Saint Dominic Parish 4.41

The history of the Saint Dominic church is intertwined with the history of San Carlos. Each time the site of the town center was changed in the past, the first step was always the construction of the church.

This beautiful edifice, said to be the largest church north of Manila, is the house of God which our forefathers built. The first one was a humble chapel, probably of bamboo and nipa, constructed in 1587 four hundred and twenty three years ago today. According to the Dominican historian, Fr. Mora, it was built on the western side of the Agno river, near the mountains of Zambales. It was, however, subjected to floods and the good Fathers decided to transfer the site of the church to a higher ground across the river, where the mongo bean was grown in abundance. Hence, the town came to be called Binalatongan. That site was known as Baleyadaan (old town) in the nineteenth century. The site of the church was, of course, the center of the poblacion. The first capacious church of Binalatongan was built of wood. It was furnished with a huge bell, whose sonorous tones could be heard for miles around, summoning the faithful to mass in the morning and reminding them to recite the angelus in the evening. The casting of this bell was the accomplishment of Fr. Francisco de la Maza, the Vicar of Binalatongan from 1686 to 1690.

The first church of wood burned down in 1718 on the fourth of August at eleven in the morning. We might surmise that since the fourth of August was the traditional feast of St. Dominic, they probably had too many candles lighted and after the last high mass was said on that feast day of St. Dominic, some lighted candles might have been left burning and caused an accidental fire.