Boljoon's History -- Preserved
The Town of Boljoon: It’s Beginning. . .
Legend has it that a group of Spanish Augustinian missionaries led by a certain Fray Bartolome de Garcia, OSA, explored the southeastern tip of Cebu in order to put up outpost for evangelization in the South. They were met by natives who claimed to have settled in the area for many years. The expedition found them willingly to convert to the faith and having found the settlement to be in abundant supply of fresh water, they decided to set up the first Christian settlement in the area and baptized the natives led by a certain Datu Baladian.
It is also believed that Boljoon began as a pre-Hispanic settlement of Malay migrants who have found a route from Panay into the area. Based on the archives of the Augustinian Province of the Philippines, Boljoon was once a barrio of the town of Carcar. It was made independent in both its civil and ecclesiastical administration during the October 31, 196 Congress of the congregation. Apparently, the town was first constituted as a parish before it was made into a municipality.
Historical records reveal at least five renditions of the name of the town. It is referred as Bolhon, Bolhong, Bolhoon, Bolhoong, and the current name and spelling of “Boljoon”. A sixth one is that of Bolojon which was attributed to an error in copying. The area was apparently on the mission areas in Cebu when the first parish was founded in Bantayan in 1580 and possibly was erected as a parish only in 1692, based on existing records. It is not, however, a remote possibility that a church may indeed have been built before the close of the 15th century.
Four years after the creation of the suffragan diocese of Cebu in 1595, Fray Gaspar de San Agustin, OSA, in his Conquistas de las Islas Filipinas listed Boljoon as one of the many parishes under the jurisdiction of the Augustinians in the Province of Cebu in the year 1599. The area was already known for the cultivation of cotton from which native produced very good textiles. This may imply that cotton weaving and cultivation have already existed long before Fray Bermejo arrived in the town. Bermejo himself was said to have taught the local women cotton weaving and if Fray Gaspar’s writings are to be considered, then Bermejo already found existing cotton cultivation and weaving industry in Boljoon.
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Boljoon is 103 kilometers from Cebu City to the southeastern part of Cebu Province. It is bounded in the north by the town of Alcoy, on the east by the sea, on the south by Nueva Caceres (Oslob) and on the west by high mountains. It is famous for its crooked roads because of its elevated hill, which the town’s people call “ILI”. A small river irrigates its lands. The name of the town is derived for the local word “Bolho” which means springs of water.
The town is centuries old. Progress and modernity has altered the landscape although much of its natural features remain. The once verdant hills are now laid bald with the inroads of human civilization. Traces of its early-recorded history can be of the cemetery can still be seen. A few old houses built according to the design of the colonial period can still be found along side modern houses.
Outside its boundary, Boljoon is known more a pilgrimage town in southern Cebu anything else, during the colonial period. According to oral tradition, pilgrims from as far as the town of Dalaguete visit the Virgin of Bolhoon during her annual feast to attend mass in the town’s Catholic Church. The image of the Virgin, the center of devotion, is enshrined in the high altar of the church. It is several centuries old and is said to posses miraculous powers.
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Its' History
Boljoon possibly started as a small settlement which eventually grew and prospered. In 1732 alone, Boljoon had 1,760 parishioners. By the year 1760, Father Provincial Pedro Velasco, OSA, reported that parishioners increased to 1,950 which is equivalent to 650 paying tributes, excluding 1,454 non-paying tributes that made a total of 3,404 parishioners. Royal treasury which is the equivalent of taxes in modern terminology. Originally, one attribute was equal to three persons.
Boljoon was exempted from any tribute in 1894 and 1896. The population then was 7,694. Population increases was at such a slow rate due to the Muslim raiders which ransacked everything in the town and left all things on fire. Boljoon once contributed an annual rent of 80 cavans of borona to the convent of then San Agustin Church now the Basilica del Santo Niño de Cebu. This was later reduced to half in 1726 because it was found too burdensome for Boljoon, during the time of Bishop Sebastian de Foroinda, OSA (1718-1728), the ninth Bishop of the Diocese of Cebu.
Muslim raiders used to raid the settlement which often left the community in shambles. A Christian mission was also possibly erected in the place called the “Ermita” where priests perform religious services. The earliest Christian mission in Boljoon may have been established by the Augustinians in 1599. The Province of Cebu was then under their pastoral care and missionaries from the town of Carcar regularly visited by settlement in Boljoon. With the convention of the people to Catholicism, a provisional church may have been constructed but without a resident priest.
The first recorded residency of a priest in Boljoon was in 1692. Even with the presence of a priest in the settlement, the predations of the Muslim raiders upon the settlement continued, until the early 1800s. In fact, it was due to the incursions of the muslim raiders that a massive stone church was erected by the Missionaries, designed to withstand the raids. In addtion, the Augustinians placed the church under the protection of the Virgin Mary and accordingly enshrined her image in the Church’s altar.
The Tradition
The people grew in fervor in their devotion to the Mother of Christ. They learned the prayers and devotions fervently. Oral Traditions has it that the Virgin appeared during one of the destructive raids on the early settlement and covered the area with a mist resembling the statue in the church. The invaders fled panic. News of the miracles of the Virgin has spread far and wide. People in the neighboring settlements heard of them and came on pilgrimage. True, they were home not only assured in the truth of the events but had their petitions answered. The pilgrimages to the Virgin later developed into a tradition.
REFERENCE : http://www.boljoon.com/
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