Saint Anthony of Padua Cathedral, commonly known as Masbate Cathedral, 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 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 ...

located along Quezon Street in

Masbate City Masbate City, officially the City of Masbate (Masbateño language, Masbateño: ''Syudad san Masbate''; ), is a Cities of the Philippines#Legal classification, component city and capital of the Provinces of the Philippines, province of Masbate, P ...

Masbate Masbate, officially the Province of Masbate (Masbateño language, Masbateño: ''Probinsya san Masbate''; ), is an island Provinces of the Philippines, province in the Philippines located near the midsection of the nation's archipelago. Its provi ...

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 ...

. Founded in 1578 by Spanish missionaries, it is presently the

cathedral A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...

or seat of the Diocese of Masbate. The present pastor and rector of the cathedral is Rev. Fr. Ely M. Alvarez.

History

The parish was founded in 1578 by Spanish missionaries, who placed the new church under the patronage of the Archdiocese of Nueva España. With the canonical erection of the first local church in the Philippines in 1581, it became part of the Diocese of Manila. In 1595, it became part of the newly established Diocese of Nueva Cáceres when the Bicol region was given its own local church. In 1951, the parish became part of the newly erected Diocese of Sorsogon, of which the Most Rev. Teopisto Alberto was its first bishop. Then parish priest Msgr. Arnulfo Arcilla (later made bishop of Sorsogon) laid down the foundation of the first structures of the cathedral-parish in 1954. On March 23, 1968, the civil province of Masbate was declared an independent diocese from Sorsogon, and Saint Anthony of Padua Parish was made the cathedral or seat of the Diocese of Masbate. A major repair on the building was done during the administration of the first Bishop of Masbate, the Most Rev. Porfirio R. Iligan. Expansions and other improvements followed later under the supervision of its succeeding cathedral rectors. The present cathedral structure preserves the center floor, the

aisle An aisle is a linear space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, in buildings such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, parliaments, courtrooms, ...

, and some vestiges of the cross-shaped part of the ceiling as a result of Bishop Joel Baylon's call for church renovation. The cathedral was blessed and dedicated on September 25, 2004.

Pastors

Below is the recent list of parish priests / cathedral rectors.

Resources

* The 2016–2017 Catholic Directory of the Philippines (published by Claretian Publications for the

Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines The Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (abbreviated as CBCP) is the permanent organizational assembly of the Catholic bishops of the Philippines exercising together certain pastoral offices for the Christian faithful of their terr ...

, June 2016)

External links

* * * {{Roman Catholic Diocese of Masbate Roman Catholic churches in Masbate Roman Catholic cathedrals in the Philippines Churches in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Masbate Jubilee churches in the Philippines