San Diego de Alcala de Polo - The Humble Patriarch of Valenzuela City
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| San Diego de Alcala de Polo |
The image
The venerable image of San Diego de Alcala is that of a de vestir image of the famed Spanish Franciscan Saint. The saint wears his Franciscan habit, carries a huge cross and holding a basket full of bread.
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| St. Diego of Alcala by Francisco Zuburban |
St. Diego of Alcala (St.Didacus of Alcala in English) is living proof that God “chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.”
Diego was born in 1400 into a poor but pious family in the small village of San Nicolás del Puerto in Seville, Spain. His parents gave him the name of Diego, a derivative of Santiago (St. James), the patron saint of Spain. As a child, he embraced the hermit life and, later, placed himself under the direction of a hermit priest living not far from his native town Didacus joined the Secular Franciscan Order and lived for some time as a hermit. After Diego became a Franciscan brother, he developed a reputation for great insight into God’s ways. His penances were heroic. He was so generous with the poor that the friars sometimes grew uneasy about his charity. Diego volunteered for the missions in the Canary Islands and labored there energetically and profitably. He was also the superior of a friary there.
In 1450, he was sent to Rome to attend the canonization of Saint Bernardine of Siena. When many of the friars gathered for that celebration fell ill, Diego stayed in Rome for three months to nurse them. After he returned to Spain, he pursued a life of contemplation full-time. He showed the friars the wisdom of God’s ways.
As he was dying, Diego looked at a crucifix and said: “O faithful wood, O precious nails! You have borne an exceedingly sweet burden, for you have been judged worthy to bear the Lord and King of heaven”. He died at Alcalá de Henares on November 12, 1463 and was canonized in 1588 by Pope Sixtus V.
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| Blessed Francisco de Sta. Maria |
The devotion to San Diego de Alcala began with the arrival of the Franciscans in Polo betweem 1623 - 1625 when Fray Francisco de Sta. Maria established a chapel in Polo which was then part of the province of Bulacan and brought with him the devotion to San Diego de Alcala and fostered it to the populace of Polo.
Fray Francisco left for Japan in 1625 yet he was martyred on August 17, 1625 and he was lter beatified with his companion martyrs by Pope Clement IX in 1627.
The faithful of Polo kept the devotion to San Diego alive for centuries that its popularity might have been one of the references Dr. Jose Rizal made for his iconic novel "Noli Me Tangere" and his annotations of Antonio de Morga's "Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas.".
The Parish of Polo, Valenzuela
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| The Parish of San Diego de Alcala with the original belfy still intact |
The Church of San Diego de Alcala in Brgy. Polo in Valenzuela was completed in 1632. The main structure was destroyed by bombs during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines in World War II. The belfry and entrance are the only parts of the four-century old edifice that remain today.
The belfry or bell tower of San Diego de Alcala Church is a cultural and religious relic of the Spanish era. A new church has since been rebuilt and renovated adjacent to the ruins, serving as an aesthetic counterpoint to the largely unchanged tower.
The devotion at present
Residents of barangays Polo and Poblacion celebrate the feast day of San Diego de Alcala on November 12 every year. Together with the fiesta, the town also celebrates the "Putong Polo Festival", a food festival honoring the putong Polo, a local variety of the Philippine rice cake puto. Aside from the festival, Polo has also this tradition of distributing bread by the locals on the day of his feast as a comeoration of the miracle of San Diego de Alcala where when distributes bread to the poor, it miraculously turns to roses.
What can we learn in the life of this saint, his meditation on God and his people brought him great insight into God's ways and his generosity was so extraordinary that he became known as the "friend of the poor." In fact, St. Diego's generosity was so prodigious that even some of his brother Franciscans became uneasy with his unfailing charity. St. Diego of Alcala is living proof that God "chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong" (1 Corinthians 1:27).
Catapat, Willie, "Polo fiesta Valenzuela's grandest". Retrieved July 12, 2019, 2009.
Lumabas, Danilo, "Ang Bayan ng San Diego ng Noli at anf Polo: Mga pagbabago at hamon na kinakaharap ng mga natatanging tradisyong Pang-Mahal na Araw at Pang-Kapistahan ng mga mananamplataya ng matandang bayan ng Polo, Lungsod ng Valenzuela," A research paper presented at the 2018 Philippine Historical Association Annual National Conference, 2019.
"Nobena sa Karangalan ni San Diego de Alcala ng Polo,Valenzuela", St. Diego de Alcala Parish, Polo, Valenzuela, 2018.
"Putong Polo Festival". Travel the Philippine Islands. Retrieved July 12, 2019.
Credits to the owners of the photos used for this blogpost.
Special thanks to Mr. Danilo Lumabas and Mr. Bradley Gerlad Ko of San Diego de Alcala Parish, Polo, Valenzuela
+AM+DG+
Additional Info: Padre Juan de Tarancon became the First Parish Priest and the First Cabeza is Capitan Juan Monsod. The Church (Old) was started to build in the year 1623? (as they say) and finished at the year 1632.
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