Religiosity From the Past

(Click images to enlarge)My late maternal grandmother was of great religious faith, having been born and raised in the City of Cebu, Cebu, one of the islands in the Visayas Region of the Philippines. On this city was planted the cross that circumnavigator Ferdinand Magellan used to symbolize the archipelago’s being deeded and dedicated to Mother Spain as her own; and which to this day, that religious symbol still stands on the very same site and securely protected inside a kiosk

My grandmother was quite steeped in the diligent practice of the many enduring rituals of the Catholic Faith. Said her rosary regularly, read from her many missals and devotional prayer books, went to Mass during Sundays and holydays and other days when able. Everything done in Spanish, the language she was taught by her elders.

She has been dead and gone for quite a while and my only nostalgic reminder of her has been this very old devotional prayer book no larger than a typical wallet. Published in 1881 in Barcelona Spain, it has gilt-edged pages and its contents all written in Spanish are adorned by many lithographed images of angels and children. Its title after all is El Angel de La Infancia, which literally translated means The Angel of the Childhood, and dedicated to the children of first communion.








This devotional prayer book would have been very common in that part of the archipelago where many Spaniards, in the over 300 years that Spain colonized the islands, stayed and intermarried with locals composed of native Filipinos and families of Chinese traders.

And prior to my generation, Spanish was the language of polite society in Cebu, in their many printed publications, in their social conversations, and in many of the old private schools. Even the local dialect, Visayan or Bisayan (the local dialect does not have the letter v in its alphabet), has many terms derived from Spanish. Most city dwellers then conversed in Spanish amongst themselves, and the rest of the locals at the very least counted in Spanish, or responded in telegraphic Spanish.