history of dumalag

 History of dumalag

he history of Dumalag dates as far back as the early years of the christianization of the island of Panay. Since the time the Augustians set foot in the island and founded the Christian settlements of Dumangas and Panay in 1563, the children of Saint Agustin – Juan de Alva and Martin de Dada, looked at this Visayan land with care and love towards its Pintados people, and soon their apostolic zeal reached as far as the towns of Tigbauan, Hamtic Aklan, Ibajay and Otong (Oton) in Iloilo. Actually, some historians have placed the foundation of the Christian community of Dumalag in the year 1596.

Administered for some time by the Augustians of Ibajay or Hamtic, the new  settlement was handedover the Bishop of Cebu, Father Pedro Agurto, in 1597, for the benefit of the secular clergy. A few years later, however, it was given back to the Augustians. It was Father Juan de Medina, one of the most outstanding apostles of the Visayas and the first historian of Panay who said that such a return was mainly due to the efforts of Father Alonzo de Baraona while being minister of Sarog (Jaro) in 1611 and of Aklan in 1613. The fearless friar crosserd the seas to Cebu and to Manila, with evident danger to his own life on several ocassions, to obtain the entraty from the Bishop and the Governor General, the mission at Dumalag for the Augustians. In fact Dumalag was exchanged for the ministry of Ibajay, and the Provincial Chapter celebrated in manila by the Augustians on May 17, 1614, accepted officially the exchange and proclaimed Dumalag an Augustinian Convent.

The first priest assigned to Dumalag by the Superior was Father Lucas de Atienza, though probably he never took care of the town, or he was there for every short time, since October 1615. Father Gasper de Avila was confirmed in his position as minister of Dumalag, while Father Atienza was appointed Chaplain for the military expeditions prepared by Governor General Juan de Silve againts the Dutch fleet at the end of this year. But there was no doubt, according to first-hand sources, that by this time Father Alonzo de Baraona had done much apostolic in the area of dumalag. The aforementioned writing account in his favor: “Since Father Baraona liked very much to stoll around the fields, he discovered in Dumalag, a marvelous cave which may be more than two leagues along.

On other occasion, he found in the mountains of this town a cedar which a strong wind had thrown to the ground, and he ordered to make a boat out of it, the biggest one made of a single piece of wood ever seen in these islands, “I sailed it,” and it was wider that six feet could accommodate more than one hundred baskets of clean rice. A person standing on one end could not see what there was on the other. He made many good plunks before destroying the tree. Probably, it was out of these plunks that Father Baraona built the first strong wood convent and church in the town, since Father Medina who did some apostolic work in Dumalag area around 1616, referred already to it as very important convent with more than one thousand people in one priest.

A second outstanding pioneer of Dumalag Christianization was Father Hernando de Morales who was officially charged with the responsibility of the town on April 29, 1617. Several actions of Father Morales ardent zeal for the spiritual welfare of his flock have brought down to us by history. The first one according to Father Medina, went like this” “around this time (1619) when Father Hernando de Morales was priest of Dumalag, some natives come to tell him that while being in their field they had seen a thing falling from the sky with very much brightness and great luminousness and that they were unable to determine what the thing might be.