Medieval Saints Spain Brought to the Philippines

 

The Martyrdom Of Saint Sebastian. ca 1472. Staatliche Sammlung. Munich


The Waning of the Old Gods and the Rise of the Saints
It took millennia for Christianity to supplant the polytheistic Graeco-Roman religion across most of Western Europe. This new faith placed humanity at the center of the cosmos, with a single God intimately connected to human suffering – Jesus Christ, the incarnate son of God, as one branch of the new religion proclaimed.
However, this new faith harbored its own form of demigod veneration. Many came to revere "saints," individuals believed to possess divine powers who inspired action, healing, and conversion in the name of Christ. While some saints were early martyrs or key figures in the church's growth, others bore a striking resemblance to the demigods of the Graeco-Roman pantheon.
Similar to the ancient Greek city-states, communities and cities throughout Europe venerated saints as patron protectors and benefactors, much like the way Greek myths portrayed Athena for Athens or Jupiter for Rome.
The Spanish Conquest and the Appropriation of Saints
When Spain brought Christianity to the Americas, they employed this concept of patron saints for their newly established communities - the "reducciones" - in the tropics. These missions required saints whose qualities resonated with the existing beliefs of the indigenous population.
For instance, Santa Marta (St. Margaret), depicted standing on a crocodile, was chosen as a patron for communities where crocodiles held religious significance. Similarly, San Roque, the saint of plague, was selected to supplant pre-Hispanic healing practices. The veneration of Santiago (St. James) further exemplifies this strategy. His association with aiding Christians against the Moors resonated with the conquistadors' desire to remove Muslim influence in places like Manila.
In the 1570s, a Basque conquistador leading a force from his region, who had previously settled in New Spain, entered the Pasig River via the palisade of a former Bornean settlement. When establishing churches and outlying chapels (visitas) in the Pasig River-Laguna Bay area, they assigned not just one but several communities to the protection of the soldier-saint, San Sebastian, who was also the patron of archers. This choice is particularly interesting considering the significant role Bisayan archers played in the conquest of Manila.

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