GERALDINE, my atheist friend, might not believe in the existence of God and His saints, but I'm sure she wouldn't mind taking part in feast day celebrations so long as there's plenty of food to go around.
Yet, I can't help but wonder: what would she make of the fact that it didn't rain heavily on the Higalaay Festival street parade last Tuesday even though it did rain buckets just moments before and after the event?
"Probably mere coincidence," I could almost hear her say. Regardless, people who believe in divine intervention as opposed to random occurrences would say that perhaps it had something to do with the two statues that graced the cathedral-shaped archdiocesan float: one of Saint Augustine, the other of Mary as the "Birhen sa Kota" (the Virgin of the Fort).
Their religious significance aside, what these likenesses stand for also played key roles in the founding legend of Cagayan de Oro.
The bishop and philosopher Augustine of Hippo is our city's patron saint, and from what I've read in the archdiocesan archives, I believe that there are two reasons for this: firstly, because the first missionaries to arrive here belonged to the Order of Augustinian Recollects; and secondly - and note that this is merely my personal theory - the saint shared his name with a Portuguese Recollect, Agustín de San Pedro, who figures prominently in our founding story.
The Recollects were one of two Catholic orders (the other being the Jesuits) tasked with bringing Catholicism to Mindanao. They learned of a hilltop community called Himologan, located in today's Taguanao, whose people had a reputation for cordiality.
In 1622, the Recollects dispatched two of their number, Fray Juan de San Nicolás and Fray Juan dela Madre de Dios, to establish a mission there.
Datu Salangsang, the chieftain of Himologan, refused to receive them at first. However, his convert grandmother, Doña Magdalena Bacuya, pleaded with him to reconsider - and so he did, with the lingering premonition that there would be dire consequences for doing so.
Thus it could be and must be said that we owe the Catholic character of Cagayan de Oro as we know it today to the efforts of this remarkable old lady, who for this singular purpose made the arduous trek from far-off Butuan.
Even though the Recollects in the course of their mission gave Salangsang no trouble, the chieftain's misgivings were not misplaced, as this new development infuriated Sultan Kudarat of Maguindanao.
While Kudarat was a Muslim, Salangsang was not, but the former must have regarded the latter as a vassal, for the sultan had no qualms about demanding compliance from the datu and saw Salangsang's reception of the Spaniards as tantamount to defection.
However, things were different this time, since Kudarat eagerly wanted the missionaries expelled or dead, and Salangsang, true to the spirit of friendship or "higalaay," felt that he had no reason to get rid of faultless and upright guests like the Recollects.
After some time the two Recollects had to leave for other assignments, but Salangsang still feared reprisal from Kudarat.
The datu was promised aid if he swore allegiance to Spain, and this he did. Aid did indeed come - but Salangsang must have been crestfallen when he saw that it was in the form of a lone personage, Fray Agustín de San Pedro, also of the Augustinian Recollects.
Unlike most of his confreres, however, Fray Agustín had studied. mathematics, architecture, gunnery, and military strategy at the University of Salamanca before taking holy orders - an educational background that earned him the nickname "El Padre Capitán."
His expertise on the aforementioned matters allowed him to see that Himologan's location was bereft of a water source and was vulnerable to attack on all sides, and so he proposed to Salangsang that they build a new walled settlement along the Cagayan de Oro River, which they completed in 1626.
This settlement included a small church where Salangsang, his family, and the people of Himologan were baptized into the Catholic faith. Today, we know this church in its present form as the Saint Augustine Metropolitan Cathedral.
Meanwhile, Kudarat had been mustering his men and his boats. His forces, said to comprise 2,000 warriors, were poised to raze the new town to the ground and enslave its inhabitants.
Now finding themselves under siege, the people prayed desperately and fervently to a statue of Mary, Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, who then appeared atop the wall and admonished the invaders outside for their aggression - and it is said she did so in no less than the Maguindanao language!
Thunderstruck, the Maguindanaos beat a retreat, and the statue, which is still with us today, came to be known as the "Birhen sa Kota."
It's a shame that our schoolchildren here are more familiar with the myths of Lam-ang and Bernardo Carpio than our own local legends. However, I believe that our founding story deserves a wider and more appreciative audience, not only for its religious and historical significance, but also because it is.