San Nicolas de Tolentino Cathedral, commonly known as Surigao 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 ...

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 ...

located at

Surigao City Surigao City, officially the City of Surigao ( Surigaonon: ''Siyudad nan Surigao''; ; ), is a component city and capital of the province of Surigao del Norte, Philippines. It is the most populous in the province with a population of 171,107 peop ...

in the

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 ...

. It is the seat of the Diocese of Surigao.

History

The present-day

traces its beginnings as an independent ''pueblo'' in June 1655. Its

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

, dedicated to

Nicholas of Tolentino Nicholas of Tolentino, OSA (, c. 1246September 10, 1305) known as the "Patron of Holy Souls", was an Italian Catholic Christian mysticism, mystic who is invoked as an advocate for the souls in Purgatory, especially during Lent and the month of ...

, was founded in 1754 by the

Augustinian Recollect The Order of Augustinian Recollects (OAR) is a mendicant Catholic religious order of friars and nuns. It is a reformist offshoot from the Augustinian hermit friars and follows the same Rule of St. Augustine. They have also been known as the "D ...

s. The center of the

Catholic mission Missionary work of the Catholic Church has often been undertaken outside the geographically defined parishes and dioceses by religious orders who have people and material resources to spare, and some of which specialized in missions. Eventually, p ...

in the area was initially at

Siargao island Siargao is a tear-drop shaped island in the Philippine Sea situated 196 kilometers southeast of Tacloban. It has a land area of approximately . The east coast is relatively straight with one deep inlet, Port Pilar. The coastline is marked by a s ...

but was transferred to Surigao due to the Moro attacks in the island. To ease the administration of

Mindanao Mindanao ( ) is the List of islands of the Philippines, second-largest island in the Philippines, after Luzon, and List of islands by population, seventh-most populous island in the world. Located in the southern region of the archipelago, the ...

, it was divided into six districts, one of which was the District of Surigao. The said district spanned from Caraga Bay to

Butuan Bay Butuan Bay is a bay and extension of the Bohol Sea or ''Mindanao Sea'', in the northeast section of Mindanao in the Philippines. Its main river source is the Agusan River, which empties into the bay at the coastal city of Butuan. Butuan Bay is co ...

. Its first capital was

Tandag Tandag, officially the City of Tandag (Surigaonon language#Tandaganon, Tandaganon/Surigaonon language, Surigaonon: ''Siyudad nan Tandag''; cebuano language, Cebuano: ''Dakbayan sa Tandag''; ), is a Cities of the Philippines#Legal classificatio ...

but was transferred to Surigao in 1751. The parish of Surigao was administered by the

secular priest In Christianity, the term secular clergy refers to deacons and priests who are not monastics or otherwise members of religious life. Secular priests (sometimes known as diocesan priests) are priests who commit themselves to a certain geographi ...

s in the first half of the 19th-century while the century's latter half was divided among the Augustinian Recollects and the

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

s. After the earlier two

orders Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * H ...

, the

Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...

fathers took over the area at the time when the

Surigao province Surigao was a province of the Philippines. Originally a Spanish-era district, became a chartered province on May 15, 1901 ('' Philippine Commission Act No. 127''). The province was dissolved in 1960. History Rajah Siawi and Rajah Kulambo, memb ...

was formally founded in 1901, with Surigao as the capital town. In 1939, the Diocese of Surigao was canonically erected from the Diocese of Cagayan de Oro's territory, with the Saint Nicholas of Tolentino Parish Church being consecrated as its diocesan seat. The bombings during the

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 ...

destroyed the earlier

cathedral church 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 ...

, including the adjacent Saint Paul University Surigao buildings, but was later rebuilt in 1988 under the supervision of the

Missionaries of the Sacred Heart The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (MSC; ; ) are a missionary congregation in the Catholic Church. It was founded in 1854 by Jules Chevalier at Issoudun, France, in the Diocese of Bourges. The motto of the Missionaries of the S ...

References

External links

* * {{Roman Catholic Diocese of Surigao Buildings and structures in Surigao City Roman Catholic churches in Surigao del Norte Roman Catholic cathedrals in the Philippines 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the Philippines Churches in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Surigao Jubilee churches in the Philippines