Morong

San Geronimo Parish

The town of Morong traces its origins to the pioneering work of the Franciscans Juan de Plasencia and Diego de Oropesa. Both were responsible for starting most of the lake town mission in 1578. Fr. Plasencia was well known for his mastery of Tagalog and is credited with compiling a dictionary of the vernacular and writing a draft of a catechism which is later used for composing the Doctrina Christiana (1593), the first book printed in the Philippines.

It was not until 1586, that Morong had a friar permanently assigned to attend to the people. The church, dedicated to St. Jerome, stood on the opposite bank of the river where the church stands presently. But in 1612 a conflagration consumed the town and with it the church. The townsite was transferred to its present position in 1617. A new church was completed in 1620. The church had remained substantially unchanged until 1850-53, when Fr. Maximo Rico commissioned Bartolome Palatino, a native of Paete, to renovate the facade and build a bell tower. In 1962, the church interior was renovated and facade coated with Portland cement. During the renovation, the dimensions of the windows along the nave were increased and other openings added to the wall adjacent to the convento. The convento is presently a school, although a room on the ground floor adjacent to the church has been set aside for a Blessed Sacrament room.

Heritage Features: The Morong facade and bell tower is easily the most striking of all church facades along Laguna. Frequently photographed and described as baroque, the facade/bell tower is more properly described as neo-baroque because the baroque period ended in the Philippines before 1780. The central portion of the facade surges outward and the catenated balustrade above give the whole a dynamic felling. Various decorative elements, some Mexican in origin, give the facade a richness characteristic of Baroque. Four angels, representing the cardinal virtues, stand at the corners of the bell tower. Fr. Felix Huerta, writing in 1852, states that the facade had finials shaped as jars and shells used for illuminating it.

Although the church interior was damaged by war, a few elements are worth noting, namely, the crocodile motif carved on the supporting brackets of the choir loft; the bas relief of the Baptism of Jesus in the baptistery, and the image of Saint Jerome on a side altar.