The place where the present-day city of Cagayan de Oro now stands has already been called Cagayan sin pre-colonial era. It is said that while the actual language where the word kagayan came from has probably been lost in time all places that share the name Cagayan share the same etymological meaning: river. It seems baffling that a province in the northernmost part of Luzon is named Cagayan as tribute to the Rio Grande de Cagayan, the longest river in the Philippines, and a city way farther down south is also called Cagayan as a tribute to its own river system of the same name.

Despite the Society of Jesus being the first missionaries to to establish a mission in what would eventually be Cagayan de Oro, the history of the city is tied with the arrival of the Augustinian Recollects in 1622. Armed with the zeal of the founder of their order, St. Augustine of Hippo, the Recoletos founded a settlement, built a church and introduced the natives to the tenets of the Catholic faith, including the devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Due to constant marauding of Moro pirates, the settlement was moved to where the Metropolitan Cathedral of St. Augustine now stands. A fort, albeit no longer in existence, was likewise built around the area to deter the pillaging pirates.

Centuries have passed and the church, having survived fires and conflicts, was designated in 1933 as the cathedral church of the then newly established Diocese of Cagayan. In 1951, the Diocese of Cagayan was elevated as the Archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro.

The Metropolitan Cathedral of St. Augustine, otherwise known as the Cagayan de Oro Cathedral.

The Cathedral of Cagayan de Oro was our second stop in Misamis Oriental after spending meaningful time at the Archdiocesan Shrine of the Divine Mercy in El Salvador City. Apart from being Catholics ourselves, understanding the historical development of provinces in the Philippines usually involve understanding the development of the old pueblo that revolves around the life of the Church, owing to its predominance since the Spanish colonial era. Back then, a town can only be founded if a parish is founded too. Governance and religion went hand-in-hand.

It would be hard to miss the cathedral as soon as one gets to the city proper. The Neo–Gothic church stands prominently in the heart of the city, right in front of the plaza and the city hall. Parking was rather challenging on a Monday, but we thankfully found a spot in front of the Archbishop’s Residence. We secured the car and went to the church.

The interior of the church follows the traditional cruciform layout, maximizing natural light to keep the cathedral bright even when the artificial lights are turned off. The layout maximizes space as well by placing the altar at the crossing of the church, right in the middle of both transepts. There are pews in the apse as well, making the altar the physical focal point of the church.

An image of St. Augustine of Hippo was located at the apse, illuminated by natural light coming from the open garden at the back. Upon approaching, it turned out that a first class relic of the Doctor of Grace is placed at the pedestal where the image is standing. It wasn’t just an image of St. Augustine that is in the apse, there is a part of him too.

St. Augustine of Hippo, Doctor of the Church.

While the choice of St. Augustine as the patron saint of the cathedral and of the archdiocese was not surprising given that the Augustinian Recollects were the ones who founded the church, it was something that fits perfectly well with the ambience of the church. The natural light piercing through the silent chambers of the cathedral made comfortable by the open garden at the apse—all such beauty—provide a perfect place to reflect on the words of the saint himself, contemplating on the beauty of the Divine, ever ancient and ever new.

Late have I loved you,
O Beauty ever ancient, ever new,
late have I loved you!
You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you.
In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created.
You were with me, but I was not with you.
Created things kept me from you;
yet if they had not been in you,
they would have not been at all.

St. Augustine of Hippo in Confessions Book X

After spending some prayerful and reflective time with the image and relic of St. Augustine, we proceeded to the south transept of the church where the antique image of the secondary patroness of the cathedral and the archdiocese, Nuestra Señora del Santisimo Rosario de Cagayan de Oro, is located. Otherwise known as Birhen sa Kota of Cagayan de Oro, the image has a similar story to that of the Nuestra Señora del Pilar of Zamboanga City: that the image was part of the military fort built to deter pirate intrusions, and that the Virgin Mary herself would protect the faithful from the dangerously fatal incursions.

After offering silent prayers to the Protectress of Cagayan de Oro, we went out through the cathedral’s side door. As it turned out, even the yard of the church provides such a very prayerful ambience. The inner yard faces Cagayan de Oro River, the very waterway that served as the main thoroughfare in the colonial past when roads where secondary to river routes and at which banks a fort once stood to protect the faithful. In a way, the cathedral all the way to its yard serves as a link between the present and the past, intertwined by robust vines of faith.

We have been to a lot of churches, but for some reasons, the Cathedral of Cagayan de Oro is the one that provided us with so much to reflect about by far. In the middle of a busy city lies a stone edifice which through the passing of time remains a cornerstone of life and faith. It is a beautiful edifice, made more beautiful by its ability to draw one to prayer, closer to God, the way its patron saint was drawn to the beauty of the Divine: the beauty ever ancient, ever new; the beauty that shatters deafness, dispels blindness.

You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness.
You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness.
You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you.
I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more.
You touched me, and I burned for your peace.

St. Augustine of Hippo in Confessions Book X

We barely started our trip in Northern Mindanao but we already felt grounded that as if we have been in Cagayan de Oro for a long time already. Experiences involving faith do change perspectives, and at that point, we knew that our trip will not just be enjoyable. It will be very meaningful.

What began as a simple journey slowly unfolded into something deeper, with moments of quiet reflection, sincere conversations, and encounters that reminded us of the often forgotten reason we travel in the first place. Beyond the places we visited and the photographs we took, there was a sense that we were being invited to pause, to listen, and to appreciate the small graces that often go unnoticed in everyday life.

Northern Mindanao welcomed us not yet with its landscapes and vibrant communities, but first with a gentle reminder that some journeys are meant to nourish the soul as much as they excite the senses. Perhaps, that was the most unexpected gift of the trip: realizing that sometimes, the most meaningful destinations are not just the ones we arrive at, but the renewed perspectives we carry with us as we move on to the next destination.