Saint Mary’s Cathedral (officially the Cathedral of María Auxiliadora) is a church in the predominantly

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

city of

Marawi Marawi, officially the Islamic City of Marawi ( Maranao: ''Inged a Marawi''; fil, Islamikong Lungsod ng Marawi), is a 4th class component city and capital of the province of Lanao del Sur, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a ...

on the southern

Philippine The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

island of

Mindanao Mindanao ( ) ( Jawi: مينداناو) is the second-largest island in the Philippines, after Luzon, and seventh-most populous island in the world. Located in the southern region of the archipelago, the island is part of an island group of ...

and is the seat of the

Roman Catholic Territorial Prelature of Marawi The Territorial Prelature of Marawi ( la, Praelatura Territorialis Maraviensis) is a Roman Catholic territorial prelature under the Archdiocese of Ozamiz in the Philippines. It comprises parishes in the minority Catholic community of Marawi, ...

Background

Belonging to the

Territorial Prelature of Marawi The Territorial Prelature of Marawi ( la, Praelatura Territorialis Maraviensis) is a Roman Catholic territorial prelature under the Archdiocese of Ozamiz in the Philippines. It comprises parishes in the minority Catholic community of Marawi, ...

, the church was built in 1934 and dedicated to

Mary Help of Christians Mary, the Help of Christians ( la, Sancta Maria Auxilium Christianorum) is a Roman Catholic title of the Blessed Virgin Mary, based on a devotion now associated with a feast day of the General Roman Calendar on May 24. John Chrysostom was the ...

. In March 2008, the church reportedly had a corrugated iron roof. Being in a majority Muslim city, the church's façade did not display a cross.

Battle of Marawi

During the 2017

Battle of Marawi The siege of Marawi ( fil, Pagkubkob sa Marawi), also known as the Marawi crisis (), and the Battle of Marawi (), was a five-month-long armed conflict in Marawi, Philippines, that started on May 23, 2017, between Philippine government securit ...

, the extremist

Maute Group The Maute group ( or ), also known as the Islamic State of Lanao, was a radical Islamist group composed of former Moro Islamic Liberation Front guerrillas and foreign fighters led by Omar Maute, the alleged founder of a ''Dawlah Islamiya'', o ...

seized the cathedral as part of their takeover of the city. Online videos posted by the militants showed them toppling and smashing religious icons, tearing photographs of

Pope Francis Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013 ...

, and desecrating the

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. ...

. They later set pews and the whole structure alight. The church was heavily damaged with bullet holes on the structure's wall and tin foil roof. The military recaptured the cathedral from the Maute Group on August 25, 2017. The first Sunday

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different ele ...

was held in the cathedral on October 1, 2017, coinciding with the feast of Saint

Thérèse of Lisieux Thérèse of Lisieux (french: Thérèse de Lisieux ), born Marie Françoise-Thérèse Martin (2 January 1873 – 30 September 1897), also known as Saint Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face (), was a French Catholic Discalced Carmelite ...

, patroness of the

Philippine Army The Philippine Army (PA) (Tagalog: ''Hukbong Katihan ng Pilipinas''; in literal English: ''Army of the Ground of the Philippines''; in literal Spanish: ''Ejército de la Tierra de la Filipinas'') is the main, oldest and largest branch of the ...

. The service was attended by least 300 uniformed soldiers. With Dela Peña‘s consent, Saint Mary’s Cathedral, along with his residence, will be among the many buildings to be demolished by the government as it is no longer structurally sound.

References

{{Marawi Roman Catholic cathedrals in the Philippines Buildings and structures in Lanao del Sur Marawi