NEWS
Mark tricentennial of 1st Bicol priest
The town of Paracale and the whole province of Camarines Norte are celebrating the Tricentennial Sacerdotal Anniversary of the First Bicolano Priest, Fr. Gregorio Cabalquinto, with a year-long calendar of activities. The commemoration actually started with the Bicol Priests’ Congress on August 7-10, 2006 in Naga City.
On September 1 the 32nd foundation anniversary and canonical erection of the Diocese of Daet will be celebrated in honor of Fr. Cabalquinto.
September 10 is Fr. Gregorio Cabalquinto Day with groundbreaking and blessing of Fr. Cabalquinto and Paracaleno Clergy Park in Paracale.
On December 9 will be a testimonial banquet for the Fr. Cabalquinto Vocation Fund.
February 1, 2007 will be unveiling and blessing of the statue of Fr. Cabalquinto in Paracale.
Having been ordained in about 1706 by Bishop Andres Gonzales O.P. of Nueva Caceres, Cabalquinto was the first Bicolano and the second priest of the diocese. He was born in Paracale. Camarines where the Cabalquintos of that era hailed from. In 1708, when the Franciscan order gave up the administration of Capalonga also in Camarines, Cabalquinto became its proprietary parish priest.
An information about Fr. Cabalquinto is recorded in the diary of Franciscan missionary, Fray Francisco Hermosa de San Bernaventura, O.F.M., in 1747.
According to Fray Francisco, the unnamed priest who replaced him in Capalonga unfortunately failed to live up to high standard of his predecessor. The venerable Cabalquinto lived for six more years and died in his seventies in early 1753 in about the forty-seventh year of his priesthood. On May 2, 1753, he was succeeded by another native priest, B.D. Bernardino de Mesa as the proprietary pastor of Capalonga.
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