Binondo Church

Entrance portal of the Binondo Church

The Binondo Church (officially: " Basilica of St. Lorenzo Ruiz ") is one of the four Basilicae minores of the Archdiocese of Manila of the Roman Catholic Church in the capital of the Philippines, Manila . It is in Barangay Binondo, on Ongpin Street, and marks the entrance to the China Town of Manilas .

The church is dedicated to Lorenzo Ruiz , the first Filipino to be venerated as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church. Masses are celebrated in Filipino , Mandarin, and English .

history

Binondo is the old trading center where the Chinese settled in the Middle Ages to trade with the residents of Maynilad. After the Spanish colonization of Manila, many of them converted to Christianity. Since mixed services were forbidden at this time, the Chinese residents received their own church in 1596, which was then led by priests of the Dominican Order , today's Binondo Church.

It survived the great earthquakes of the 17th century until it was destroyed during the British invasion of the Philippines in 1762 , a brief chapter of the Seven Years' War . Rebuilt and completed in 1852, it survived the great earthquakes of 1863 and 1880 almost unscathed until it was destroyed in the 1944 bombardment of Manila by the US Air Force. Only the western facade and the bell tower remained. It was rebuilt in the 1950s, but could not be completed until 1984.

During the visit of Pope John Paul II in 1992 it was given the status of a minor basilica.