he ancient walls of Intramuros have stood as witnesses to several centuries’ worth of history.

They have survived the rise and fall of regimes, the ruthless invasion of colonizers, the ravages of time. Within these walls is a church that nursed and bore the people’s faith through centuries of trial, two World Wars and several disasters – the San Agustin Church.

The San Agustin Church is the mother of all “stones of faith” (quoting these words from the book by Gemma Araneta which carries the title) in the country. Built by the Augustinians from 1587 to 1604, it holds the title of being the oldest stone church in the Philippines. The church has miraculously survived numerous disasters that have incessantly befallen Manila. It has endured the carpet bombing of Manila during World War II, the series of earthquakes that hit Manila in 1645, 1754, 1852, 1863 and 1880, and the profanities of the British Occupation in 1762.

The fact that San Agustin Church has withstood all of these cannot simply be attributed to luck or perhaps, the more scientific argument of considering the church to be strategically located (i.e. not on the path of any major fault line; relatively distant from any major political structure). It could be quite difficult for us to even begin to imagine how many lives were saved by this long-enduring structure. It has certainly lived up to its reputation of being a sanctuary. Quoting Gemma Araneta, “because it is the House of God, a church, in the Philippine context, is always the ship of salvation.”

Aside from its unmatched antiquity, San Agustin Church has plenty to boast of. Among these is the fact that it holds claim to having a stone vault and nave. Its vaulted ceiling and dome are painted by the Italian painters Alberoni and Dibella. Gazing up the ceiling, one gets fascinated by the seemingly three-dimensional paintings. As the curator of the adjacent San Agustin Museum, Fr. Pedro Galende, OSA puts it – the paintings deceive the eye and simulate reality. In French, the exact term for this is le trompe l’oeil.

The church also takes pride in its 19th-century glass chandeliers which remain unsullied dup to this day. Fr. Galende says that San Agustin Church can lay claim on having the best pulpit in the country, with the church’s intact gilded polychrome pulpit. The retablo, which serves as the niche of the patrons of the Augustinian order, is a beautiful structure with an interesting mixture of three different influences – Gothic, Classical, and Baroque. The choir loft houses an impressive pipe organ which measures three times bigger than the more popular bamboo organ of Las Pinas. Being damaged through time, it was restored by Filipinos in 1814, and then again after World War II.

On the left side of the altar lies the tomb of the founder of Manila, Miguel Lopez de Legazpi. It is quite a surreal experience to find oneself inches away from the very tomb of the man who is a ubiquitous figure in Philippine history. The San Agustin Church has interesting peculiarities. Among the common teachings of our elders regarding respect for the dead is that it is rude to step on the tombstones and epitaphs of the departed. This is basically the reason why I personally found the tombstones on the flooring of the church peculiar. Most churches have tombstones on the pillars and buttresses, but not many have tombstones on the flooring. In the case of San Agustin Church, however, the tombstones do not get defiled nor profaned by being stepped on – they become more appreciated as parts of the historical church.

The San Agustin Church is undoubtedly teeming with history and patina. It remains to be one of the few remaining jewels of the past that is housed within the walls of Intramuros.