasteries at midnight) at home and "give themselves up to mental prayer."

During Lent, they would scourge themselves and draw blood, carried heavy crosses and perform other mortifications. Others set up their house as a place where people could go and practice penance and mortifications. Some hang from crosses, others put on weights on their necks, others drag weights from a halter as if they were beasts, which they considered themselves to be for having offended God.

Several reasons were given for our moral decline later, chief among them the lack of priests. There were 40,000 to 50,000 faithful in a parish so that it was impossible for the parish priest to adequately attend to the needs of his congregation for religious instruction. The further away people lived from the town, the worse the situation became.

Many were thus Christians in name only, though baptized at birth. The situation improved somewhat when the public school system became more widespread since the teacher taught catechism. Still many students merely parroted the religious teachings but did not necessarily understand what they meant.

In the 19th century there was a growth of folk Catholicism. The best known example was Apolinario de la Cruz's Cofradia de San Jose that taught his followers to pray, which wasn't a bad thing at all, but as the number of its members increased, the authorities became alarmed and prohibited it from going on. The members resisted and this resulted in a violent protest that led to the death of poor De la Cruz, who was known as Hermano Pule. Some of them, however, fled to Mount Banahaw. Forty years later, a traveler mentioned that Pule had named certain sites as "the mount of Calvary, the spring of Jordan, Purgatory, etc."

Once in a while, we come across articles about the Philippines as the only Catholic country in Asia, juxtaposed with its being one of the most corrupt as well. Makes you wonder, doesn't it, whether we really are practicing Catholics or just baptized?

(Data from Readings in Philippine Church History, John N. Schumacher, S.J.)

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