The Vicariate of Southern Cebu (Part I)
When Fr. Felipe Redondo wrote a survey on the Diocese of Cebu in 1887, he made an accounting of the vicariates of the Diocese of Cebu. The vicariate was then composed of fourteen parishes, administered by the Calced Augustinian Fathers. Here are they:
Talamban Parish. Talamban was then a town separate that of City of Cebu. Here is how it was described:
"This parish was erected by Diocesan decree on April 3, 1850, through Royal approval of December 9, 1847; it is under the patronage of St. Joseph. It was a visita of Opoing. The Church: made of tabique pampango built on a base of cut coral stone and lime mortar masonry; it is roofed with nipa; it measures 24 ½ fathoms long, 6 ½ fathoms wide, and 4 fathoms high. Cemetery: fenced with bamboos, 36 fathoms long and 31 fathoms wide. Rectory: made of cut coral stone and lime mortar masonry, with galvanized iron sheet roofing, 18 fathoms long, 10 ½ fathoms wide, and 5 ½ fathoms high. It has the barrios of old Talamban, 1 ½ leagues away; Paril, 3 leagues away, and Taptap 3 leagues away. It is bounded on the northeast by Mandaue, more than half league away; on the southwest, Cebu, ½ league away; on the west, Balamban, in the opposite coast ten hours away; and on the east by the island of Mactan, where Opong and Cordoba are located, a one hour crossing."
Opong Parish (present day Lapu-Lapu, later spelled as Opon). "It was created in 1711, according to Cavada's "Historia de Filipinas," 2nd volume, page 261, Church: made of cut coral stone and lime mortar masonry with transept, title roofing; it is under the patronage of Our Lady of Rule (called in Cebuano as Birhen sa Regla) or presentation of Our Lady; it measures 64 varas long, 25 varas wide, without transept, and 16 varas high. Cemetery: quite spacious; it is surrounded by a stone wall of more than one vara in height. Rectory: made of cut coral stone and lime mortar masonry,- with tile roofing, 44 varas long, 18 varas wide, and 15 varas high.-It has a visita to the east in the island of Olango, two hours away, one hour by land and another hour by the channel, and the barrios of Mactan, Bantolinao, Maribago, Marigondon and Babag, all one hour away. The town is situated north in the Strait of Cebu, in the island of Mactan; it is bounded on the south in the same island by Cordoba (presently spelled as Cordova), 1 ½ leagues away, and Mandaue on the northwest, a channel crossing of less than an hour." (To be continued)
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