Pila Church

The first missionaries in Pila were Augustinians who administered their missions from Bay.[3] The Franciscans then started to evangelize the townsmen of Pila through Fray Juán Portocarrero de Plasencia and Fray Diego de Oropesa de San José (known as the Apostles of Laguna and Tayabas[1]) in 1578.[2][4] They started to established "Villa de Pila" and soon built a church out of cane, dedicated to St. Anthony of Padua.[5] From being a reducción, Pila was elevated to a parish on the feast of its titular on June 13, 1581, with Fray Oropesa as its pastor (parish priest) until 1583.[1] With its establishment, Pila became the first church dedicated to St. Anthony in the country.[6] The Spanish colonial authorities gave the Pila the title, La Noble Villa de Pila. In 1599 permission was given by the Superior Gobiernoto build a stone church.[5] In 1617 the stone church and rectory was finished in Pagalangan (place of reverence).[5]

The Franciscans established the second printing press in the Philippines in 1606.[2] The first Tagalog dictionary Vocabulario de la Lengua Tagala by local pastor Fray Pedro de San Buenaventura was printed here in 1613 by Tomás Pinpín and Domingo Loag. The dictionary was used to facilitate the evangelization of the Tagalog region.

An infirmary run by male Franciscan religious from Lumban was transferred to Pila in 1618, and in 1673 transferred to the town of Santa Cruz.[7] About 75 Franciscan missionaries retired and died at Pila's infirmary, and were buried at the local cemetery. These included Fray Miguel de Talavera (died 1622), a prolific writer in Tagalog, and Fray Blás de la Madre de Diós (died 1626), ex-provincial and author of the earliest Flora de Filipinas, Manila Archbishop Fernando Montero de Espinosa, newly arrived from Madrid, also died here in 1644 on his way to take possession of his see.

The oldest surviving church bell of Pila was cast on the centenary of the parish in 1681 with the Franciscan emblem and the inscription “San Antonio de Pila.” It survived British invaders in 1762 when the people of Pila submerged it in Laguna de Bay facing the church. It is now the third-oldest church bell in the Philippines.[6] When a new stone belfry was built in 1890, the parish recast an undated old bell in honor of St. Anthony in 1893.[1] Today, the oldest bell of Pila is at the church convent.

Due to flooding in Pagalangan (today's Victoria), the church and rectory were demolished and transferred to their current site in Sta. Clara in 1800.[5] The land where the Pila Church and Municipal Hall of Pila stands was donated by Felizardo Rivera, the recognized founder of Pila. The buildings were constructed under the direction of Fray Antonio de Argobejo and Fray Domingo de Valencia, the town contributing for it.[1] Due to controversies surrounding the transfer of the church, the relocation took almost two decades to complete.[1]

From 1812 to 1835 Filipino secular priests served as acting pastors of Pila due to a shortage of Franciscan priests.[1] These include Fray Lorenzo Samaniego (1812–1816); Pedro de los Santos (1816–1819); Pedro Alcántara (1819–1826); and Rudecindo Aquino (1826–1835).[3] The present church and convent was built in 1849 by Fathers Antonio Argobejo and Domingo de Valencia.[6] Both structure were badly damaged during the 1880 earthquake, in which the bell tower toppled. The bell tower was reconstructed by Father Damaso Bolanos and finished by Father Francisco de Santa Olalia, and again rebuilt by Father Lope Toledo.[8] The present rectory or convent (casa parroquial) is made of stone, constructed under the direction of Father Benito del Quintanar in the 1840s.[5]

Fray Benito also started the Archicofradía del Nuestro Señor Padre San Francisco which was next in rank to the Venerable Orden Tercera (VOT) of the Franciscan Order. The religious festival of Flores de Mayo, for which Pila is now well known, was introduced in 1888 by Fray Benito de los Infantes.

In 1855, plans for a concrete belfry were drawn by the local architect and builder, Maestro Sebastián Bade and was built after the 1863 earthquake.

The first monument of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Laguna can be found in Pila

From being a calm town, Pila including the parish was rent asunder from 1896 during the Spanish revolution until the American occupation in 1902, where attempts of take over and reorganization of the government happened. American soldiers used the belfry and convent of Pila church for more than a year. At this time, church properties were destroyed and looted.

The first monument to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the province of Laguna was inaugurated at the Pila Plaza during the town fiesta in 1922.[3]

During the second World War the town was not bombed, unlike neighboring towns Santa Cruz and Pagsanjan.[9] The parish was transferred from the Archdiocese of Manila to the Diocese of Lipá when the latter was erected in 1910, and finally, to the newly established Diocese of San Pablo in 1966.

The Diocese of San Pablo dedicated the Parish church of Pila as the Diocesan Shrine of San Antonio de Padua on July 9, 2002. It was led by Francisco San Diego, DD, former Bishop of San Pablo in the presence of Ricardo Cardinal Vidal. Many devotees came from nearby places.

The church was elevated to a national shrine in 2019 becoming the first church under the jurisdiction of the San Pablo Diocese to receive such status[10] and the 25th shrine in the Philippines.[11] The solemn declaration was led by Archbishop Romulo Valles, CBCP President.