Philippine culture has many religious practices that has become part of traveling and no longer limited to Catholics. One of them Visita Iglesia ( Church Visits) during the Holy Week.
Visita Iglesia requires Catholics to visit 7 churches during Holy Thursday at night but not later than midnight, tracing back to early Christianity when pilgrims visit the 7 great basilicas in Rome. And with numerous churches in our country, Philippines together with Malta and Poland are the only countries that still have Visita Iglesia.
More than just a “duty” to comply during the Holy Week, going on a Visita Iglesia is also a good activity for our summer vacation. There are many so-called Visita Iglesia destinations in the Philippines and one of them is Iloilo. There are more than 20 churches in the province with most of them heritage churches, making Visita Iglesia a cultural and learning activity for visitors and travelers.
It’s not a secret that as a freelance writer, one of my favorite topics are old churches and houses. So I’m sharing some of the churches that you can visit here in Iloilo. These churches are located within the city, south and north of Iloilo. You may notice that I didn’t include some of the famous churches in Iloilo. What I listed here are those that I have visited and wrote about in this blog. Just click on the link for separate article of each church.
So here they are…
St. Anne Parish Church – Molo, Iloilo
Sto. Tomas de Villanueva Parish Church – Miag-ao, Iloilo
San Joaquin Parish Church– San Joaquin, Iloilo
Santa Barbara Parish Church – Santa Barbara, Iloilo
San Nicolas de Tolentino Parish Church – Cabatuan, Iloilo
St. Joseph Parish Church – Janiuay, Iloilo
San Juan de Bautista Parish Church – Dingle, Iloilo
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