Traditional Mass Cebu

  A response to the anti-friar narratives present in the Philippines   Antonio Jose Rubi Dedicated to the memory of Fray Julian Bermejo (1777 – 1851), military priest of Southern Cebu who fought and defended his people. For most Filipino youth, the Spanish friars are seen as villains who oppress Filipino people during the colonial era, specifically regarding Rizal’s novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, especially when it comes to Father Damaso, the main villain of the first novel. The novels inspired many revolutionaries to go anti-Catholic and to kill friars. But contrary to the bias being propagated by schools and many youths of today, many Spanish friars are not the Padre Damaso in stories. In fact, some of them were protectors of oppressed people. For example, Father Martin de Rada, an Augustinian priest in fact protested against the Encomienda system being pushed by Spanish conquistadors, and the first Bishop of Manila, Domingo de Salazar, campaigned agains...

  To all my dear readers. As of the moment, I am starting to promote devotion to the militant priest of Southern Cebu, Fray Julian Bermejo, OSA, both for internal and external reasons. This son of Saint Augustine was born in 1777 in the town of Pardillo in Ciudad Real, Spain. In July 1793, in the midst of the anti-Catholic French Revolution, he made his vows as an Augustinian friar. In December 1795, he set sail for the Philippines, where in the San Agustin Monastery in Manila, studied to become a priest. He then later went to the Convent of the Santo Nino, (now the Basilica) where he learned Visayan languages. He was later ordained a Catholic priest in the early 1800s by Bishop Ignacio de Salamanca. On October 9, 1802, Padre Bermejo was assigned to the Southern town of Bolhoon, which 20 years earlier was destroyed in a raid of Mohammedan Moros from Mindanao. There, he served the Cebuano people with the Traditional Latin Mass, and taught the locals to fight Moro pirates, funded b...

  The Sacred Heart  In 1675, Our Lord appeared to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque demanding that King Louis XIV consecrate the Kingdom of France to his Sacred Heart and that his heart be imprinted on the fleur-de-lis flag. However, Louis XIV and his successor, Louis XV declined, as a result of their worldliness. King Louis XVI privately consecrated France to the Sacred Heart during the French Revolution but was too late. Louis XVI would later be guillotined. During the French Revolution, peasants from the Vendee, who were loyal to the French monarchy, took up arms against the French Revolution, with a badge of the Sacred Heart of Jesus with the words, Dieu Le Roi, God is King. They were ultimately defeated, and the Bourbon monarchy would be restored after the fall of Napoleon. The last king of France was King Charles X until he was removed by pseudo-king liberal Louis Philippe. The fame of the Sacred Heart spread. In 1809, the people of Tyrol under Andreas Hofer used the Sacred H...

  Alejandro Santos, right, drawn by the author, Antonio Jose Rubi, right, Catalina Santos (nee Gomez) drawn by Michael Francisco, based on ''Ophelia'' by Aaron Blaise. At last, I am finished with my story, Alejandro and Catalina, which will serve as an alternative for traditionalist families who grew up with Disney Princesses. Not only is the couple an alternative for Disney Princesses who are immorally woke, this is also a way to tell our historical and Catholic heritage. To be fair, here is the plot: In the late 1660s, Alejandro Santos, a Cebuano nobleman related to precolonial nobility serves as an employee in the Jesuit Colegio de San Ildefonso (closed 1769, original building destroyed in WW2, and now the University of San Carlos) and Father Ignacio Sanchez, a Spanish Jesuit priest serves as his confessor and advisor. Meanwhile in the town of Mandawi, (now Mandaue), Catalina Gomez, a noble Cebuano girl donates money for the Jesuit missions in the Ladrones Islands su...

                                                       Alejandro and Catalina's personal standard To all my dear readers: As part of my story called Alejandro and Catalina, which is a Disney princess like story set in 17th century Cebu during the Spanish era, here is the flag associated with them: A Cross of Burgundy flag (Spanish flag at the time) with the words In Hoc Signo Vinces meaning In This Sign You Shall Conquer, which appeared to Emperor Constantine. According to my story, it is Alejandro, the future husband of Catalina in my story that personally designs the flag, meaning that it will bring victory against the Moro Pirate Ali Pagtuga. Eventually, Alejandro and Catalina defeat the Moro Ali Pagtuga, Zebu is free, and Alejandro and Catalina get married. From then on, this is the symbol associated with them. According to the story, the origin...

  Lower left, Father Andre de Soveral in chasuble holding a chalice, lower right, in black cassock, Father Ambrosio Francisco Ferro, middle, Mateus Moreira, upper, the church in Cunhau Martyrs of the Holy Mass - The story of the Brazilian martyrs of Natal, Rio Grande do Norte  A. Rubi In the 17th century, Brazil, a colony of Portugal was invaded by anti-Catholic Dutch Protestants. The Dutch committed atrocities towards the Catholic civilians, especially in what is now Pernambuco. Meanwhile in Natal, Rio Grande Do Norte, there was a Brazilian priest named Father Andre de Soveral, who was a former Jesuit priest turned diocesan priest. In Dutch occupied Natal, in a church in the town of Cunhau (cun-ha-woo), as he was celebrating the Tridentine Latin Mass with civilians on July 16, 1645, a Dutch general named Jacob Rabe and his Indian allies stormed the church and killed everyone, including a layman named Domingos Carvalho. Father de Soveral was only 74 years old. The second massa...