I recently joined a simulation tour of a Filipino Catholic’s tradition in Cebu specially relevant for the upcoming Holy Week – the ‘Visita Iglesia‘.

Visita Iglesia de South Cebu

Spanish for ‘Church Visit‘, the Visita Iglesia involves visiting seven churches during Holy Week’s Holy Thursday which is based on an ancient practice which most probably originated from Rome where pilgrims used to visit churches  as part of their sacrament for the Roman Catholic Church.

Here in the Philippines, the practice is sometimes extended to fourteen churches aiming to represent the fourteen stations of the cross before Christ’s crucifixion as depicted in the doctrines.

We only visited seven churches though, which is the more common practice. You can consider each church to represent two stations of the cross. 🙂

Church Visits during Holy Week

Our Southern Cebu Visita Iglesia started in the morning after leaving Maribago Bluewater Beach Resort where we stayed earlier, en route to Sumilon Island whose story is upcoming in this blog come April 2010.

Now, back to the churches. Being a comparatively newbie travel blogger, this post will not aim to extensively discuss the historical relevance of each of those seven churches we went to. Rather, I will enumerate the churches and each of their locations, perhaps sharing some bits of information as we go along.

It was also a privilege to be travelling with knowledgeable and historically-sensitive travel bloggers like Ivan Henares of Ivan About Town and Melo Villareal of Out of Town Blog from whom I learned a lot.

You might also consider this as a photo-compilation of Visita Iglesia de south Cebu as I gather a collection of similarly angled photos of the churches’ interiors from the same perspective and depth.

And here are the churches that we visited and their photos:

San Isidro Labrador

San Isidro Labrador Church in San Fernando

San Isidro Labrador

St Catherine of Alexandria

St Catherine of Alexandria Church in Carcar City

St Catherine of Alexandria

Nuestra Senora Del Pilar

Nuestra Senora Del Pilar Church in Sibunga

Nuestra Snr. Del Pilar

St Michael Archangel

St Michael Archangel in Argao

San Miguel Arcangel Church

San Guillermo Del Ermitanio

San Guillermo Del Ermitanio in Dalaguete

Dalaguete Church

Nuestra Senora del Patrocinio

Church of Patrocinio de Maria in Boljoon

Nuestra Senora del Patrocinio in Boljoon

Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception

Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception in Oslob

Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception

Visita Iglesia with Sago

That concludes the long journey of Visita Iglesia in south Cebu. By the way, Sago was with us through out the journey. I just decided not to post the pictures of him with the churches as it might be construed as disrespectful of the religion.  🙂 Anyhow, here’s Sago with the Visita Iglesia leaflet itinerary. 🙂

Lastly, Have a solemn and meditative Holy Week while remembering Christ’s suffering on the cross on our behalf for our salvation.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. That whossoever believeth in Him should not perish but have an everlasting life” – John 3:16