Provincial Curia, QUEZON CITY – With spiritual depth and simplicity, the 250th jubilee of the arrival of the Augustinian Recollect missionaries in the island of Bohol was celebrated simultaneously on August 18 and 19, 2018 in the different parishes of the province. Fray Dionisio Selma, OAR, Prior Provincial, led the group of 17 Recoletos friars, … Read more
MANILA – This time around, Fray Dionisio Selma, OAR, as the Prior Provincial, took to a higher level his role as “the principal driving force for renewal of the province” as set down in the Constitutions. Father Selma who is also the Chairman of the Board of Trustees (BOT) of the San Sebastian Basilica Conservation … Read more
The Philippines, “discovered” by Ferdinand Magellan for Spain in 1521, was officially incorporated to the Spanish Empire under King Philip II in 1565. The King ordered an expedition, under the command of Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, to the Philippines to conquer it. The expedition left Mexico in 1564 and reached Cebu on February 13, 1565. With … Read more
Sablayan, OCCIDENTAL MINDORO – In this historic and burgeoning municipality, a nineteenth-century church was recently restored. The townsfolk call it as the “lumang simbahan” of the old poblacion of their town, Sablayan. It was first founded as a mission in 1819 by the Augustinian Recollect missionaries.
Read moreNineteenth-century Recoleto church in Mindoro restored!
It is common knowledge that devotion to the Brown Scapular is inseparable with devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Everyone knows that it was to St. Simon Stock, who was Father General of the Carmelite Order, that the Blessed Mother appeared and entrusted the charge of spreading devotion to the Brown Scapular. In fact, … Read more
The Queen of San Sebastian Basilica — and of Quiapo — was once again re-enthroned at her rightful shrine during the closing ceremony of the 400th anniversary of the arrival of her first image to the country. The re-enthronement of the Our Lady of Mount Carmel at the Basilica, led by parish priest Fr. Antonio “Joy” … Read more
The Brown Scapular of the Our Lady of Mount Carmel is an outward sign that the Mother of God covers us with the mantle of her maternal protection because we belong to God through her. This is what Fr. Rommel Rubia, OAR, newly appointed Local Prior of the community of San Sebastian College-Recoletos Cavite, said … Read more
During his brief lecture on the history of the Carmelite devotion among the Augustinian Recollect friars in the Philippines at the Quirino Grandstand last May 4, historian Fr. Emil Quilatan, OAR mentioned in passing an interesting figure: Felipe Sonson. Sonson, a native of Macabebe, Pampanga, would have gone down in history as another obscure missionary … Read more
The image of the Our Lady of Mount Carmel first arrived in the country through the waters four hundred years ago with the third batch of Augustinian Recollect missionaries. The image, a gift by the contemplative nuns of Mexico to the Augustinian Recollects, arrived in the country on May 4, 1618. It is but fitting, … Read more
On the quadricentennial anniversary of the arrival of the image of the Our Lady of Mount Carmel to Philippine shores, the Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Manila reminded the Filipinos that if they want to have lasting and true peace, they should return to Carmel. Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle, though absent, left this message which … Read more
