St. William The Hermit Parish Church
This is considered a militaristic church in that it was planned as a ‘fortress church’ and the proof of this can be seen in the massive buttresses which support the front and back walls of the church. The church was built to replace churches that had been destroyed by an earthquake in 1612 and subsequent churches that had been destroyed by fires.
In 1856 Friar Pedro Ceberio restored the church that had fallen into disrepair and what we see today is the result of his work.
As is usual in churches of this vintage that can immediately discern that it was built, once again, by the Augustinians since their seal appears in the archway over one of the side entrances. It is said that the historical record is vague on the topic of entrances that indicates that historians are not certain as to where the actual main entrance was placed by the original builders. It appears that it may well have been this doorway on the southeast corner of the church at the entrance of the ‘Garden of Saints’.
All was well with the church through the Revolution and the Philippines American War but in 1932 the roof was blown away by a typhoon.
The church is surrounded by a ‘Garden of the Saints’ which contains 25 to 30 statues of Saints that have been placed in the garden by parishioners over the years.
Perhaps the most striking feature of the entire church is the sanctuary, which when is light up is both dramatically breathtaking and simply beautiful.
Inside the very tall belfry of the church are the three bells, two of which are massive ones and the other one is a small one. To ring the large one, they need to step on the chain that is attached to the bell’s clapper to make it hit the sound rim. The harder it is stepped on it the louder would the sound be. The two other bells are rung manually. They have to hold the two clappers together and hit them to the sound rim to make them work. This makes the bell ringer so close to the bells when ringing them.
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