Seventy years ago, in February of 1945, the 337-year old history of Saint Nicholas Intramuros in Manila was crushed under the weight of bombs. It was the mother house of the Province of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino, the missionary province of the Order of Augustinian Recollects.
Let us cross the doors of the old convent and Mother House of the Augustinian Recollects in the Philippines. Starting from the main facade, we will enter the church and sneak into the intimate spaces of the life of this numerous community, rising floor after floor via a regal staircase.
Join us in this tour replete with history and the concrete lives of those who committed themselves to the evangelizing mission up to its ultimate consequences.
3.1. The church of Saint Nicholas of Tolentine
• The belfry
The belfry is the first thing that catches our attention. On account of its robustness and elegance, it was considered among the most beautiful in the Philippine capital. And it was old, possibly dating back to the original 18th century building. It was made of brick and stone mixed with mortar, and the lowest three of its five tiers were solid, making it resist so many earthquakes.
• The facade
Matching the belfy was the facade, which was crowned with a niche that housed the image of the patron saint. On big feast days, it would be ablaze with hundreds of candles; from 1906 onwards, with the installation of electricity, bulbs would illumine it.
• The church interior
The church was also of solid brick, as was most of the convent. It measured some 55 x 13 meters. It was shaped like a Latin cross, although one arm of the transept was longer than normal to form the splendid chapel of the Nazarene. Its style was churrigueresque, with abundance of Solomonic columns.
• Common prayer and preaching
San Nicolas was never a parish, in contrast to the majority of the Recollect houses. This was what provincial Mateo de la Encarnacion meant when he wrote to Spanish King Fernando VI in 1750 that it was:
“the only house of observance wherein the religious are engaged in attending the choir, in keeping rigorous observance, in fasts, disciplines and other acts of penance”.
The choir he was referring to has changed location through the centuries. At first, it was accessed through the ground-level cloister. Later, one reached it through the 2nd floor and it occupied part of the side balcony that traversed the back portion of the church, above the chapels. It was in the choir that the religious, at the sound of the bell, assembled several times during the day to fulfill their daily hour of prayer and recite the divine office.
Which is not to say that the residents of this convent lacked pastoral activity, as the provincial also took pains to explain to the King:
“its conventual religious are all very much engaged, within and without, in preaching the Holy Gospel, in administering the holy sacraments of confession and communion, and in assisting day and night the many sick people of this vicinity, who are continually calling on us”;
Then, adding:
“that this holy work we perform in charity, without obligation of stipend and without any recompense”.
A minimum number of four friars devoted to pastoral activity was never lacking in this Mother House.
The first activity that fray Mateo mentioned was the preaching, which on special occasions gathered massive crowds. For that purpose was the pulpit, inside the church, at a prominent spot from which the preacher could be heard.
Normally there resided in Intramuros a religious who was officially designated as preacher. He was chosen from among the best in the Province. Suffice it to point out, in the long list of Manila preachers, the names of two saints: one, in its early years, in 1626, Melchor de San Agustín, martyr in Japan; and the other, towards the end, in 1880-1881, Saint Ezekiel Moreno.
• The cult and the figure of the sacristan
Another key feature was the care for the cult, understood according to the mentality of the times, which tended towards pomp and ostentation. A church like that of the Recollects, at the heart of Manila and in competition with the churches of the other religious orders, could not but possess a richly endowed sacristy that counted on all kinds of sacred ornaments, each one more lavish than the other, along with sufficient furniture, a revolving collection of statues and a long etcetera. Just talking of silver processional carriages, there were five.
From here surely would come two precious sets of three – chasuble, dalmatic and pluvial cape – bearing the Order’s insignias which, from at least a century ago, enrich the liturgical vestment room of the convent of Marcilla, in Navarra (Spain).
The same could be said of the so-called “chalice of the Province”, whose velvet case also displays the same insignias and is also conserved in Marcilla. And certainly, San Nicolas would also have kept the silver chalice which Leo XIII used at the anniversary of his sacerdotal ordination that he later gave to the convent in gratitude for a gift he received from the Province and the Archconfraternity of the Nazarene. At present it is displayed at the Museo Recoleto in Quezon City.
This entire devotional collection was under the control of the friar sacristan who also had personnel under him. The figure of the sacristan was not one of middling significance. He was appointed by the Provincial Chapter, who chose zealous as well as capable religious.
That was the case of the martyrs of Japan, the blessed Francisco de Jesus – sacristan in 1622– and, above all, Martin de San Nicolas, who succeeded him from 1623 through 1632. To the latter we owe the image and the reredos of the Our Lady of the Pillar of this church that, according to the old chronicle,
“the alms of the faithful helped finance”.

• The organ
Finally, the solemnity, the propriety itself, of cult in the Philippines could not be understood without the singing and the corresponding organ. In the course of exactly a century, from 1798 to 1898, an organ “without equal in the whole Philippine archipelago” had caused the marvel of all interested.
It was constructed by the Recollect Fr. Diego Cera, today known the world over as the builder of the famous bamboo organ of Las Piñas.
The one of Intramuros was much more spectacular. Not so much for its console, impressive in itself, which was located atop a balcony at the right nave; what made it unique was the network of pipes which, like tentacles, spread through the whole church: the balconies, the main reredos, and the ceiling itself. Each tube was topped by an angel playing a different musical instrument. When the organ was played, it seemed that the walls were singing.
During the 1898 Revolution, some 1,500 Spanish soldiers were cramped inside the church, rendering the organ unplayable. Although partly restored in 1924, it had to be replaced by a more conventional organ some years later.
• The pantheon, last resting place of the missionary
Finally, we need to point out a last feature: the pantheon. It was a hall of solid construction attached to the chapel of the Nazarene, that can also be reached from the presbytery. Generations of religious reposed in those niches.
The chapel contained, at the start of the 1945 bombing, the images of Our Lady of Health and the Christ of Casiguran, as well as a major part of the church vestuary and other objects of the convent. Most of the credit belongs to one of the friars killed in 1945, Ildefonso Vesga.
Providentially, the pantheon turned out to be the only portion left intact during the tragic days leading to the end of this entire complex.
3.2. Images and devotions
The first impression one gets in entering the church, under the impact of the enormous gilded reredos and the very large drum, was of sheer size.
The reredos was decidedly baroque: its five tiers featured statues of saints, not all from the Augustinian family, placed alternatively, and the six panels that depicted the miracles of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino, the patron saint.

• Statue of Saint Nicholas of Tolentine
Presiding from its central niche was Nicholas of Tolentine, which saint – if not also the statue – came from Spain with the first mission of 1606. The Recollects had identified themselves with him since the very start, spreading his devotion throughout the whole archipelago.
On his feast day, 10 September, the silver main altar would be set with its temple-like structure, the traditional San Nicolas bread would be distributed and his statue would be brought out in procession on a special silver carriage.
Of all that wealth the only items that were salvaged, that we know of, are the plate, and the quail that Saint Nicholas was holding. In 1948, the gold that they contained was melted with other precious objects to produce one of the crowns of the Our Lady of the Way of Monteagudo (Navarra, Spain).
• Our Lady of Consolation
The image of Our Lady of Consolation or of the Cincture also came with the first Recollects in 1606. It depicts the Blessed Virgin and her Son giving to Saint Augustine and Saint Monica the cincture that Mary supposedly wore during the Lord’s Passion. It is the most representative Marian title of the whole Augustinian family.
The image was located at the church front, at the end of the right nave, and had always enjoyed enormous popular devotion: around her thousands of devotees had gathered through the centuries. Many died as martyrs in Japan around the year 1630.
Girded with the cincture of the Blessed Virgin, the devotees were known as “cinctured” or “confraternity members of the Cincture”. Today, they continue to exist as the Secular Augustinian Recollect Fraternity.
One of the few remaining relics we possess belonged to this venerable image: the imperial crown of fine gold studded with fabulous stones. Here, too, the beneficiary was the statue of Our Lady of the Way. It was imposed on her during the solemn canonical crowning of 22 September 1954.
• Saint Joseph
Mary’s husband, Saint Joseph, had always occupied a place of honor in this Manila convent. Highlighting this was the enormous and splendid fresco that covered the side transept. It was the work of the painter Rafael Enriquez y Villanueva (1850-1937), first director of the School of Fine Arts of the University of the Philippines and teacher of the prince of Filipino painters, Fernando Amorsolo.
The fresco depicted Pope Pius IX declaring Saint Joseph as patron of the Universal Church on 8 December 1870, in one of the sessions of the First Vatican Council. This was the episode that, on the occasion of its 150th anniversary, Pope Francis has recently commemorated with his apostolic letter Patris Corde, of 8 December 2020.
Already in 1616, the church of San Nicolas had obtained the jubilee privilege for the feastday of Saint Joseph, every 19 March. But it was in the last quarter of the 19th century that it became a mass success within a general movement in the Church. Its promoter and propagator was the Augustinian Recollect lay brother Casildo Caballero.
Mostly due to him, the permission was obtained from the Holy See to organize here an archconfraternity whose influence would eventually reach the last corner of the Islands. Its establishment coincided with the episcopal ordination of former provincial Leandro Arrue.
The event was memorable for two reasons; or three, as the feast was dressed in mourning, when several pieces of fireworks kept in the prior’s room exploded, causing two religious to be burned to death.
The Archconfraternity of Saint Joseph continued to flourish. Some years later, when the future blessed Vicente Soler, martyr of the Spanish Civil War of 1936, was residing there as secretary and prior (1902-1906), he wrote a very fitting Bylaws.
Every year a splendid novena to Saint Joseph would be celebrated, with full display of vestments, lights, procession, music band and a sermon in a style that was then in vogue. It was Manila’s best and of the whole Philippines’ as well, a genuine social event. Finally, there also was established a very well attended children’s program for both boys and girls.
• Nuestro Padre Jesus Nazareno
These and other images of devotion perished with the destruction of the convent in 1945. Also lost was the image of Nuestro Padre Jesus Nazareno, although its memory and devotion have held out thanks to the replica that was donated to the neighboring church of Quiapo.
Moreover, the feast of the popular Nazareno, or Black Nazarene of Quiapo, is, along with the Santo Niño of Cebu, the most massively attended religious event in the whole Philippines. Every January 9, in commemoration of its transfer from San Nicolas church to Quiapo, the sacred image travels for several hours over a sea of fervent devotees who fight to be near it, sometimes resulting in physical injuries.
The image represents Jesus Christ fallen under the weight of the Cross, on his way to Calvary. It is life size and apparently was sculpted in Mexico, from where it would be brought to the Philippines in one of the early Recollect mission expeditions. Its devotion immediately took root; the oldest papal brief conserved in the Order, dated 20 April 1650, is a grant of indulgences to the confraternity of Jesus Nazareno of Intramuros.
Its privileged place is shown by the building plan itself: the chapel of the Nazarene is a veritable shrine attached to the church at the level of the transept. As to the clout of the confraternity, suffice it to say that it was able to significantly help subsidize the vanguard missions of Mindanao island.
• Saint Lucy
The Nazarene confraternity had Saint Lucy, the patron of sight, as co-patroness; she had her own altar and statue. In Manila and the neighboring provinces, she enjoyed an extraordinary devotion, and in a special way on Wednesdays. On her feastday, 13 December, crowds of simple people would come; the sermon was special, in Tagalog, with preacher imported from Mindoro or Batangas.
Interestingly, the devotion to Saint Lucy still remains strong in other Recollect ministries, such as the church of San Sebastian in Manila or that of Carmel, in Cebu.
• Our Lady of Health
An image that did survive and is now conserved at the Provincial Curia in Quezon City is that of Our Lady of Health. The Child is of ivory, as are Mary’s hands, who is garbed in a stone-studded metal vestment. It is one of the pantheon’s treasures that could be saved from the bombing.
It came from Mexico, brought by the Recollects, in 1634. Its proper place was always the first Manila convent, that of Bagumbayan. The image was considered miraculous. It came to be venerated in San Nicolas after the convent outside-the-walls had to be torn down at the start of the English occupation in 1762.
• Altar of relics
Nowadays it is hard to imagine the value that in the past was given to relics. They were practically the measure of importance of a church and, with their attached indulgences, powerfully attracted the devotion of the faithful.
The altar of relics of San Nicolas, constructed in one of the rooms of the sacristy, was for many the most magnificent in the whole Philippines. Many were the relics of ancient and foreign saints that, nevertheless, had their respective “certification” that the relics contained therein or the elements they were composed of were authentic.
Other relics belonged to the proper Recollect tradition and came mostly from Japan, including a usable silver altar set of chalice, paten, cruets and other objects. And we have testimonies of the devotion they inspired in those celebrating mass with them.
But the most valuable treasure was that from the five bodies of Japanese martyrs sent in 1631 by Blessed Francisco de Jesus, who would also suffer martyrdom later, and who wrote in sending them:
“that you may share and enjoy the precious fruit that this land produces”.
A grandiose reception by the entire Manila awaited the relics, and their devotion remained through the years.
3.3. The convent
A big portion of it was attached to the church and it was basically structured around a courtyard, a perfect square teeming with tropical vegetation; it was a veritable oasis of tranquility amid the mad rush of the city.
The convent had three floors, the third of which was of wood. The biggest community of friars of the Province would find here a house and a home, between 20 to 30 friars at one time, including the sick and the personnel of governance.
• The ground floor: processional cloister, refectory, library
From the church plaza, and crossing the semicircular arch and the ample door, one reaches the processional cloister, a wide square decorated with paintings alluding to the saint of Tolentine. It was used for worship when the church was in ruins or if there were ongoing repairs; hence, its corners featured four altars with their respective reredos representing Marian mysteries.
The processional cloister led to the different common facilities, principally the church and the sacristy. It also gave access to the refectory, which was large and solemn, with its pulpit for the reading that normally accompanied the meals.
Another ground floor facility was the library, organized by dint of transporting books from Europe, one missionary expedition after another, starting with the 1618 mission that, as reported, brought “three tons and a half of books and vestments”. That mission was headed by one of the most illustrious Augustinian Recollects, Rodrigo de San Miguel, who was very convinced that, as he said:
“for the community, knowledge is as necessary as the doctor is for curing and the pilot for sailing”.
Obviously, a good library was necessary for the ordinary ministry and the ongoing formation that such ministry demanded; moreso, the convent was also the proper house of ecclesiastical studies for the religious coming from Spain who had not finished their studies or those joining from within the country. Not to mention the professors, writers, historians and researchers who nourished from it.
Oddly, and quite significantly, among the very few objects that survived the destruction of the Second World War are some books belonging to that library. They traversed the oceans and reached Brazil as part the luggage of the friars who had escaped the Philippine Revolution.
• The staircase and the Christ of Casiguran
From the processional cloister, near the main entrance, ascended the majestic staircase that led to the upper floors. Its finely-worked steps were of choice Philippine wood and the baluster was of molave, the lumber with which galleons were made.
In one of the landings of this regal staircase, beside the bell that called the community to common activities, stood another gem salvaged from the disaster: the so-called Christ of Casiguran.
According to tradition, the Recollect missionary of that town of what is now the province of Infanta, in Luzon, escaped with his flock to the mountains from a moro raid. Seeing himself in danger of death and there being no other priest, he confessed to the Christ, who lifted its hand to give him the absolution.
Today, one can admire the crucifix at the Museo Recoleto of Quezon City.
• Second floor: rooms, provincial curia, archive and infirmary
We now arrive, first, at what was considered the main cloister, decorated with scenes from the life of Saint Nicholas and the martyrs of the Province. This cloister contained the quarters of the priests, and among them, the prior’s room, to which corresponded two of the three balconies that overlooked the square. From the end of the 19th century, access to the choir was through here.
— The Provincial Curia
The rooms of the Provincialate were also located here, at the wing facing Cabildo street: the rooms of the prior provincial and of his four councilors, plus those of the secretary and the procurator. This last also had his own quarters of great strategic importance, in charge as he was of providing the material needs of the different communities: food, medicines, construction materials, ornaments, etc.
The provincial curia in Intramuros was the real command bridge of the Province of Saint Nicholas of Tolentine of the Order of Augustinian Recollects for more than 300 years, 304, to be exact. There resided successively the hundred religious who, by express choice of their brothers, had steered the rudder of the Province.
The territorial scope of the Province of Saint Nicholas greatly varied through the centuries, but it has always been characterized by dispersion. From Intramuros, the Recollect communities in China, Spain, Philippines, England, Italy, Japan, the Marianas, Mexico, Trinidad and Venezuela received their marching orders. In the Philippines, the Province had administered up to 160 parishes in 28 islands, not a simple task.
The provincial curia was precisely the center of operations where communities were organized, their component members and numbers decided, instructions issued, specific ministries and services accepted, agreements with other institutions signed, the common economy managed, and everything proceeded in implementing the chapter decisions.
Moreover, Intramuros was ordinarily the venue of the Provincial Chapters, the highest body of governance and legislation of the Province. Finally, during those three hundred years, it was from here that the prior provincial, carrying the relic of Saint Nicholas, would sail forth to visit the friars in the different ministries.
Later, this Province of Saint Nicholas of Tolentine, missionary province par excellence, would also have communities in Brazil, Costa Rica, United States, Guam, Peru and Sierra Leone.
— The provincial archive
The provincial archive was also kept here for centuries. It was guarded in the inmost and most secure unit of the convent, between the rooms of the provincial and the secretary. Perhaps this was the reason why, despite storing a most fragile material like paper, its rich trove has withstood earthquakes, fires and all types of accidents.
Specifically, the archive has escaped two armed conflicts of the modern era that would have posed the gravest danger to its integrity. Because it was in the heart of Manila, it was saved from the attacks of the Philippine Revolution. Immediately after, along with the provincial curia, the archive was transferred to Spain, in Marcilla (Navarra). And the more modern portion was saved during the destruction of Intramuros, due to its timely transfer to San Sebastian convent.
— The infirmary
Another unit that was ordinarily found in this floor, at its most secluded area, was the infirmary. Intramuros normally accommodated religious who were elderly or exhausted from a ministry as demanding as the Philippine missions. The Augustinian Recollect historian Jose de la Concepcion summed it up thus:
“It is a house of refuge, solace and comfort for all the religious who, tired and elderly, could no longer carry on their shoulders the very heavy weight of administering our missions and towns … It is the general infirmary of all the actual and chronically sick members of the Province”.
Recalled another religious:
“In sickness, all the religious withdraw to this convent to be cured and to rest under the watch of their brothers”
• Third floor: house of formation of the professed and novitiate
The third floor was constructed of poorer material, mostly wood; it was the area assigned for the young religious, and for recreation. The novitiate was located there, as well as the “coristado”, that is, for the young professed religious who were still under initial formation. The room of the vice-prior was also found there.
The novices were not many, and sometimes there was none, but there always existed more or less permanently a novitiate to which were admitted the candidates who sought to enter from the Islands or from Mexico.
In fact, perhaps the most valuable relic left to us by San Nicolas convent is its book of professions: a splendid skin-bound volume that collected more than a hundred acts of profession made between 1607 and 1812. It has recently been restored thoroughly.
In each act, the religious committed himself before the superiors to the perpetual observance of the vows of chastity, poverty and obedience. Many of these pages were illustrated with symbols and verses by the professands themselves.
A model act could be that of one of the several martyrs who professed here, specifically, of Blessed Vicente de San Antonio, martyr in Japan. This religious, a native of Portugal, was a priest in Mexico when he chanced upon a mission of Philippine-bound Recollects. He joined them and started his novitiate, which continued during the crossing of the Pacific ocean and concluded in Manila, at whose main convent he professed on 22 September 1622.
As regards the quality of those chosen to be novice masters, suffice it to say that two of them, Francisco de Jesus and Martin de San Nicolas, would be martyred in Japan, in 1632. Both were also vice-priors of this convent.
• The Vistas
Finally, right there on top of the provincial curia, a long corridor flowed into “The Vistas”. It was a large hall open in every direction with a view of part of the city and where the friars could relax and enjoy the sea breeze, which mitigated the suffocating heat of the country.
NEXT PAGE: 4. The decision that opened a new epoch
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