Janiuay’s Church of St Julian of Cuenca is undergoing some major changes and the complex is starting to look like the historic landmark it is. These changes may return the complex to its old glory days.
St Julian of Cuenca Church and Convent, Janiuay, Iloilo 1871 to 1942. Original oil on brock painting by: Ian Celebrar.
The Augustinian Friars originally arrived in the area as Missionaries where they established a small mission chapel quite similar in size and constructions as this one: The Nuestra Señora de la Paz y Buenviaje located in La Paz Biñan (namesake of popular old church in Antipolo). It was once a modest chapel built with stone and mortar, solid wooden doors, small windows and a modest church bell with the Virgin as its centerpiece inside, it can seat less than a hundred churchgoers. It wasn’t until 1849 that the then Parish Priest Friar Miquel Carod started constructions of the church which served the community until 1942. It is that year that the Filipino Resistance fighters decided that they had to destroy the complex so as to deny its use by the despised “Japons” – the invaders and occupiers. It took the community over 20 years to be able to assemble the wherewithall to rebuild. They did so on the site next to the ruins of their former National Treasure. The present Church was in fact consecrated in 1968.
