The community of Santa Maria must have been already an organized settlement before the Spaniards came to the Philippines. When Captain Juan de Salcedo conquered the Ilocos in 1572, they found out that the people were already engaged in a brisk trade and commerce with the Japanese and the Chinese. The people's main industries were fishing and farming and to some extent weaving of cotton cloth and pottery. The people were noted for their religiosity. They worshiped the anitos, spirits and local Gods. Although the conquest of the Ilocos Region was a slow and painful process for the inhabitants resisted, they were later conquered through the use of the sword and hand in hand with the Cross. It was the religious nature of the people that the friars greatly exploited to convert the Ilocanos to the new faith — Christianity.
In the beginning, Santa Maria experienced hardships due to wars and other events. In 1638, the Chinese burned the town and ten years later in 1660–1661, during the Andres Malong Revolt, the Zambals ransacked and looted at the same time killed some of the inhabitants of the town. Much of the church properties were carried away by the rebels. In 1762, the forces of Diego Silang, the leader of the Ilocos Revolt of 1762–1763 during the British Occupation, controlled the town of Santa Maria until Silang was assassinated in Bantay by his close friend, a mestizo named Miguel Vicos, in 1763.
Establishment as an independent parish
There are conflicting dates regarding the establishment of this town as an independent parish or mission. The Catholic Directory of the Philippines as well as sources available at the Filipiniana Division of the National Library and National Archives show that the first Augustinian mission was established in Santa Maria in 1760. According to Reyes, Santa Maria was erected canonically in 1768; 1765 by Galende and Font; and 1769 by Buzeta, Bravo and Medina. It is likely that the town reverted to a visita of Narvacan for a period of time because of lacking a priest. In 1769, it was made again as an independent ministry under the patronage of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Assumption in whose honor the name of the town was changed from Purok to Santa Maria. (The National Historical Commission of the Philippines placed the year as 1769, [5] however, the people must have decided to have the foundation of Santa Maria as a separate in 1767 by basing their contention of the records that are still extent in Santa Maria. So that in 1967, the Santa Maria populace celebrated the 200th Anniversary of her Christianization.)
From then on, Santa Maria progressed. During the second half of the eighteenth century, vigorous and active missions or "expeditions" were launched by the missionaries toward the hinterlands from Santa Maria. The Pilar district in Abra was a place where commercial dealings with the natives took place. Occasionally, the people of Pilar went down to the town of Santa Maria to market and in most visitas, they were instructed into the faith, baptized or received the Holy Sacraments. (The Pilar district was a part of Ilocos Sur until the latter part of 1846, when it became part of Abra. It became a politico-military district later.) By 1800, the visitas of Santa Maria were San Esteban and Santiago. Fr. Bernardo Lago made it a religious center and converted thousands of its inhabitants to Christianity.
The following Augustinian missionaries are certain to have stayed in Santa Maria: Fr. Jose Laboza – 1769; Fr. Diego Sayar – 1773; Fr. Agustin Gomez- 1779; Fr. Manuel Silva- 1783–1785; (and who died there), Fr. Manuel Aparico – 1887; Fr. Exequiel Ortiz Lanzagorta – 1791 and who was secretary of the bishop of Nueva Segovia; and Fr. Alejandro Peyrona in 1786.
Santa Maria's progress can be discerned from the growth of her population. In 1793, it had 834 inhabitants and ranked fifteenth as one of the most densely populated towns in the Ilocos. By 1803, it had 7,893 people.
In 1813, a priest by the name Fr. Juan Cardaño built the irrigation system by digging a canal to divert the river to water the rice fields. During the construction of the irrigation system, the inhabitants felt embittered by the enforced labor. In 1817, the town of Santa Maria was fenced under the direction of Fr. Cardaño who finished the work through use of forced labor on the inhabitants. Then men were later sent to cut lumber for the shipbuilding industry.
Because of the rapid progress of the Ilocos, the region was divided into Ilocos Norte and Ilocos Sur provinces, pursuant to the Real Cedula as of February 2, 1818. The population of Santa Maria decreased in 1820 due to the cholera epidemic. Except for periods when cholera or other natural calamities affected Santa Maria, its progress took an upward trend. As a result of its progress, Nueva Coveta, now Burgos, was separated from Santa Maria and established in 1831.
In 1850, Buzeta and Bravo describes the town of Santa Maria as follows:
In 1850, the town had some 1,983 houses constructed like most Philippine houses, some made of wood, most of bamboo and cogon grass. The more notable edifices were the tribunal, tile roofed and made of stone, on whose ground floor is the prison. This building is located in the plaza near the market place, where vegetables, eggs, meat and fish are sold. Sometimes itinerant mestizos sold merchandise there.
In front of the tribunal stood three private houses, also tile-roofed and made of stones, as well as two others, of the same material about to be finished. The town has a primary school maintained by the coffers of the town. Moreover, there are private schools for boys and girls.
The Church and tower are made of stone, and the sacristy, of stone and bricks. Near the house, atop a hill, is the convent of the parish house, which is equally imposing building. Down below, and 200 meters away, is the cemetery with its well-ventilated chapel, but which was destroyed by earthquake not long ago.
In Santa Maria, mail is received from the North (from Narvacan) every Tuesday morning and those from Manila, through Santiago every Thursday noon. The town consists of the barrios of Patac (Pacak), in the south, and those of San Gelacio, San Gregorio, and San Francisco which are close to the church (bajo de campana); farther away Tanggapan, Silas, Minorio, Bitalag, Gusing, Subsubosob, Dingtan, and Cabaritan, separated by wide fields but each of these barrios have only a few huts where the natives stay during harvest time.
The town has two ports: one in the west capable of handling big ships, the other in the north, which only handle smaller boats because of its narrow entrance but it can be widened to accommodate bigger ships as it did sometime in the past, when two full-rigged boats were constructed there.
The land is quite fertile, most of which is irrigated; thanks to the zeal of Fr. Juan Cardaño, present (1850) parish priest who, with the help of the colonial government was able to realize any improvements of the town, including the construction of the irrigation system, after six years of work. In 1804, when Cardaño took over the parish, the harvest were always in the danger of being lost due to the lack of irrigation, thus only 994 tributes (were paid); now 1850, 2,595 do so.
Their most important products are rice, wheat, cane and corn. Corn is abundant that it is exported to Santa, Bantay, Santa Catalina, San Vicente and many others. Oranges, santol and many kinds of bananas, pineapple, cacao are also grown in abundance.
In the mountains nearby, are different kinds of wood, like narra, molave, banaba, panurapin, bulala and others. Also found there, are chickens, deer and various varieties of birds. There is a gold mine in Pinsal, which is still to be exploited.
The inhabitants engaged in agriculture, lumbering and the women in weaving cotton cloth; some of which are sold in other places.
By this time in 1850, Santa Maria had a population of 11,900, up from 10,908 in 1845. By 1865, it was 12,059 and by 1880, 15,152 souls. There was a drought in 1878 followed by devastation of the fields by locusts and insects; and famine set in.
In 1881, embittered at the Spanish authorities due to the harsh treatment given them, the people stoned the tribunal and almost rose in arms against the Spaniards. During the great renovation of the convent in 1895, many of the inhabitants migrated to Cuyapo, Nueva Ecija to escape the forced labor and established a new community. Furthermore, the epidemics of cholera in 1881, 1883, and 1889 reduced greatly her population to 11,426 by 1892.
From the Philippine revolution and thereafter
During the Philippine revolution, Julian Directo became its first elected president in September 1898. The members of the Philippine Independent Church (PIC) took over the churches in Ilocos. It was an offshoot from the abuses of the friars and the effect of the revolution. The outbreak of the revolution further attributed to the decline of Santa Maria's inhabitants to 10,030 by 1901.
Since the transfer of the Philippine sovereignty to the Americans in December 1898, many of the foreigners who traveled to the north and saw the Church of Santa Maria were much impressed and called the church as a Cathedral. Henry Savage Landor, an English painter, writer and explorer who visited the Philippines in 1900, says:
At Santa Maria a most picturesque church is to be found, reached on an imposing flight of steps. An enormous convent stands beside the church, upon a terrace some 80 feet above the plaza. There are a number of brick buildings, schoolhouses and office, which must have been very handsome but are tumbling down, the streets being in the absolute possession of sheeps, goats and hogs. A great expanse of level land was now well-cultivated into paddy fields and across it is a road fifteen feet wide, well-metalled and with a sandy surface. Barrios and homes were scattered all around the plain.
When civil government was restored in Ilocos Sur under the American rule in 1901, Sinfroso Tamayo became its first president. According to some records, William Cameron Forbes, a member of the Taft Commission visited Santa Maria in 1901. A report in 1902 describes Santa Maria as town along the coast of Ilocos Sur, Luzon, (with) several cart roads that led to the interior; a city that built and by way of historical note, adds that on December 3, 1900, 2,150 insurgents surrendered here, (and) took oath of allegiance to the United States.
The Church of Santa Maria and other churches held by the PIC priests were returned to the administration of the Roman Catholic Church by the enactment of the Philippine Commission Act No. 1376 on July 24, 1905. [6] (In spite of this major decision, the members of the Philippine Independent Church still hold their own in the Ilocos Region today.)
In 1902, another epidemic of cholera occurred followed by typhoid in 1909. Floods and typhoons added to the sufferings of the people in 1911 and 1913. These calamities greatly reduced the population and hindered the progress of Santa Maria. Many of the people after this period migrated to the central plains of Luzon, Mindanao and to as far as Hawaii and California in the United States of America.
The conditions in Santa Maria greatly changed fifty years later. The American Occupation had some beneficial effects as then roads, schools and better ways of farming were introduced in Santa Maria. A new generation became prominent who became new leaders in the present town of Santa Maria. In 1932, President Manuel Quezon visited Santa Maria on the occasion of his tour of Northern Luzon before the Commonwealth. After World War II, new buildings were built and churches were erected by the different religious as well as commercial and tourist spots developed.
