Wrong Guillermo: Cebu town mixed up patron saint for centuries

CEBU CITY, Philippines – For decades, 87-year-old Victoria Amatong joined thousands of parishioners in Dalaguete, Cebu, in honoring their town’s patron saint: a man from the High Middle Ages named “San Guillermo de Aquitania.”

Our San Guillermo has always been “de Aquitania,” said Amatong, a regular churchgoer of the Dalaguete parish. “Sukad ko nabata, Aquitania gyud na siya. Ermitanyo,” she told Rappler. (He has always been Aquitania ever since I was a child. He is an hermit.)

But what if parishioners have honored the wrong San Guillermo all the while?

Priests interviewed by Rappler said Dalaguete — a heritage town of over 74,500 people some 90 kilometers south of Cebu City— has misidentified its patron saint for centuries.

The Dalaguete parish, officially named the Parish of San Guillermo de Aquitania, was erected in 1711. The church building — constructed starting 1802 and completed in 1825 — is one of the best preserved Spanish churches in the province.

It was declared a National Cultural Treasure (NCT) by the National Museum of the Philippines on June 27, 2019, The Freeman reported. The marker, unveiled just last February 9, 2024, identified as NCT the “Complex ng Simbahang San Guillermo de Aquitania.”

The National Historical Institute also placed a marker on the church, identifying it as “Simbahan ng San Guillermo de Aquitania.”

Who are the three Williams?

Augustinian Father Ric Anthony Reyes told Rappler in an interview, however, that the identity of San Guillermo is a mix-up of three different Williams or Guillermos,. 

He said the error was traced to Theodobald and the Bollandists, a group that studies hagiographies or biographies of saints, in the Middle Ages. It was corrected in the 20th century, especially after Vatican II with the revision of the Augustinian missal, Father Reyes said.

“Saint William the hermit has been mistakenly identified with Duke William of Aquitane. Little or nothing is known of his birth and parentage, though he may have been a descendant of noble French family,” said the pamphlet Augustine’s Heritage: Our Saints, which was published in 1978.

Amatong’s recounting of the life of San Guillermo is one indication that parishioners have conflated the identities of the hermit and the duke. 

“Og naay makasala, patyon niya dayon. Pareha ni Duterte ba,” Amatong told Rappler in a Facebook video call arranged by a church volunteer. (If somebody does something wrong, he will kill that person. He’s like Duterte.) 

Father Marion Mejia, a diocesan priest and historian, said the confusion stems from the existence of different Williams, a popular name then as now, starting with Duke William of Aquitaine, who founded the Cluney Abbey. He was known as William the Pious. 

Another Duke William of Aquitaine came after William the Pious, he said. 

But the saint identified with the Augustinians is Saint William of Maleval or Saint William the Hermit or San Guillermo de Maleval. 

He was a hermit and had followers. He died in 1157 and was beatified in 1202. His followers organized the Hermits of Saint William or the Williamites, Mejia said.

The Williamites were part of the Grand Union of various religious groups into the Order of Saint Augustine in 1256.

The image that Dalaguete identifies as San Guillermo de Aquitania is, in fact, San Guillermo de Maleval, Augustinians say. 

Long debate

A post by the Augustinian Province of the Most Holy Name of Jesus of the Philippines last October 23 identified the icon as “the venerated miraculous image of San Guillermo de Maleval of Dalaguete, Cebu.”

That post surfaced questions on the identity of the Dalaguete patron saint. It has been a long debate, starting as far back as 20 years ago, said historian Dr. Jose Eleazar Bersales, heritage and museums consultant of the Cebu provincial government.

On Saturday afternoon, December 7, the parish is set to bless and install three church bells from Poland. 

The bells, purchased for P4.3 million, will replace the old ones that have been ravaged by time, some already cracked. The old bells will be displayed at the parish museum. 

But the largest bell, dated 1884 by the parish coffee table book, is still there, tolling on important liturgical hours. It is nicknamed “Imong” for Guillermo by bell ringers. A photo provided by the parish showed that the bell carried only the stamp “S. Guillermo.”

The new bells, on the other hand, carry the name “Parokya ni San Guillermo de Aquitania, Dalaguete, Cebu.” But the iconography embossed on the bells, according to Father Reyes, is that of San Guillermo de Maleval.

Even the Utanon Festival jingle of Dalaguete mentions San Guillermo de Aquitania and not de Maleval. “O mahal nga San Guillermo de Aquitania. Mala-umon kamii sa imong pag giya.” (Our beloved San Guillermo de Aquitania. We are hopeful of your guidance.) 

Each town or component city of Cebu Province has a designated festival with a jingle. 

Mejia said the parish was reported to be under the patronage of San Guillermo Duke of Aquitaine in the primary reference on the history of the Cebu church, Breve Reseña de lo que fue y de lo que es la Diocesis de Cebu, by Father Felipe Redondo. 

The book was published in 1886 and the data was a compilation of answers to questionnaires sent out to the different parishes by Redondo, said Father Mejia.

He said the parish priest may have misreported William the Pious or San Guillermo de Aquitania as patron saint because he was the more well-known San Guillermo and may have been the one who came to mind. He said there certainly was a misidentification of the saint.

“Wala ko kadungog ana. Karon pa ko kadungog ana,” (I never heard about that. I never heard about him) Amatong said when asked about San Guillermo de Maleval.

“Naanad na gyud mi ana nga Aquitania. Og usbon… ambot sa mga kaparian. Basta pag abot ana, Aquitania gyud na. Unya devoted gyud kaayo ang mga tawo, Kato sa Mindanao, Katong sa Manila mamauli gyud na sila,” Amatong said. 

(We have been used to Aquitania. If it will be changed … I don’t know about the priests. When he was brought here, he had always been Aquitania and people are devoted to him. Those from Mindanao and from Manila, they always go home for the fiesta.)

Corrections needed

Dalaguete celebrates its fiesta on February 10, the feast day of San Guillermo de Maleval and the day he died. 

Reyes said “it is better that the history and cultural heritage of the archdiocese will formally look into this.” 

The Augustinians created at least 11 parishes under the patronage of San Guillermo de Maleval in the country. Only Dalaguete carries the name “San Guillermo de Aquitania.”

The other parishes are San Guillermo in Catmon, Cebu; Cathedral of Saint William the Hermit, San Fernando, La Union; Saint William’s Cathedral, Laoag, Ilocos Norte; Saint William the Hermit Cathedral Parish, Bulanao, Tabuk, Kalinga; San Guillermo Parish Church, Bacolor, Pampanga; Saint William the Hermit Church, Magsingal, Ilocos Sur; San Guillermo de Maleval Parish, Buting, Pasig, Metro Manila; San Guillermo Parish, Talisay, Batangas; Parish of Saint William, Passi City, Iloilo; and San Guillermo de Maleval Parish, Iponan, Cagayan de Oro.

Catmon in Northern Cebu doesn’t explicitly carry the name of San Guillermo de Aquitania. 

But official documents at the chancery such as the Declaration of Intent to Serve the New Parish that priests sign upon getting new assignments carry the name of the parish as “San Guillermo de Aquitania Parish” in Catmon, Cebu.

The retablo of the Basilica Minore del Santo Niño in Cebu City holds images of Augustinian saints. 

To the left of the Santo Niño if you are facing the altar, you will find the image of San Guillermo de Maleval in between Blessed Catherine of Pallanza and Santo Tomas de Villanueva. The identification, according to Father Reyes, is based on a 1967 inventario.

It is beyond question, Reyes and Mejia said, that the Dalaguete patron saint is San Guillermo de Maleval. Both agree that corrections have to be made.

For Monsignor Joseph Tan, archdiocesan media liaison officer, “Well it’s really up to the archbishop to make the final decision in dialogue with the stakeholders — the parishioners — with consultation to the commission on liturgy and the dictates of canon law.”

Mejia said people should request the archbishop to issue a decree clarifying that the Saint William being venerated in Dalaguete and Catmon is Saint William the Hermit, who is associated with the founding of the Augustinians.

But are the prayers and devotion of Dalaguete parishioners invalid because of the  historical error? No, said Father Mejia. The error is scholarly and not doctrinal, he said. 

The error is about a historical fact, not a people’s faith. – Rappler.com

Max Limpag, a freelance journalist from Cebu, is a 2024 Aries Rufo Journalism fellow.