Santo Angel Custodio - The Angelic Titular Patron of Angeles City, Pampanga

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Santo Angel Custodio of Angeles City, Pampanga

Angeles City, one of the most urbanized and a first class cities in Central Luzon because of it rapid economic growth. One the most prominent educational institutions in the region is also located in this city - the Holy Angel University. The success that the city reaps wouldn't be possible without the courage of the founders of the city who placed it under the patronage of Los Santos Angeles (The Holy Guardian Angels).

Santo Angel Custodio of
Angeles City, Pampanga
The image

The image of Santo Angel Custodio, the titular patron of Angeles City, Pampanga, is one of a kind and also the most celebrated image of the Holy Guardian Angel in the Philippines. The image presents the Holy Guardian Angel guiding a child as which gives an impression that the angel is guiding the child or the earthly pilgrim in his life journey which is emphasized with the angel's right arm is pointing upwards while looking intently to the child/pilgrim. The Angel and the pilgrim wears a beautiful set of vestments, standing on a cloud base.

The Guardian Angel wears a diadema, which is considered as a symbol of devotion of the people of Angeles City.

The devotion to the Guardian Angels

The devotion to the Guardian Angels is one of the ancient devotion in our Catholic faith. A guardian angel is an angel that is assigned to protect and guide a particular person, group, kingdom, or country. Belief in guardian angels can be traced throughout all antiquity. Our Sacred Scriptures has several accounts on the intervention of guardian angels both in the Old and New Testament.

The teaching of angels that guard over particular people and nationalities played a common role in Ancient Judaism, while a theory of tutelary angels and their hierarchy was extensively developed in Christianity in the 5th century. According to Saint Jerome, the guardian angels is in the "mind of the Church". He stated: "how great the dignity of the soul, since each one has from his birth an angel commissioned to guard it"

The first theologian to outline a specific scheme for guardian angels was  Honorius of Autun in the 12th century. He said that every soul was assigned a guardian angel the moment it was put into a body. St. Thomas Aquinas agreed with Honorius and believed that it was the lowest order of angels who served as guardians. Pope Paul V authorized a feast day in honor of guardian angels in 1608 and Pope Clement X fixed the date to October 2.

The origin of the devotion

The beginning of the devotion to the Holy Guardian Angel in Angeles City traces back to the origin of the city itself. In 1796, the gobernadorcillo or town head of San Fernando, Don Ángel Pantaleón de Miranda, and his wife, Doña Rosalía de Jesús, along with some followers, staked out a new settlement, which they named "Culiat" because of the abundance of vines of that name in the area.

Santo Angel Custodio
of Angeles City, Pampanga
Barrio Culiat continued to be part of San Fernando for 33 years wherein a chapel, primary school and some industries were established, like sugar mill and wine distillery, which helped the economy of the barrio to flourish at that early time. On December 8, 1829, the barrio became a separate town from San Fernando after Don Angel paid the necessary amount required by the law at that time for the separation of Culiat. After that, the name of the town was changed to “El Pueblos de los Angeles” in honor of its patron saint Holy Guardian Angels and to the name of its founder, Don Angel.

The image of Santo Angel Custodio was commissioned, together with the image of Nuestra Señora del Santisimo Rosario - La Naval de Angeles, the patroness of Angeles City in 1830. The custodianship of the image of Santo Angel Custodio passed on from Don Angel Pantaleon de Miranda, to his son-in-law Dr. Mariano Henson then to Augustina Henson, who would later became the wife of Pio Rafael Nepomuceno then it will be passed on to their son, Don Juan Nepomuceno, founder of the Holy Angel University and later to his heirs. It is said that Don Juan Nepomuceno was inspired by the image to name his school to the Holy Guardian Angel after the city's titular patron. The image at present is enshrined in the chapel of the Holy Angel University for the veneration of its students, faculty and the Angeleños. 

Santo Angel Custodio
of Angeles City, Pampanga
The devotion

The local devotion to Santo Angel Custodio is one of the most cherished and celebrated in Angeles City, along with city's the other patrons Nuestra Señora del Santisimo Rosario de Angeles and Apung Mamacalulu. The feast of Santo Angel Custodio, which is celebrated every October 2, marks the month long celebration of fiestas in Angeles City in thanksgiving to the protection of the city's three patrons and protectors. 

The "Fiestang Angel" is widely celebrated in the city and in 2012, 2012, the Holy Angel University partnered with Holy Rosary Parish (locally known as "Pasimbang Maragul") to mount the first "Angelic Procession". Schoolchildren dressed as little angles accompanied the image in a procession around the town center. The children's angelic procession is intended to introduce to them to the age-old devotion to the Holy Guardian Angels.

The Santo Angel Custodio became the silent witness of the ambitious yet fruitful history of Angeles City and it certain that the Holy Guardian Angel of Angeles indeed protects its city and guided the people in times of prosperity and tragedy.S t. Thomas Aquinas, the Angelic Doctor of church states in his "Summa" the role of the angels that can be seen in the history of the city which he states that  "On this road man is threatened by many dangers both from within and without, and therefore as guardians are appointed for men who have to pass by an unsafe road, so an angel is assigned to each man as long as he is a wayfarer." 

Los Santos Angeles Custodios, Antabayanan Yu Cami!

References:

"Angeles City, Pampanga", Retrieved from https://philippinescities.com/angeles-city-pampanga/ on October 1, 2019.
Lingat, Arwin, "Angel Custodio", Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/37738130@N00/360290309 on October 1, 2019.
Lovasik SVD, Lawrence, "Friendship With the Angels", Tarentum, Pennsylvania, 1990.
Tomen, Nina, "Pisamban Maragul: The Living Church of Angeles City", Angeles City, Pampanga, 2013.

Special credits to the owner of the photographs utilized for this blogpost.
+AM+DG+

Comments

  1. UnknownMarch 8, 2021 at 5:48 AM

    ADDITIONAL INFO: The Feast of the Guardian Angel in Angeles City was established because of the pandemic in 1918, historically there are four (4) archangels traversing in the streets of the city namely St. Rafael, St. Gabriel, St. Michael, and Holy Guardian Angel, this is to protect the City from the infestation of the Spanish flu that time. It was stopped during Mt. Pinatubo eruption and was revived after 20 years, to be specific it was October 2, 2012 because of the help of the Tourism Office of Angeles City, they saw probably the cultural significance of the said feast During the Cultural Mapping Research in 2011 funded by the local government, we were able to interview the camaderos of the Archangel Rafael where the story came from, you may read the "Cultural Mapping Project" of the team Gareta in 2011 sponsored by the City Government which I think situated in City College of Angeles Library.

    Ariel T. Gutierrez
    Cultural Mapper 2011

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. James Malabanan March 8, 2021 at 6:14 PM

      Good day! Thank you for this bit of information. Is it ok if I can add this to this blog. Rest assured you'll be cited formally. Thank you! - The Blogger

      Delete

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