History of Pila

Affirming Pila as the cultural center of Laguna even before their arrival, the Franciscans established their first printing press not in Manila but in Pila in 1611. It was the second in the islands next to that of the Dominicans. They hired the “Prince of the Filipino Printers,” Thomas Pinpin of Abucay, Bataan (then part of Pampanga) and Domingo Loag to run the press. In 1613, they published the first Tagalog dictionary entitled Vocabulario de la Lengua Tagala by Fray Pedro de San Buenaventura, parish priest of Pila. (In comparison, the first book in the United States was printed in 1638 or 25 years later.) Designed to assist the missionaries of all the religious orders in the evangelization of the Tagalog region, the Vocabulario consists of 707 pages and has two parts: Spanish-Tagalog and Tagalog-Spanish. It was a seven-year project that San Buenaventura began on May 20, 1606 until the printing was completed on May 27, 1613. There are only four known copies of this book, one in the Pardo de Tavera Collection in Manila, two in the Franciscan Archives in Madrid (which used to be in Manila) and another in the British Museum in London (which was probably looted from Pila in 1762). In 1994, a facsimile edition of the original in the possession of the Franciscans was printed in Madrid. (13)

Tagalog as spoken in Pila and its environs was highly regarded to be in its pristine form. Soon following in the footsteps of San Buenaventura was his confrere Fray Francisco de San Antonio who likewise studied the language in the parish where he served as the vicar and later as pastor (c1620-24).  He had compiled his own Vocabulario Tagalo before he died in the Pila Infirmary in 1624. His dictionary remained in manuscript form until it was belatedly published by Ateneo de Manila in 2000. (14) The works of San Buenaventura and San Antonio have placed Pila in the printing and linguistic maps of the world.

After eighteen years of labor of Faith as well as forced labor, the stone edifices of the church and convent, facing the lake eastward, were finally inaugurated in 1671. A wooden cross with a concrete base was erected in front of the right side of the façade serving as a counterpoint to the tower on the left side. The basic structure was to be described in the late 18th century as “the most beautiful church in the province” by Don José Peláez, alcalde mayor of Laguna and father of Padre Pedro Pablo Peláez, leader of the secularization movement in the next century (de Huerta 1865:138). (14)

Considering the salubrious climate of Pila, the Franciscans also decided to transfer their infirmary from Lumbang to the villa in 1618. It remained in Pila until 1673 whence it moved to Sta. Cruz, Laguna. During this period, a long list of Franciscans missionaries, around 75, retired and died there and were buried in the local cemetery. These included Fray Miguel de Talavera (died 1622), a prolific writer in Tagalog, and Fray Blás de la Madre de Diós (died 1626), ex-provincial and author of the earliest Flora de Filipinas. The natives could also avail of the services of the hospital while they lodged in the house of compassionate Pileños in the vicinity. The most tragic figure to breathe his last at the infirmary was also the most prominent of them all. The former chaplain of the royal palace in Madrid, Archbishop Fernando Montero de Espiñosa of Manila caught a malignant fever on his way to take possession of his see in 1644; he expired at Pila at the height of a storm. His remains lay in state in the local church until they could be transferred in a slow funeral procession through the camino real (royal road) to the Manila cathedral.  (de Huerta 1855:139; Gomez Platero 1880; Blair and Robertson 35:111, 289 & 317 and 37:162). (15)

A delegation consisting of the mayor and selected principales of Pila accompanied their parish priest, Fray José Fonte to Manila for the grand celebration of the martyrdom of the Franciscan missionaries and Japanese laymen in the Land of the Rising Sun. On 2 February 1630, “ a luminous procession” was organized in the Franciscan convent, which moved solemnly to the Cathedral. Each Franciscan parish in the suburbs of Manila and Laguna carried their ceremonial cross and standards as well as a blazon of one of the martyrs. The representatives of Pila, being a Noble Villa, were accorded the place of honor at the end of the solemn line just before the Venerable Orden Tercera (VOT). Forming the highlight of the secular part of the festivities was the first bullfight in the Philippines, which the chosen Pileños witnessed and no doubt associated with Spanish cruelty towards the natives (de Huerta 1855:15-16). (16)