Minglanilla parish now a national shrine

Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal has declared the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Minglanilla town a national shrine during its annual fiesta yesterday.

Archdiocesan bishops and clergies were there to attend the annual fiesta that falls every 22nd of August.

Declaring it as national shrine is of far reaching significance because it celebrates the construction of one of Cebu’s oldest churches.

The 150th anniversary of the Immaculate Heart of Mary parish in Minglanilla is also being celebrated.  The town is also the site of the Kabanhawan Festival, whose main attraction is the popular Sugat every Easter.

The former name of Minglanilla, Msgr. Esteban Binghay said, was Buat, probably taken from the Cebuano word for dried fish (buwad), the area being near shore and was therefore a community of fishermen.  The villages were then either part of Talisay to the north or Naga to the south until they were united to form a separate town on June 30, 1856.

Binghay said Fr. Fernando Sanchez, an Augustinian, named the new municipality as Minglanilla after his hometown in Spain and the Spanish colonial government approved the move.

Bishop Romualdo Jimeno initiated the setting up of the parish on Oct. 30, 1857 under its patron, the Immaculate Heart of Mary, whose feast is observed every Aug. 22.  The fiesta this year will thus be the culmination of the parish’s 150th year celebration, which was launched the Sunday after the feast of the Child Jesus in Cebu City last month. – Jasmin Uy/BRP