Santa Ana Church (Manila)

The National Shrine of Our Lady of the Abandoned, also known as Santa Ana Church, is a Spanish colonial period Roman Catholic church located in the district of Santa Ana in Manila, Philippines. The parish was established by the Franciscan Order missionaries in 1578 under the patronage of Saint Anne. The present stone church was constructed by Vicente Inglés from 1720 to 1725 and was dedicated to its present patron, Our Lady of the Abandoned. The revered image of its patron was made in Valencia, Spain in 1713 and arrived in the Philippines in 1717. The church houses two National Cultural Treasures declared by the National Museum of the Philippines: the Santa Ana Site Museum located in the convent patio and the Camarín de la Virgen (or the "Dressing Room of the Virgin"). It was declared a national shrine in 2021. History The town of Santa Ana was first established by the Spanish Franciscan missionaries in 1578, in a settlement beside a creek connecting to the Pasig River, which the local inhabitants referred to as Sapà in the ancient Tagalog kingdom of Namayan. Its first church, dedicated to their titular patroness Saint Anne, after the similar-sounding Namayan, was made of nipa and bamboo until a decree from the colonial government in 1599 permitted the religious order to build the church in stone. The construction of the stone church came only around 1720 upon direction by the then parish priest of the settlement, Vicente Inglés, wherein a new site was chosen, which is the current location of the structure. Dedicated to the Virgen de los Desamparados (Our Lady of the Abandoned), building began on September 12, 1720, with the laying of its cornerstone by the Archbishop of Manila Francisco de la Cuesta, who was concurrently the Spanish Governor-General of the Philippines; which took five years to complete. In the early 1700s, Inglés had gone to Valencia, Spain, as the friar was enamored of a famous image of the Blessed Virgin, known as the Our Lady of the Abandoned, comforting those whose loved ones have departed the mortal plane. In 1713, Inglés chose a replica of image for his Santa Ana Parish, which was in the process of construction. In 1717, the friar brought back the replicated holy image with him to the Philippines; which is venerated since then. In time, the parish became known as The Shrine of Our Lady of the Abandoned, as it is today, although Saint Anne remains in use as Santa Ana Church and the district named in her honor. References