Santiago Apostol Church (Plaridel)

Saint James the Great is the patron saint of Quingua Church.

The church of Plaridel, or Quingua was first established as one of the visitas of Malolos in 1581 and Fray Mateo Mendoza OSA who administered the Malolos Convent began the Christianization of Encomienda Binto y Quingua. It was located in a barrio now called "Lumangbayan" the mission chapel was soon transferred to its present location across the river Quingua (now known as Angat River) because of frequent flooding. Due to long distance of Malolos Convent to the Visita of Binto making the friars to be physically exhausted, the Augustinian prior of Malolos Fray Roque de Barrionuevo made the elevation of Visita of Binto into a Quasi-Parish on September 27, 1602. On April 30, 1605, Quingua was officially established as a full pledge Parish with Fray. Diego Pardo OSA as its first parish priest under the advocacy of Santiago de Matamoro. A Church was built on the new location starting 1602 and took 15 years to complete. The adobe stones used in the church were from the town of Meycauayan while the bricks used were made at Sitio Nabugtos at Brgy. Sta. Ines. In the year 1612, Quingua already had its own convent and 1,800 parishioners. It is said that the parish was not as wealthy as other convents in the Provincia de Bulacan during that time and that it was exempted from its fees to the Augustinian Province in the Philippines located at the San Agustin Church, Intramuros, from 1640 to 1704. The 1605 church was razed by fire after being hit by lightning. As a result, in 1722 a new church was built by Fr. Tomas Quijano on the same site. In 1772, the church was razed by fire once more but was quickly rebuilt. During the British Invasion in the 18th century, some of the treasures and documents owned by the San Agustin Monastery in Intramuros were transferred to the convent of Quingua. The church suffered immensely from an earthquake in 1863 but was repaired the same year.[1] According to the historical marker installed by the National Historical Committee, the church also served as a military hospital and cuartel by the Americans in 1899.

Long time administered by the Archdiocese of Manila, on March 11, 1962 with the establishment of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Malolos, the Quingua Church and Convent administration and ownership was transferred to the Diocese of Malolos, making Quingua Church the center of one of the original nine vicarias of Malolos, the Vicariate of Plaridel or the Vicariate of Santiago Apostol comprising the parishes in the municipalities of Calumpit, Balagtas (Bigaa), Guiguinto, Baliwag, Pulilan and Plaridel (Quingua).

Church interior in 2015

The present stone and brick church is barn-style Baroque mixed with Moorish ornamentation. The first level of the façade consists of a main trefoil arch doorway flanked by two niches of saints. The second level, with its three windows, is plainly adorned by four pairs of pillars. The pointed arch shaped pediment (resembling a minaret), on the other hand, is richly ornamented with carvings of cherubs, saints and other embellishments surrounding the oculus or rose window. At the peak of the pediment is a carving of the pierced heart of Jesus, a symbol of the Augustinian Order. Attached to left of the façade is the five-storey bell tower with a quadrilateral base and octagonal upper levels and topped by a cone-shaped dome.[2][3] There are five bells in the belfry, the biggest of which is dedicated to Nuestra Senora de la Consolación.[1]

Simborio Chapel

Near the church is an octagonal chapel locally known as the Simborio Chapel. Believed to have been built in the 1800s, the chapel may have functioned as a mortuary chapel although its current location in a residential area is a few meters away from the Catholic cemetery. The chapel features pointed arch windows and semicircular niches on its base.

• Commission on Liturgy
  • Lay Eucharistic Ministers
  • Parish Music Ministry
  • Apostolado ng Panalangin
  • Lector/ Commentator
  • Legion of Mary
  • Ostiarates (Mass Collectors/Usherettes)
  • Mother Butler Mission Guild
  • Cofradia delos Camareros de Quingua
  • Cofradia dela Virgen Consolacion Y Correa (The oldest Organization in the Parish)
  • Confraternity of Saint James the Great - Quingua
• Commission on Family and Life
  • Marriage Encounter Community
  • Tipanan Community
• Commission on Social Action:
  • Knights of Columbus 6613
  • Catholic Women's' League
• Commission on Formation:
  • El Shaddai Prayer Community
  • Soldiers of Christ
  • Holy Family Family Prayer Community
  • Bible Apostolate
  • PAndiyosesis na Sentro ng Katekista (PASKA)
  • Basic Ecclesial Communities (Currently: 70 plus buklod)
• Commission on Youth
• Commission on Social Communication
• Commission on Temporal Goods

The image of Santiago Apostol upon arrival in Quingua Church

A fiesta for horse lovers is the popular two-day celebration called "Pintakasi ng mga Caballero" held before New Year's Eve in Plaridel, Bulacan. Its main attraction, held on December 29, is a colorful parade of cocheros, jockeys and other equine aficionados, followed by a tilbury race (horse-drawn chariots for two), whose participants include movie stars (particularly members of the clan of the late former Bulacan Governor Jose Padilla, I), luminaries of the province and government officials.

This annual celebrations delight to both local and foreign tourists turned 400 years old last December. It is actually the traditional feast of San Tiago Mata Moros in Plaridel town.

Multitudes of devotees, who are joined by tourists, flock to Plaridel every year either to witness or participate in this colorful ritual in honor of San Tiago, or St. James the Apostle, who has been depicted as a horse rider. San Tiago is considered the unofficial patron of cocheros and jockeys.

St. James the Apostle is the cousin of Christ. His image, portrayed riding on a white horse trampling upon pagan figures, is brought in a procession from its "home" in Barangay Sipat and transferred to the Parish Church.

Fiesta organizers dub the ritual preceded by an early morning mass on December 29 at the chapel of Barangay Sipat as, "the traditional salubong." Featured are race studs and the patient horses of caritelas and tilburies with their owners seeking blessing during the translacion or transfer of their patron saint.

The procession is called salubong because San Tiago's image tailed by groups of faithful including elderly women wearing kimona’t saya and buntal hats performing a ritual dance is met by the patron's other devotees halfway from Sipat to Plaridel Parish Church, in the town's poblacion.

Local officials and national figures often join the devotees’ seven-kilometer trek to the parish church. In the past celebration, Tourism Secretary Gemma Cruz Araneta; DOTC Sec. Vicente Rivera Jr., who hails from Plaridel; Former Bulacan Governor Josie Dela Cruz; and former Bulacan Vice Governor Willie Villarama, this town's "adopted son", led the procession.

The image stays inside the parish to give time for the faithful to pay their respects until the following day, December 30, when the image is again carried in a procession around the poblacion. After 14 days, when the fiesta celebration is over, the image, in another simple procession accompanied by fiesta organizers and town officials, will be returned to the Sipat Chapel, popularly known as Hatid.

"Salubong" ritual dates back to the time of Spanish friars who established the town's parish church in 1580, making St. James patron saint of the town. according to a local book of the town's history, the original image of St. James on a white horse brought to Plaridel (then Quingua) by the Spaniards in the 1800s was left in the care of the family of Bernardo Sampana a rebel heathen of Sepoy ancestry who became a Christian convert. The image was housed in their home at Barrio Tabang. Then the Sampanas were ordered by the friars to turn over the said image to the possession of the owners of the Bahay na Bato in Barrio Sipat (which was renamed Santiago), because of the townsfolks' claim that the family was allegedly practicing sorcery.

When the owners of Bahay na Bato died, the image became the possession of Tandang Sitang whose house was eventually turned into a barrio chapel, present home to San Tiago's image in Sipat.

San Tiago, or St. James the Apostle, was a Galilean and brother of St. John the Evangelist. He was ordered killed by Herod Agrippa, King of Judea in 41 A.D. A history book of Philip Van Ness says the tomb of St. James was found in Northern Spain in 718 A.D. Thirty years after that, a war between the Spaniards and the Moors broke out. When the Spaniards were in near defeat, an apparition of St. James, armed with a sword and riding a white horse, appeared "as bright as a star" in the thick of the battle.

The apparition gave life to the demoralized Spanish soldiers and led them to victory over the Moors, who in turn were bedazzled by the blinding image of St. James. This "miracle" probably explains why St. James became patron saint of those who have affinity with horses, like the devotees flocking every year to the colorful Plaridel ritual.

Late in November 2013, efforts to restore parts of the Santiago Apostol Church, including its ceiling paintings were completed. The project's proponent was the parish church management under the leadership of Fr. Dennis Espejo in cooperation with the AADG Restoration Group. According to project director Andrew Alto de Guzman, the task was aimed at promoting the appreciation of Quingua's heritage. The project, which took two years to complete involved three stages. The first stage, after extensive research on the structure, was uncovering the church trusses, the tirantes or decorative beams, and the zapata or corbels which supported the original ceiling, all of which were covered in the 1970s when tin sheets and wood were used as the church ceiling. The second stage was remaking the trompe-l'œil paintings in the ceiling based on archival photos. Among the images illustrated were those of Christ, Mary, and the twelve apostles. The artworks were done by local artists Chris Pasco, Mark Villanueva, Roy Gutierrez, Joey de Guzman and assistants. The third phase of the project centered on applying lime plaster to the upper portions of the capitals. The application of palitada was provided by Escuela Taller. The bricked up rose windows on the sides of the church were also exposed.[4]

• Media related to Saint James the Greater Church (Plaridel, Bulacan) at Wikimedia Commons