page_title: San Jose, Camarines Sur
section_title: The Catholic Church
hierarchical_section_title: San Jose, Camarines Sur / Heritage sites and buildings / The Catholic Church
caption_attribution_description: Bikol Central: Simbahan katoliko
context_page_description: San Jose, officially the Municipality of San Jose, is a 4th class municipality in the province of Camarines Sur, Philippines. According to the 2015 census, it has a population of 40,623 people.
  Formerly known as Patrocinio, it is located at the southern part of the province approximately 52 kilometres south of Metro Manila. It is a distance of about 55 kilometres from Naga City and 45 kilometres away from the town of Pili, the capital town of the province.
context_section_description: The site of the Catholic Church where it majestically stands until now, including all other church properties, was owned by Laurenciano Barcellano. It was chosen by Fr. Salvador Mendoza who considered the place as the most appropriate part to build the Church. The place was formerly called sitio "Cabayawasnan" which means guavas or guava orchard. In the 1880s, the place was known to have been grown with many guava trees particularly in the quadrangle which served as the spacious backyard of the old convent. The front part also served as the usual venue for religious and cultural activities such as the "cenaculo." It was told that once the wooden gates of the quadrangle were opened to the public, the folks or their children would usually take the chance of exploring the whole place even to the most secluded part of this area, of course without the watching eyes of the people in the convent.
  The construction of the church started in 1818 under the strictest rule of the Cura Parocco, Fr. Mendoza. It has a Romansque architectural dimension with lime-plastered walls designed by a certain Felix Paete. The sand and lime used in its construction were taken from barangay Dolo, about 6 kilometers away.
  The parishioners rendered the hard labor and experienced the extent of Polo Method in the construction of the church. At dusk time, the workers were already gathered around the designated place before the start of the work. According to old folks account, the workers were parading in the darkness of the night while carrying torches to light their way to reach the starting point of the work before dusk. They endured the rugged, thickly forested and muddy trail to make the very slow and difficult manual transport of the building materials and to make while of their hard labor, they would usually entertain themselves with songs and music as they carried the lime and sand from barangay Dolo to the site.
  When the church was completed, there were donations received by the parish for its accessories. The belfry at the center of the church facade that holds the big bronze bell donated by Dalmacia Obias. The bell is considered to be the queen of the bells at the center of the belfry. People can find also two other smaller bells hanging at each side of the belfry beside the gigantic bronze bell. Accordingly, these three bells when rang send the intended message to all its parishioners, purportedly summoning them to come to church to attend mass. It would take a master ringer to harmoniously blend the sound of the bells with the queen bronze bell on the central command.
  One can take notice of the church altar which is exactly the same altar that it had when the workers of the church had it constructed. The design of the retablo and the materials used are made from solid hard wood to give it an appropriate care of preservation. The present walnut color of paint applied to the retablo was made really intentional to conform with its original paint upon its construction, and the gold ornaments added are carefully designed to adapt to the centuries-old design that it was.
  Meantime, the presidential chair where the parish priest sits is still the original chair used by the very first Cura. It was said to have undergone some minor repairs, but its main parts and appearance generally remained almost exactly the same as it was first used by Fr. Salvador Mendoza. Also the altar fence marks the separation of the priest's place from the parishioners. It then upholds the sacredness of the altar. It likewise undergone minors repairs but the original design and materials are preserved.
caption: San Jose Church Partido
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "Lenovo", "Image Model": "A269", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image Software": "Lenovo Software", "Image DateTime": "2014:08:03 13:00:39", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Tag 0x0220": "0", "Image Tag 0x0221": "0", "Image Tag 0x0222": "0", "Image Tag 0x0223": "0", "Image ExifOffset": "2386", "Image XPTitle": "[32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, ... ]", "Image XPSubject": "[32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, 32, 0, ... ]", "Image Padding": "[]", "EXIF ExposureTime": "0/0", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Unidentified", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "0", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2014:08:03 13:00:39", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2014:08:03 13:00:39", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF LightSource": "other light source", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "7/2", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "00", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1200", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1600", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Padding": "[]"}