Mahatao Parish

PATRON SAINT

St. Charles Borromeo

FEAST DAY

November 4

CONTACT

Fr. Brigido R. Casas

BRIEF HISTORY
Source: Hornedo, Florentino H. ‘Taming the Wind: Ethno-Cultural History on the Ivatan Batanes Isles” UST publishing house, 2000, pp 395-405

• Mission chapel of cogon and wood at the time of the foundation in 1787
  
• Then a stone-and lime church was erected during the early part of the nineteenth century
  
• In 1873, the present church was built by Fr. Crescencio Polo,OP.
  
• The fa�ade was modeled after the church in Basco with two round arches at roof level for the bells, but it is shorter and narrower.
  
• It has six pilaster-buttresses topped by finials. Its main door is a round arch;
  
• Above the main door is a large round arch window that used to illuminate and ventilate the choir loft to make the church more spacious and bring in greater amount of light.
  
• On its outer walls are massive buttresses that used to serve as stairways to the roof - a thing of convenience in the olden days when frequent repairs had to be made to the cogon grass roofing.
• The church still retains its centuries-old features.

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