AS WE usher in the observance of the All Soul's and All Saint's day on November 1 and 2, respectively, let us see how the San Sebastian Cathedral has established and maintained its or crypt that housed cremation ashes of former Bishops and about 400 prominent figures in Bacolod City and Negros Occidental.
The San Sebastian Cathedral is a symbol of Christianity in our locality. But, many, as I assumed, did not know that an ossarium or crypt exists there.
It was established in 1957 located at top of the Church Sacristy which forms part of the enormous holy edifice.
Long before the cremation of the corpses became essential in the province and in the city, former bishops and some prominent inhabitants in Bacolod City and Negros Occidental were already cremated, and this crypt has served as the home of their ashes.
This Ossuarium was established during the reconstruction of the San Sebastian Cathedral that began in 1957 under Bishop Manuel P. Yap. It was renovated in 2009 as part of the repair, renovation, beautification, and improvement of the Cathedral.
Former Bishop Vicente Navarra and Reverend Felix P. Pasquin, rector of the Cathedral, oversaw its completion on July 29, 2009.
Sacristan Major Justine Arca shares that the dead are typically being buried either in public and private cemeteries. But there were those whose ashes were interred inside the 64-year-old San Sebastian Cathedral Ossarium or crypt.
Three former Bishops of Bacolod were buried inside the Cathedral namely Most Reverend Casimiro M. Lladoc, D.D., the first Bishop of Bacolod, who died on September 21, 1951, Monsignor Manuel P. Yap, D.D., died on October 16, 1966; former Bishop Antonio Y. Fortich, D.D., the third Bishop of Bacolod, who died on July 2, 2003, and a memorial for Most Reverend Camilo Diaz Gregorio, D.D., the fourth Bishop of Bacolod. The latter died on May 21, 2018. But his physical body was buried in Batanes, his last assignment.
He said some prominent families who were benefactors of the church interred the ashes of their dead members at the crypt.
Bishop Vicente Salgado, the first Bacoleño priest, was ordained on December 23, 1961, and was later appointed by Pope John Paul II as Bishop of Romblon on May 30, 1988.
He said that during the pre-Covid-19 period, families requested to hold a mass inside the crypt. Still, due to the pandemic, all mass is celebrated inside the Cathedral purposely to avoid crowding the crypt. Some families come, but they come few.