Joanne Ll. Lopez

MANILA CATHEDRAL

The Manila Cathedral is the ecclesiastical seat of the Archdiocese of Manila. In Spanish colonial times, this was the seat of the Spanish Archbishop of Manila, who had jurisdiction over the entire archipelago. This structure is actually the sixth church to occupy the site.

The first one, built in 1581, was razed to the ground two years after it was built. The present structure was completed in 1958. The main façade of the Manila Cathedral is graced by statues of famous saints sculpted in Roman travertine stone. In the old cathedral, they were originally made of molave wood.

The present cathedral was constructed from 1954 to 1958 during the tenure of Manila Archbishop Rufino Jiao Cardinal Santos , and under the supervision of architect Fernando Ocampo. It was elevated to the rank of minor basilica in 1981 by Pope john Paul II.

The Cathedral's crypts serve as a final resting place for former Archbishops of Manila, just as the crypts of St. Peter's in the Vatican do for the bodies of former Popes. Among those interred in the Cathedral's crypts is Jaime Cardinal Sin, one of the ringleaders of the 1986 Edsa Revolution that ousted the dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

IMAGES OF THE MANILA CATHEDRAL