The Oldest Convent in Cebu

In November 26, 1874, a friar named Manuel Rubio Fernandez arrived in Carcar, Cebu. He was an Augustinian priest who came from Belonio, Asturias, Spain. He came to the Philippines in 1873 and was first assigned in the convent of Sto. Niño in Cebu City. Carcaranons remember Fr. Fernandez as the cura who was responsible for the completion of St. Catherine’s Church and at the same time, the construction of the convent.

The convent, which is more than a hundred years old, remains enormous, unravaged by the disasters that time could bring. It still stands beside St. Catherine’s Church in Carcar, the town that has given the Province of Cebu a generation of priests, bishops and even, an archbishop

Carcar is the home of Archbishop Teofilo Camomot, Mons. Manuel Yap who was the bishop of Bacolod City, and Mons. Sincero B. Lucero, Bishop of Borongon, Samar in the late 1970s. Mons. Manuel Yap was noted to have translated the Bible, both in the Old and the New Testament into the Cebuano language from St. Jerome’s (San Geronimo) Vulgata (Latin translation, Catholic Standard.) Mons. Yap was also part of the team composed of 10 people who translated the Sunday Misal into Cebuano in 1965. With him, were Fr. Cesar Alcoseba, Fr. Diosdado Camomot, and Fr. Sergio Alfafara who were also from Carcar. Fr. Cesar Alcoseba who became a Prelado Honorario in November 4, 1975 was the one who translated the Lectionary into the Cebuano language.

- Carcar CD