St. Anthony Church - Macau

This church was first made of bamboo and wood before 1560, this is one of the oldest churches in Macao. The church was reconstructed in stone in 1638 and rebuilt in 1810 and 1875, while the present appearance and scale of the church dates back to 1930.

The Cathedral Church of Macau

Do not confuse the Macau Cathedral with the Ruins of St. Paul's Cathedral, which is now only a standing facade. The Macau Cathedral has been a church since 1576. The original church was rebuilt in 1850 to a much larger size. A typhoon severely damaged that church in the 1870s. It was finally rebuilt in 1937 in concrete, in the form which remains today. Adjacent to the Cathedral is the Bishop's Palace with a small museum and across from the church is a pleasant square with a fountain, large cross and many benches.

Cathedral of Immaculate Conception

In Hong Kong

When we visited Hong Kong, we attended English Sunday Mass around 9:30AM at this Cathedral and it was a very pleasant scene to see different races of people worshiping the Lord as one. Whether Asian, European, American, African, Australian, Caucasian, White, Black, Brown, Dark, tall and short - all are gathering before the Lord our God.

Visita Iglesia 2012

In Hong Kong and Macau

Because of our busy and hectic schedule during the Holy Week, my wife and I have not visited 7 churches as part of our devotion and heritage. We were supposed to visit the churches of Cavite province from Bacoor all the way to Maragondon, Cavite. But everything was too tight for our schedule so we decided to have the Visita Iglesia some other time.

And when we travelled to Hong Kong and Macau on the last week of April, we decided to make this our Visita Iglesia for 2012.

1)      Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception – Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong

Website: http://cathedral.catholic.org.hk/index.php?id=4

Visita Iglesia 2011

Which means Church Visit, the tradition of visiting seven churches on Holy Thursday is an ancient practice, probably originating in Rome, where early pilgrims visited the seven pilgrim churches as penance. In Philippines, some people expand it to include fourteen churches and say the Stations of the Cross, with one station in each church.

We opted to visit Seven (7) churches in Manila City. 

The Binondo Church - Minor Basilica of San Lorenzo Ruiz (Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary Parish)

Established: 1587

Did you know?

Saint Lorenzo Ruiz (1600 –1637), served at the convent of Binondo church as an altar boy.

The octagonal bell tower is all that remains of the 16th century construction.