MANILA, Feb. 21, 2015—The Parish Church of Nuestra Señora de los Remedios (Our Lady of Remedies), better known as Malate Church, invites the faithful to its month-long double exhibit in commemoration of the “Battle for Manila” and the “Martyrdom of the Gomburza.”
A free exhibit on World War II and the Gomburza opened in Feb. 12 and will run until Mar. 3, 2015. (Photo: Raymond A. Sebastián)
Old photos
Located beside the baptistry and on the second floor of the church compound’s Remedios Jubilee Mission Center (RJMC) building, the exhibit features vintage photographs of Manila, with focus on Malate and Intramuros, in the aftermath of World War II, showing the destruction and deaths that earned the Philippine capital the “most destroyed” major city in the world next to Warsaw.
Malate Year Zero
According to the book “Columbans, 75 Years in Malate,” Malate Church shared the fate of Manila during the days of Liberation with the Japanese Imperial Army’s “scorched-earth” policy.
Six Columban priests died with their parishioners during the war, five of them taken by Japanese soldiers and never seen again. Out of the six, only Fr. Lalor’s body was found.
Machine of malice
A replica of the notorious “garrote,” or Spanish strangling machine, which killed Filipino priests Frs. Mariano Gómez, José Burgos, and Jacinto Zamora, and many other “indios” after them, is also on display, a morbid reminder of a once not-so-bright footnote to the nation’s collective past.
A replica of the notorious “garrote,” or Spanish strangling machine, which killed Filipino priests Frs. Mariano Gómez, José Burgos, and Jacinto Zamora, and many other “indios” after them, is also on display in the Malata Church exhibit. (Photo: Raymond A. Sebastián)
Feb. 17 is 143rd anniversary of the priestly trio’s martyrdom.
The exhibit opened in Feb. 12 and will run until Mar. 3.
It is open to the public. (Raymond A. Sebastián/CBCP News)