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Freddie G. Lazaro
VIGAN CITY — Vigan residents and Catholic devotees in Northern Luzon start today an eight-day celebration of the 250th anniversary of the transfer of the archdiocese of Nueva Segovia from Lal-lo, Cagayan to the former Ciudad Fernandina, now the City of Vigan.
Vigan City Mayor Eva Marie Singson-Medina and Bishop Ernesto Salgado, archbishop of the Nueva Segovia, are leading the significant and historic celebration.
"All things necessary for the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the transfer of the seat of Nueva Segovia from Lal-lo, Cagayan to our heritage city of Vigan were already prepared," Mayor Medina said.
"The celebration is very significant to us because this is a part of the socio-cultural, historical, religious, political, and economic development of the city of Vigan," Medina also said.
It was recalled that the See of Nueva Segovia was transferred from Lallo, Cagayan to Vigan (Villa Fernandina de Vigan) on Sept. 7, 1758 upon the request of Bishop Juan de la Fuente Yepes during the pontificate of Pope Benedict XIV.
At that time, Vigan was rising as a center of Spanish culture, politics, and trade. This was the reason the bishops preferred to stay in Vigan.
In same year, the villa became Ciudad Fernandina de Vigan in honor of the reigning king of Spain.
To start the celebration today, an eight-day, free "open house" for museums and food and trade fair showcasing the food delicacies and products of Ilocos Sur, Ilocos Norte, Abra, Cagayan, Baguio, Benguet, and Batanes will be held at the city proper and at Plaza Encarnacion.
"On Sept. 2, 2008, we and Catholic devotees and parishioners from the 32 towns and two cities of Ilocos Sur will conduct a pilgrimage from Lal-lo, Cagayan to this city," Mayor Medina said.
She said that the significant events on Sept. 7, 2008 are the concelebrated mass and procession; the search for the "first child born" (natural born); simultaneous planting of 2,500 tree seedlings with time capsules; and the re-enactment of the transfer of the seat of Nueva Segovia with a procession of the symbolic cross around the city of Vigan.
"On Sept. 8, 2008, we will celebrate our Solidarity Day with a "solidarity lunch," inauguration of the Buridek Children’s Museum, the signing of a memorandum of agreement (MoA) on the newly created Metro Vigan coordinating council, and cultural presentation," Medina said.
The town of Vigan was founded by Juan de Salcedo, a grandson of Miguel Lopez de Legaspi, who founded the city of Manila.
Salcedo went to the Ilocos to set up a military settlement in Vigan in 1572. In 1574, Salcedo established a Spanish residence in the poblacion in honor of Prince Ferdinand, the first born son of King Philip II of Spain, and named it Villa Fernandina.
The city of Nueva Segovia, however, was founded in 1581 by Pablo Carreon in Lallo, Cagayan, near the mouth of the Ibanag River (Rio Grande de Cagayan). Nueva Segovia, named after the old city of Segovia in Spain, was the capital and principal port of the region.
As a diocese, Nueva Segovia was canonically erected by Pope Clement VIII through a papal bull on Aug. 14, 1595 with Miguel de Benavides as its first bishop. Its territorial jurisdiction extended over all the provinces of Northern Luzon.
It was placed under the principal patronage of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Together with the dioceses of Cebu and Caceres, it was made a suffragan to the new archdiocese of Manila.
Because of distance and the need for a site at the center of the diocese, the See of Nueva Segovia was transferred from Lallo, Cagayan to Vigan on Sept. 7, 1758.
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