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Santuario de San Antonio Parish - Singles (113,000)
Design Coordinator:
Fr. Antonio-Ma. Rosales, OFM
Layout Artist:
Alfonso V. Divina
Designs:
Santuario de San Antonio Parish Photo provided by Roger Coquia
First Day Covers: Manila
Santuario de San Antonio Parish Church - 50th
Anniversary
The convent and church of San Francisco de Asis
in Intramuros were razed to the ground during the liberation of
Manila in 1945. Instead of rebuilding at the same location, the
Franciscans decided to construct a new church elsewhere.
On July 17, 1951, a contract was signed between
the Franciscans and the Ayala Corporation, which agreed to donate
two hectares of land at Forbes Park, Makati, Rizal, on which the
Franciscans committed to construct a church and convent (California
Mission-style).
On August 24, 1951, the Most Rev. Gabriel M.
Reyes, D.o., Archbishop of Manila, granted permission for this
construction to be undertaken dedicated to St. Anthony of Padua. The
conerstone was blessed on August 1, 1951.
On December 8, 1953, the Most Rev. Rufino J.
Santos, D.o. Archbishop of Manila, solemnly blessed the new church.
This year is the 50th Anniversary of the solemn blessing.
Santuario de San Antonio was converted into a
parish on April 16, 1975, with a territory consisting of Urdaneta
Village, North and South Forbes Park and Dasmarifias Village. In
May, 1975, Fr. Urban Plachcinski, OFM, was installed as first parish
priest.
On December 8, 1976, Fr. Plachcinski, was also
appointed Pastor of the English speaking foreign Catholics in Metro
Manila with headquarters at the Santuario de San Antonio Parish.
From the very beginning of the construction
until its completion, Fr. Jose Martinez, OFM, was in charge of the
place. He was the driving force behind the construction project.
Fr. Martinez was ordained to the Priesthood in
Madrid, Spain at the age of 23, on June 2, 1929. He came to the
Philippines in November of that year, and his work took him to
Samar, Intramuros, Sta. Ana, Manila, San Francisco del Monte, Quezon
City and Forbes Park where he stayed for 18 years.
What the Parish is today, strong, vibrant and
dynamic, can be traced to the combined efforts of all the priests
and parishioners who have put all their time and efforts to ensure
that the Santuario de San Antonio becomes a model parish that
effectively and efficiently serves its community for the greater
glory of God. More particularly, credit should go to the other
parish priests namely; Fr. Hugh Zurat who was parish priest from
1980-1989; Fr. David Turnbull, 1989-1991; Fr. Enrique Carpio,
1991-1995; Fr. Franco Mendiola, April to November, 1995; Fr. Gil
Romeo Abesamis, 1995-1997 and Fr. Antonio-Ma. Rosales, 1997 to the
present.
In this 50 years of existence, the Santuario has
been faithful to the values lived by St. Anthony: love for prayer;
concern for the poor and the needy and care for the environment. In
its little way it has contributed to recent events of our history,
with the first meetings that led to EDSA UNO, as well as EDSADOS.