Nicolas Castaño, O.P., (1773-1840): Architect, Engineer, Author, Missionary to Batanes

Abstract

The pioneer Dominican missionaries were harbingers of the Word and civilization. Evangelization was the drama of the Incarnation in which lives of people were transformed by the preaching of the Word of God and the refashioning of the physical world to sacramentalize the arrival of the Kingdom of God in various forms of reordering and reorganizing of Nature and social life. It took nearly a century (1686-1783), and many precious lives, before Dominicans finally established a permanent foothold in 1783, on the Batanes islands which lie at the northern tip of the Philippine archipelago. In 1798, a 25 year-old youth, newly ordained priest, (probably) an alumnus of the University of Santo Tomas, arrived in Batanes: Fray Padre Nicolas Castaño, OP. He came to stay for 26 years of his life. He was, by all indications of the records and his activities, an assiduous and good learner of the indigenous culture. He picked up the study of the Ivatan language from where his predecessors left it and carried it on, to be passed on the next generation of Dominican missionaries; and seeing the need for handy catechetical tool, he used his knowledge of the language to write a Catechism of Christian Doctrine (whose manuscript he probably used in preaching), and later prepared for printing—which became the first printed Ivatan text. But while he preached the Word, he, in due time, saw the need to announce the majesty of God in Baroque architecture—the preferred art style used by the Tridentine counter reformation to proclaim the gospel to a largely unlettered world. Father Nicolas built what today continues to be the grandest church facade in the Batanes, and which served as the model and inspiration of all the other later Ivatan churches. He built bridges to ensure that the new Christians had no excuse to miss masses and catechetical instruction on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation. He was concerned about the convenience and efficiency of local government officials. So he built decent government buildings for them near the churches. By getting the Ivatan people to work with him, they learned in turn how to build homes which have remained typhoon-proof to this day. To make social life more efficient in the new lowland settlements, especially Ivana which in his time was the centre of three tribal communities (Ivana, Itbud/Uyugan, and Sabtang), he arranged streets and roads to facilitate the development of better community spirit—for his vision was certainly ecclesial: communitarian.