The Archdiocesan Shrine of Nuestra Señora de Guia, commonly known as Ermita Shrine or Ermita Church, is a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

church and

shrine A shrine ( "case or chest for books or papers"; Old French: ''escrin'' "box or case") is a sacred space">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ...: ''escri ...

located in the district of

Ermita Ermita is a district in central Manila, Philippines. It is a significant center of finance, education, culture, and commerce. Ermita serves as the civic center of Manila, bearing the seat of city government and a large portion of the area's e ...

in the city of

Manila Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the Capital of the Philippines, capital and second-most populous city of the Philippines after Quezon City, with a population of 1,846,513 people in 2020. Located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on ...

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

. The

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

is home to the Marian

image An image or picture is a visual representation. An image can be Two-dimensional space, two-dimensional, such as a drawing, painting, or photograph, or Three-dimensional space, three-dimensional, such as a carving or sculpture. Images may be di ...

of the

Immaculate Concepcion The Immaculate Conception is the doctrine that the Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception. It is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Debated by medieval theologians, it was not defined as a ...

known as , which is considered to be oldest in the Philippines, and in whose honor the church is officially named after and dedicated to.

History

The church began as a rustic shrine made of bamboo,

nipa NIPA, Nipa or nipah may refer to: * Shamim Ara Nipa, Bangladeshi dancer and choreographer * Nipah~, an onomatopoeia frequently used by Furude Rika, a character in the Japanese visual novel Higurashi When They Cry * Nipa hut, a type of stilt house ...

, and molave wood that was built to house the image of

Our Lady of Guidance The Our Lady of Guidance () is a title of the Blessed Virgin Mary associated with a 16th-century Marian image depicted as the Immaculate Conception and widely venerated by Filipinos. The wooden Black Madonna is considered the oldest extant Mar ...

in the area where it was found in 1571 by Spanish soldiers under

Miguel López de Legazpi Miguel López de Legazpi (12 June 1502 – 20 August 1572), also known as ''Adelantado, El Adelantado'' and ''El Viejo'' (The Elder), was a Spanish conquistador who financed and led an expedition to conquer the Philippines, Philippine islan ...

. The shrine eventually became a chapel built in 1606 as house for the image and was called ("The Chapel" or "Hermitage" in English). The word also gave the name to the present district in Manila where the chapel is located. A Mexican Hermit-Priest came to the area and built a hermitage there, thus, transforming its name to Ermita. Juan Fernandez de Leon who was a hermit from Mexico before relocating to Manila, was responsible for building Hermita up. The church was damaged many times due to earthquakes. In addition, the image had to be transferred to the

Manila Cathedral The Minor Basilica and Metropolitan Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, commonly known as the Manila Cathedral, is a Roman Catholic basilica and cathedral church of the Archdiocese of Manila. It is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary of ...

for safekeeping during the

British occupation of Manila The British occupation of Manila was an episode in the History of the Philippines (1565–1898), colonial history of the Philippines when the Kingdom of Great Britain occupied the Spanish colonial capital of Manila and the nearby Cavite City, ...

in 1762–1764. A more permanent stone church was built in 1810; the image was returned to the church in 1918. In 1945 near the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the church was reduced to rubble during the Battle of Manila. However, the image was saved from destruction and was temporarily kept in a private residence. Work began for the reconstruction of the church in 1947 with a new design by architect

Carlos A. Santos-Viola Carlos Antonio Santos-Viola (born Carlos Santos-Viola y Antonio; April 8, 1912 – July 31, 1994) was an architect in the Philippines. He is best known for designing and building churches for the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) religious group. C ...

. On March 28, 1949, attorney and future senator

Jose W. Diokno Jose Wright Diokno (; February 26, 1922 – February 27, 1987), also known as "''Ka Pepe''," was a Filipino statesman, nationalist, and lawyer. Regarded as the "Father of Human Rights" in the country, he served as a Senator of the Philippi ...

married Carmen Icasiano at Ermita Church. Diokno was also baptized here on September 3, 1922, his godmother and second mother was Paz Wilson. By 1953, the reconstruction was completed and the image was returned to the new church. On December 3, 2005, Manila Archbishop Cardinal Gaudencio B. Rosales elevated the status of this church to an archdiocesan shrine.

Vicariate of Nuestra Señora de Guia

The church is under the jurisdiction of the

Archdiocese of Manila In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

under the

vicariate forane A deanery (or decanate) is an ecclesiastical entity in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion, the Evangelical Church in Germany, and the Church of Norway. A deanery is either the jurisdiction or residence of a ...

of Nuestra Señora de Guia. Aside from the parish church, the vicariate covers the following churches: *

* San Agustin Church,

Intramuros Intramuros () is the historic walled area within the city of Manila, the capital of the Philippines. It is administered by the Intramuros Administration with the help of the city government of Manila. Intramuros comprises a centuries-old hist ...

* San Vicente de Paul Parish,

Malate Church Our Lady of Remedies Parish, commonly known as Malate Church, is a Roman Catholic parish church in the district of Malate in the city of Manila, Philippines. It is under the jurisdiction of the Archdiocese of Manila. This Mexican Baroque-style ...

* Our Lady of the Assumption Parish,

Malate Malic acid is an organic compound with the molecular formula . It is a dicarboxylic acid that is made by all living organisms, contributes to the sour taste of fruits, and is used as a food additive. Malic acid has two stereoisomeric forms ( ...

* Sto. Niño de Baseco Parish, Baseco, Port Area

Gallery

File:Ermita Church facade 2.JPG, Old facade (2014) File:Ermita Church interior 1.JPG, Church interior in 2014 File:Ermita Church Nuestra Sra de Guia.JPG, enshrined in the church altar File:Ermita Church marker 2.JPG, Archdiocesan Shrine markers

References

External links

* * {{Roman Catholic churches in Manila Roman Catholic churches in Manila Buildings and structures in Ermita 1606 establishments in the Spanish Empire Cultural Properties of the Philippines in Metro Manila Churches in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Manila Buildings and structures of the Philippines destroyed during World War II Jubilee churches in the Philippines