The
Jesuits’ Golden Dream
On the 6th of February 1945, the Jesuit church of San Ignacio, in Intramuros
was put to the torch. There was so much wood in the church that it took
all of four days for the conflagration to consume the buffet of tropical
hardwoods – narra, tindalo, magcono, molave – cut from the mountain
fastness of Surigao and transported to Manila seven decades previous.
And, as if this were not humiliation enough, for a church hailed in its
time as a masterpiece of art and architecture, on 23 February, bombs and
mortars pummeled the smoldering structure, sending it prostrate to the
ground.
Now a ruined and empty shell, stripped of its marble and brick, standing
derelict along Arsobispado Street in Intramuros, it is hard to believe
that this church was hailed by its architect, Felix Roxas as the Jesuits
“sueno dorado,” – their golden dream, the fulfillment of
many years of planning and work, and bargaining with patrons, the principal
patron being Pedro Payo, O.P., Archbishop of Manila. He donated the land
for the church by carving out a piece from his own private garden.
A structure 42.40 by 20.00 meters in size, the San Ignacio was a mere
chapel by colonial standards where churches measured on the average 80
by 40 meters. Some like Sarrat church in Ilocos to more than 100 meters
in length. Despite its small size, the best architects and artists of
Manila poured their talent into this church.
Felix Roxas, the church’s principal architect, was a Filipino trained
in Europe who spent part of his young career in India and England. There
he must have picked up his affection for Revivalist architecture, the
vogue of the era. When earthquake ruined the neoclassical Dominican church
in 1863, Roxas designed for the friars a new church in the neo-Gothic
idiom. With the commission for the Jesuits he opted for a church classical
and Renaissance in temper to allude to the times when the Society of Jesus
was founded. He planned the church as a single nave flanked by wide aisles,
above them run galleries to accommodate a more churchgoers. Roxas did
not live to see the church completed. The Jesuit brother, Francisco Riera,
took charge of construction and saw the church to completion. Riera was
so enamored with the San Ignacio’s design, practical as it was beautiful,
that when his superior sent him to assists the Jesuits in Mindanao, he
based his own designs for the churches at Tagoloan, Jasaan and Balingasag
on the San Ignacio.
Agustin Saez designed the altars and the pulpit. Saez was at one time
director of the Academía de Dibujo y Pintura, the art academy sponsored
by the crown, and instructor in painting and drawing at the Ateneo Municipaál
de Manila. The Philippines’ national hero, José Rizal studied
under him at the Ateneo. For the altars, Saez worked with the classical
idiom using Corinthian columns, arches, vases and statues of angels as
basic design elements. Saez employed Francisco Rodoreda, a Spaniard to
complete the carving of the marble altars imported from Italy. For the
main altar, Leonardo Da Vinci’s Last Supper was interpreted in white
Carara.
As designed by Saez, the pulpit depicted the Descent of the Spirit and
Christ’s Great Commission, separated by allegories of Faith, Hope
and Charity. To execute this masterpiece in tropical hardwood, the services
of the best sculptor in Manila, Isabelo Tampingco and his atelier were
employed. Tampingco came from a mestizo Chinese family, had worked on
the interior of the Santo Domingo and was a consistent winner of awards
in the Philippines and in Spain, where his works were displayed in regional
and international expositions. Tampingco worked with his father-in-law,
Crispulo Hocson, and the Filipino master carver, Manuel Flores and some
30 artisans. Flores carved the image of San Ignacio, whose eyes are raised
to the heavens, following the words of Pedro de Ribadeneyra “aquel
Padre que siempre mira al cielo.” Flores also carved the statue of
the Sacred Heart and Hocson, the statue of the Immaculate Conception.
But it was the ceiling and the woodwork decorating the church that made
it the toast of Manila. Tampingco, following Renaissance design, built
an artesonado or coffered ceiling. The ceiling was neatly divided into
squares of equal dimensions in which acanthus leaves were enclosed by
braid and strap work. At the church crossing, Tampingco depicted a host
of Jesuit saints and over the sanctuary, the Holy Spirit in a burst of
glory.
The church took eleven years to build and was inaugurated on 31 July 1889,
after a weeklong ceremony that must have made staid Manilenos ooh and
ah. At night, the Jesuits illumined the church with “luz electrica,”
and commissioned the painter, Felix Martínez to paint transparent
paintings of Jesuit saints. These were mounted on the windows of the choir
loft and illuminated from within. Felix Martinez, known for his genre
works and murals, also painted the interior of the San Sebastian church
in Quiapo.
After the great fire that destroyed part of Intramuros and the old Ateneo
on 13 August 1932, the Jesuits thought of transferring San Ignacio to
Ermita. But because this would damage the church, they decided against
it. In 1939, two years short of the Second World War, a rector was appointed
to the church, making it a quasi parish, to the delight of Manilenos who
liked the church for weddings.
The church is no more. Only memories remain of it: a handful of pictures
and some architectural plans, including Roxas’s initial design. But
for Filipinos of a previous generation, the San Ignacio was a vibrant
repository of, by now, legendary and halcyon years. On his way to his
execution on 31 December 1896, José Rizal espied the twin towers
of the San Ignacio near his alma mater, the Ateneo Municipal. He remarked
how he spent the happiest moments of his youth there.
San Ignacio, the website of the Philippine Jesuits has chosen the San
Ignacio church as its identifying graphic to speak of the continuity of
the Philippine province of today and of yesterday. That continuity has
been characterized by a singular affection for the Philippines, an affection
that fosters the best the Filipino can be.
