Bacolor Church | |
---|---|
San Guillermo Parish Church | |
Parroquia de San Guillermo (Spanish) | |
Location in Luzon | |
15°00′01″N 120°38′54″E / 15.000263°N 120.648273°E | |
Location | Bacolor, Pampanga |
Country | Philippines |
Denomination | Roman Catholic |
History | |
Status | Parish church |
Dedication | San Guillermo |
Architecture | |
Functional status | Active |
Architectural type | Church building |
Groundbreaking | 1576 |
Administration | |
Archdiocese | Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Fernando |
Clergy | |
Archbishop | Most. Rev. Florentino G. Lavarias |
Priest(s) | Rev. Fr. Ariel D. Limjoco |
San Guillermo Parish Church is a Roman Catholic church in Bacolor, Pampanga, Philippines. It is under the jurisdiction of the Archdiocese of San Fernando. Named after San Guillermo, the town's patron saint, the church was originally constructed by the Augustinian Friars in 1576 – also the town's founding – with Padre Diego de Ochoa, OSA, becoming the town's first parish priest two years later.
In 1880, the church was destroyed by an earthquake, and rebuilt by Fr. Eugenio Alvarez in 1886. On September 3, 1995, lahar flow from the slopes of Mount Pinatubo which erupted on June 15, 1991, buried the church to half its 12-metre (39 ft) height, prompting more than 50,000 town residents to evacuate to safer grounds in resettlement areas. Near the façade of the parish church is a museum on the history of the church. It also contains paintings of the Pinatubo eruption in 1991.