This paper was written by Chloe Foor and was awarded the Civil Resistance Prize by the History Department in 2023. It was written for History 600: Empire and Revolution in Southeast Asia taught by Professor Alfred McCoy.
Introduction
Religion has been used as a force of colonization since its dawn. This strategy was used by the Spanish in their conquest across the hemispheres of the world. Echoes of these actions still exist today; the vast majority of Latin Americans and Filipinos, inhabitants of two of Spain’s main colonies, identify themselves as Catholic, the religion that Spain brought with them in their conquests.[1] However, the Catholicism that most Filipinos practice today is not the pure Roman Catholicism they were first introduced to. Instead, Filipinos took the parts of Catholicism that best suited them and reconciled them with their own animist belief systems that existed long before Ferdinand Magellan set foot on their land. This religion “may be considered paganism, with Christianity merely an addition to their paganism rather than a replacement of it.”[2] By applying their own pre-Hispanic belief systems to the Catholicism introduced to them by the Spanish, the Filipino people became empowered by it, clinging to the parts of their culture that the Spanish so desperately tried to stamp out, instead of being subjugated by the colonizers’ religion. By exploring the pre-Hispanic belief systems, the attempted Spanish religious conversion of the Philippines, the Filipino reactions to Catholicism, and the ways that Catholicism was incorporated into animism, one can see the impact that folk Catholicism had on the day-to-day life of the Filipino natives.
Pre-Hispanic Spiritualism in the Philippines
Before the arrival of the Spaniards, the Philippines had its own belief system, which was largely similar to many other Southeast Asian religions that existed before the arrival of Europeans. At the core of this belief system were spirits that occupied a “sky-world, earth-world, and an underworld.”[3] These spirits could be ancestral or natural, benign or malign; benign spirits mainly existed in the sky-world, while the malign spirits occupied the earth, leading to the Filipinos mainly interacting with spirits that wished them ill.[4] There was a hierarchy to these spirits, with one supreme spirit being that would reign over both the rest of the spirits, as well as the universe.[5] These spirits allowed the Filipino natives to conceptualize the universe and how it worked. These ideas helped them rationalize why suffering happened, and led to their idea of the afterlife as one where their spirits would wander the land for centuries, looking after their descendants.
The supreme spirit was commonly conceptualized as the Naga serpent. It inhabited either the sea, sky or underworld– this differs between traditions– and rotated throughout the year. Travelers made sure to take caution to avoid its head and mouth while moving through the land, lest they be plagued with bad fortune.[6] Though the Naga serpent served as the supreme spirit, and was even used as a legitimizing symbol in several dynastic mythologies, there were also other spirits that affected the pre-colonial Filipino people on a more daily basis.[7] Every part of the land was considered to be owned by and inhabited by spirits, and if someone built on land owned by a spirit, they would pay the spirit to avoid an infliction of harm or other minor ailment.[8] In conjunction with this practice, the Filipino people also had many different rituals that were “structured around the idea that individual divinities visited the human community.”[9] These ceremonies would include offerings of food, wine, prayers, and other sacrifices to a certain idol or spirit, meant to placate and honor them, as there was always the fear that a spirit could curse a human. This belief system had its roots in fear and avoidance of the spirits and what they had the power to do to humans.[10]
Those whose job it was to connect the human and spirit worlds were called baylans, similar to the role of shamans or priests. The baylans were often women, as a counterpart to the male roles of the datu and bayani warriors.[11] They functioned as “healers, sacrificers, diviners, sorcerers, and general experts in the spirit world,” and would commonly interact with spirits on behalf of villagers seeking both curses and cures.[12] These intercessors were respected by the Filipino natives, often leading villages when necessary. The baylan occupied a very important role in native Filipino society, and echoes of this role can be seen in the folk Catholicism that emerged after the arrival of the Spaniards.
Once cultures across Asia began interacting more regularly, other religions and belief systems became introduced to the Philippines. Buddhism arrived in the Philippines between the 7th and 13th centuries, during the time that the “great circle of Buddhism” was spreading around the rest of Asia.[113] In the middle of the 14th century, Islam reached the Philippines after spreading northwards from Indonesia, and spread across the archipelago.[14] By the time the Spanish arrived, Islamic areas had “the highest and most politically integrated culture on the islands and, given more time, would probably have unified the entire archipelago.”[15] Although the Spanish attempted to remove all traces of Islam from the Philippines, they never completely dominated the islands of Mindanao and Sulu. Although the introduction of Buddhism and Islam impacted the Filipino natives, their day-to-day lives truly started to change when the Spanish arrived with the intent of colonization.
Spanish Religious Colonization
The Spanish came to the Philippines in 1521 under guidance of the famed explorer Ferdinand Magellan. Common reasons for colonization during this era, not just for Spain, have been named as “God, glory, and gold,” but Spain put a special emphasis on the part that “God” played. The main motivation of the Spanish was to spread the Catholic gospel, with the secondary, but still incredibly impactful, goals being expanding their economy and empire. Evangelization was a “distinct and prior consideration” of the Spanish hierarchy, and the bishops were convinced that the laws of the “indios,” if they had any, were from “the Devil, the father of lies.”[16] The Spanish believed that they had a sacred duty to eliminate all presences of the devil, viewing the indigenous belief system as a “palpable manifestation of Satan’s presence.”[17] They justified their actions with the belief that they were saving the souls of the Filipinos they were conquering. As a bonus to them, they believed that this act of spreading the gospel gave them a better chance of getting into Heaven. However, it was a lot harder to Catholicize the Philippines than anticipated.
Due to the unique geography of the archipelago, it was difficult to give all the different areas of the Philippines the same amount of attention.[18] Missionaries would spend most of their time in larger towns and villages, in order to preach to the most people. Due to this, the prevalence of Christianity in an area had less to do with the quality of the preached doctrine and more to do with the actual concentration of the people being preached to.[19] The geographical distance between the Philippines and Spain also led to some difficulties in communication between the missionaries and those in authority back in Europe.
Another issue arose when the Spaniards realized that they did not send over a sufficient amount of missionaries to successfully convert the whole of the Philippines. The lack of volume of missionaries combined with them not being properly trained in Catholic doctrine proved detrimental to keeping Catholicism in the Philippines “pure.” The missionaries were sent with little besides their own knowledge of the Catholic faith, manuals, instructions, and a catechism, which led to each missionary preaching a slightly different variation on Catholicism, bringing their own beliefs, biases, and superstitions to the Filipino crowds.[20] The spread of this imperfect belief system across the archipelago allowed folk Catholicism to form, as the missionaries themselves were not spreading official doctrine.
The problem of the inequality in the ratio of missionaries to citizens might have been remedied if there was a system put in place to ordain Filipino clergy. The Spanish believed that the Filipinos were both “temperamentally” and “congenitally unfit for the full responsibilities of the sacerdotal state,” leading to Filipinos only being trusted to run secondary offices where they were not burdened with the “full responsibilities of the priesthood.”[21] These secondary leaders were called fiscales, and they were responsible for the religious life of the Filipino people in the absence of a Spanish priest or missionary. However, the fiscales had little to no official training in Catholic doctrine. This led to a very surface level Christianity, where the “Christians [went] to the Church, [but] the Church rarely [went] to the Christians.”[22] The fiscales would know the words to say during the rituals, but did not know the meanings those words were supposed to hold. They did not have the same zeal for Catholicism that the missionary friars did, leading many of the listeners of their sermons feeling discouraged and unenthusiastic about the religion. Because of this, less and less people cared about following the strict rules of Catholicism exactly as they were supposed to, which meant they would “almost inevitably [lapse] into animism or syncretism.”[23] The Spanish missionaries, however, did not realize that this lapse was happening. They believed that “animist worship had been eradicated after less than ten years of missionary labors.”[24] However, the Catholicism that the Filipinos actually believed in and practiced was quite far from the Catholicism the Spaniards practiced.
Different aspects of Catholicism had varying levels of acceptance by the Filipinos. Some beliefs were more thoroughly rejected, as there existed less of an animist base for these beliefs to be supplanted onto. One such example was the sacrament of matrimony; before the Spanish arrived, the Filipino people would commonly practice polygamy and divorce, both of which were strictly outlawed by the Catholic church.[25] This led to some concessions made by the missionaries in order for matrimony to become more easily accepted by the Filipinos. Essentially, the Spanish policy was to permit any “indigenous mores which did not brazenly conflict with basic precepts of Spanish Christian morality.” This included the tradition of the groom providing a dowry, which the Spanish were against because they saw it as a father selling his daughter, and the cohabitation of couples before actually getting married, which the Spanish traditionally rejected due to it leading to opportunities for premarital sex.[26] Both of these actions were, if not accepted, tolerated by the Spanish. The general acceptance of the idea of a lifelong monogamous marriage among the Filipinos is one of the biggest ways that Hispanic Catholic culture affected the day-to-day lives of Filipino natives.
There also were many concepts in Catholicism that were similar to the pre-Hispanic belief system. These beliefs were what the Filipino people were more willing to adopt. Many of the commonalities were facilitated through their emphasis of ritual and pomp, as many animist beliefs were centered around various ceremonies done to contact or appease spirits.[27] To the Filipino people, “one of Catholicism’s strongest appeals [would have been] its splendid ritual and its colorful pageantry.”[28] The Catholic idea of saints was also attractive, as it was similar to the animist belief that ancestral spirits could affect or influence the world of the living. All of these things were incorporated into the folk Catholicism that the Filipino people developed in response to the Catholicization of their land.
Baptism was the easiest sacrament for Filipinos to adopt. Unlike their missions in the New World, Catholic friars did not perform mass baptisms on the Filipino people.[29] Instead, they wanted those who became baptized to truly understand Catholic doctrine, including the significance of the sacrament of baptism. In order to receive the sacrament of baptism, one must be monogamous, memorize the Pater Noster, Credo, Ave Maria, and Ten Commandments, attend Mass on Sundays and on Holy Days of Obligation, and attend confession annually.[30] Whether the baptized Filipinos recognized the impact that baptism supposedly had on their souls is debatable, but many Filipinos became baptized anyways. This could very well be due to the belief that baptism “not only wiped away the sins of the soul but also helped to cure the ailments of the body,” similar to the animist belief that certain rituals cured the body of illnesses.[31] The most crucial sacrament to Catholics is baptism, leading Spanish missionaries to assume they were successful in converting masses of Filipino people to Roman Catholicism and eradicating the influence of pagan religions due to the sacrament’s general acceptance. However, many recently baptized Filipinos likely did not fully understand the Catholic doctrine surrounding baptism, and were baptized for reasons associated with their pre-Hispanic animist beliefs, not Roman Catholic values.
Another appealing sacrament to the indigenous population was the Anointing of the Sick, a sacrament typically given to those on their deathbed. The Filipinos utilized this sacrament to understand the Catholic beliefs in Heaven and Hell. As Rafael puts it, “in [Heaven], God’s gaze is seen, and being seen, it can be returned. In the translation of the concept of the beatific vision lay an appealing solution to the prospect of being helplessly surrounded by unseen spirits. In aspiring to ‘see God’ one aims at realizing the full visibility of the source of all potentiality.”[32] The Filipino natives, with the foundational belief that spirits coexisted on the earth, appreciated the idea of an afterlife that aligned them with the supreme being, whether it be the Naga serpent or the Catholic God. It also offered them comfort in the idea of a life after death, where one can find true peace with their loved ones and not wander the earth for eternity.
Religious Subjugation Under Catholicism
Religion has time and time again been used to subjugate colonized people, and the Philippines is no different. Historically, it is extremely effective to enforce an informal empire through cultural domination. A common strategy of cultural domination is to destroy all occurrences of the previous faiths but, “unlike the Indian population of the New World, the Tagalogs had neither temples to be destroyed nor pagan monuments to be smashed.”[33] This separation of spirituality from physical structures helped pre-colonial animist beliefs survive Catholic colonialism that pervaded the Philippines, but was not enough to completely push away all Catholic Spanish influence and cultural domination.
One way that Catholicism upheld informal empire was the role that the priests played in the government. The colonial Philippine government had no separation of church and state, which led to the priests controlling most, if not all, information that went back to Spain. The Church was primarily an “instrument of the Crown to preserve its subjects in their loyalty and direct their activities in accord with its royal purposes.”[34] The priests were the vessels through which the empire was enforced in the Philippines. Rizal, an influential Filipino writer, acknowledged the power that priests held in colonial Philippines in his famed novel Noli Me Tángere, writing that “the government itself does not see or hear or judge beyond what it is allowed to see by the priest.”[35] Since priests acted as the filter through which information was passed, both going into the Philippines and reporting back to the Spanish Crown, one can imagine how far their influence and power extended over the Filipino people.
Another way that Catholicism was used to subjugate the Filipino natives was through the distinctively Catholic sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation, which was utilized by priests to shame the natives and enforce foreign moral and ethical standards onto them. The requirement of this sacrament for a person to be baptized emphasizes how influential penance was as a subjugating force for Filipinos. At its core, penance requires the penitent to admit and confess all their sins to a priest, reformulating their own past into a “narrative of sin.”[36] The priest in turn gives them a set of actions that they must take in order to become sanctified and free of sin. This was used as a fear tactic to encourage conformity, and offered Filipinos a way to avoid eternal damnation by following arbitrary social rules to avoid sin. In this way, penance was an effective way to enforce informal empire, as it allowed priests to “subsume the myriad of native beliefs in a set of fixed names and definitions.”[37] By declaring animist beliefs and practices as sinful, the priests could condemn them, in theory scaring Filipino people into abandoning their pre-colonial traditions. However, the Filipino people adapted their animist beliefs into a new type of Catholicism, fighting the subjugation imposed on them by the Spanish empire.
Folk Catholicism in the Philippines
Despite all of the attempts by the Spanish missionaries to promote a version of “pure” Catholicism in the Philippines, the Filipino natives could still reconcile their pre-Hispanic animist beliefs with what the friars were teaching them. They would “[reinterpret] certain Catholic beliefs in an animist light, while ignoring the rest,” leading to folk Catholicism spreading across the archipelago.[38] Thus, the Filipino people rose against oppression by the Spanish and their religion to create a truly unique belief system.
There has been some difficulty defining “folk Catholicism” in relation to the intersection between Roman Catholic and pre-Hispanic animist beliefs and practices. It can be broadly defined as a religion where Catholicism is “tightly bound to the cultural traditions of the people.”[39] This way, it is not as much the native beliefs influencing a predominantly Catholic belief system, but rather some aspects of Catholicism influencing an animist base system. At its core, the belief system is primarily animist or pagan, with some elements of Catholicism mixed in. This fittingly describes the religious transformation of the Philippines after the arrival of the Spaniards and that still continues to this day.
There are many factors that differentiate folk Catholicism from both traditional Catholicism and animism. These examples highlight the influence of Catholicism on the Philippines, while still keeping fundamentally animist practices. One such way that the Filipino people kept the role of baylans was by adapting it into the role of a priest, in essence creating a priesthood of shamanism. Both priests and baylans are viewed as spiritual healers in their respective religions, communicating with a higher power as an intercessor for the people in the physical realm. Therefore, the association of baylans with Catholic priests was an easy one to make. The general acceptance of priests as baylans helped the Filipino people convince the Spanish missionaries that they were indoctrinated into the Catholic faith, and had renounced their previous beliefs, despite the existing close ties to animism.
Catholic saints additionally mimicked previous polytheistic beliefs held by Filipinos. An essential aspect of Catholicism is the belief in the singular God of Abraham, but saints are still revered and celebrated as lesser, but still holy, beings. This was incredibly similar to the animist belief of a supreme being surrounded by many other lesser divine spirits. In this way, the Filipino natives adopted the pantheon of saints as a way to continue their ancestral pagan hierarchy of spirits and the supreme Naga serpent. The Catholic saints became worshiped as if they were ancestors, with the structure of this pantheon of saints resembling the pre-Spanish pantheon of anitos.[40] Saints were often worshiped extensively to the point that “the line between veneration of the saints and idolatry was often crossed,” similarly to how pre-Hispanic Filipinos worshiped the spirits that surrounded them.[41] The saints replaced the spirits and ancestors of the pre-Hispanic Filipino belief system.
The Santo Niño cult, known as the cult of the Holy Infant, is an example of Filipinos worshiping a saint as one might worship an idol. The cult has many religious practices typically associated with Catholicism, such as attendance at Mass, prayers, petitions, and attributing miracles to the Holy Infant.[42] However, this veneration crosses into a type of idolatry with the practices of kissing a statue of the infant, having a public ritual surrounding the changing of the statue’s clothes, offering vows, and other rituals that give excessive importance to this figure, perhaps even more importance than what is given to God.[43] Pre-Hispanic folk practices are also essential to the cult of the Holy Infant, such as ritual dances, developing legends and myths surrounding it, and parades and activities centered around the Holy Infant, such as the Sinulog parade.[44] The treatment of the Holy Infant is in excess of what the Catholic Church would consider a respectful veneration of a saint or other holy figure, and instead crosses over into a worship of the figure in a decidedly non-monotheistic way. These rituals surrounding the worship of the Holy Infant are also reminiscent of animist belief practices to appease or worship certain spirits. This worship of saints has much more of a pagan root, and is a prime example of the Filipino natives manipulating Catholic doctrine to continue practicing their own animist beliefs through folk Catholicism. Worship of the Holy Infant continues to this day, indicating just how strongly folk Catholicism has embedded itself into Filipino culture.
Although folk Catholicism has an intrinsically animist base with Catholic ideas superimposed on top of it, there are still some fundamentally Catholic beliefs that managed to become adopted by folk Catholicism. Concepts such as virtues, ethics, and morals tied to religion were absent from the pre-Hispanic animist belief systems, so with the introduction of sin also came the association of morality with religion. Before the arrival of the Spanish, the Filipino people had a type of ethics system, mostly based on social pressures; one could not murder someone else without consequences from the rest of the village. However, in tying these ideas to Catholicism, religious meaning was put on “activities or concerns that previously had no religious connotation.”[45] Many of the morals introduced were difficult for the Filipino people to adopt such as matrimony, which was the most foreign sacrament to the natives. The sexual morality aspect of folk Catholicism therefore has a Catholic origin, and is still an important part of Filipino religious morality and culture today.[46]
Filipino natives utilized their common belief in folk Catholicism to gain power, and were not suppressed by Catholicism as the Spanish had intended. The religion “forged powerful bonds of social unity, thereby creating a much needed cushion against the severe economic stresses and strains” imposed by the Spaniards. Folk Catholicism also acted as both a buffer and comfort in times of great distress.[47] Instead of being thoroughly controlled by the Catholic church and Vatican, they were able to adapt their sense of identity through their own pre-Hispanic belief system, cleverly masked by the basic tenets of Catholicism that became incorporated into their animist beliefs. The common identity of folk Catholicism led to a sense of unity against the Spaniards, allowing them some semblance of power during Spanish oppression. This shared identity helped them retain aspects of their pre-colonial culture that other nations colonized by the Spanish had lost. Folk Catholicism is more than just a religion; it represents an active attempt by a group of people being subjugated to fight back against the colonial pressures imposed on them at all times. It also represents a dissatisfaction with the institution of Christianity as a whole.[48] The Filipino people adapted Catholicism to fit their needs, completely disregarding some aspects, while fighting against religious uniformity of the Spanish colonizers.
Leaders of revolts against the Spanish used folk Catholicism to form groups of revolutionaries. Pre-Hispanic animist beliefs included certain signs that would indicate a powerful leader, such as the “command of fire, flood and rain… and the power to change shape and fly.”[49] These religious beliefs were apparent in revolts against the Spanish, with revolters believing that their own leaders possessed these dalagangan magical powers. Some examples of this type of leader are Ponciano Elfore, known as Buhawi, who led a revolt from 1887 to 1890, and Gregorio “Dios,” who led a revolt from 1888 to 1891.[50] These two revolts did not lead to much change in colonial policy, however they do demonstrate the tenacity of the Filipino spirit and the extent to which folk Catholicism was able to influence an entire group of people to revolt against the Spanish.
However, there were some more successful revolts where the leaders still drew their strength and symbolism from traditional animist beliefs. These occurred in the years after the aforementioned two revolts, and were much better organized and appealed to a wider group of Filipinos. The first example of this was the Panay Revolt, which began in October of 1896, led by Gregorio Lampiño, who was believed to have dalagangan powers, most notably the ability to fly and disappear. He called peasants to gather in the mountains and drew on the spiritual legacy of Father Juan Perfector, a native priest from the early 1870s who had “rejected the Catholic church [as an institution] and taught salvation through a direct reading of the gospel,” uniting the peasants of the Philippines and starting one of the most prominent resistance movements at the time.[51] This was possible because folk Catholicism united the people. This is also reminiscent of the cult of saints; in sanctifying the idea of Father Juan, the Filipino people trusted his ideas and believed they had support from the divine.
Another utilization of folk Catholicism in Filipino revolts is one that began in November 1896 and was led by Dionisio Sigobela, also known as Papa Isio. He allegedly used a form of prayer known as oracion in order to grant his followers immunity through amulets. Blessed amulets that granted special powers to those who wore them were a large part of the pre-Hispanic belief system, so in this way, revolutionaries were able to utilize their past to revolt against Spanish hegemony. One of his followers described him as “no sort of moral man… chosen by God to redeem the Filipino people from slavery. He is immortal, and cannot be hit or wounded by bullets.”[52] The belief in the supernatural powers of their leader is common among the followers of these revolts. Ascribing an almost saint-like behavior to their leader made the people believe that they had the power of God on their side.
A final example of a revolutionary that utilized folk Catholicism to help their movement gain traction was the leader of the Yntrencherado revolt, which occurred in 1926. Rumors surfaced that the leader of this revolt, Florencio Yntrencherado, had a magical weapon and claimed that he had achieved “enlightenment from God the Holy Spirit, another common thread in folk stories about leaders with divine favor.[53] This particular example shows additional ways leaders would gain a following. By invoking fear centered around his ability to “punish non-participants with illness or death through magic,” Yntrencherado was able to amass a large following.[54] This aligns with the idea of the priesthood of shamanism, ascribing magical health powers to those in a position of authority, harkening back to pre-Hispanic qualifications of leadership.
The above revolts were able to unite Filipino revolutionaries under the ideas of folk Catholicism, but attributing a uniqueness of magical powers to their leader often meant that once the leader fell, the revolt died too. However, this does not discount the impact of folk Catholicism on the revolutionary protests of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Folk Catholicism allowed the people to unite under a common goal, and made them believe their leader had a divine blessing, motivating them to resist. While the revolts occurred, people were hopeful for a day free from Spanish rule.
Conclusion
Today, folk Catholicism is still alive and well in the Philippines. The vast majority– 90.62%– of Filipinos identify themselves as religious, with 89.9% attending religious services at least once a month and 85.5% saying that they were raised religious.[55] The reason for this continued vitality of Christianity is the combination of religious independence and collaboration.[56] By taking the most beneficial parts of Catholicism and inscribing them onto pagan animist beliefs from the pre-colonial times, Filipino natives created a religion that suited their needs, while also remaining under the radar of the watchful eye of the Spanish missionary. This religion was able to bring power to the revolutionary movements of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, led by those who allegedly had magical animist powers. This is echoed in the modern era with President Marcos, who was believed to have “magical powers in armed combat,” which is seen as a plausible qualification for national political leadership.[57] Folk Catholicism has truly pervaded every aspect of Filipino life, and this unique religion was a key way that the Filipino people were able to protect and uphold their culture and beliefs, despite centuries of Spanish oppression that attempted to remove any relics of pagan religion from society.
[1] Fe Susan Go, “Mothers, Maids and the Creatures of the Night: The Persistence of Philippine Folk Religion,” Philippine Quarterly of Culture and Society 7, no. 3 (1979): pp. 186.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Alfred W. McCoy, “Baylan: Animist Religion and Philippine Peasant Ideology,” Philippine Quarterly of Culture and Society 10, no. 3 (1982): pp. 143.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Charles J-H. Macdonald, “Folk Catholicism and Pre-Spanish Religions in the Philippines,” Philippine Studies 52, no. 1 (2004): pp. 79.
[6] Ibid., pp. 146.
[7] Ibid., pp. 144.
[8] Ibid., pp. 150.
[9] Ibid., pp. 86.
[10] Ibid., pp. 154.
[11] Ibid.
[12] Go, “Mothers, Maids and the Creatures of the Night,” pp. 190.
[13] “Maritime Buddhism,” Andrea Acri, accessed November 7, 2022.
[14] “Religion in the Philippines,” Jack Miller, accessed November 7, 2022.
[15] Ibid.
[16] Vicente L. Rafael, Constructing Colonialism: Translation and Christian Conversion in Tagalog Society under Early Spanish Rule (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988), pp. 155.
[17] McCoy, “Baylan,” pp. 155.
[18] Go, “Mothers, Maids and the Creatures of the Night,” pp. 191.
[19] John Leddy Phelan, “The Hispanization of the Philippines” in Southeast Asian History: Essential Readings, ed. D.R. DarDesai (Westview: Boulder, 2006), pp. 108.
[20] Macdonald, “Folk Catholicism and Pre-Spanish Religions in the Philippines,” pp. 88.
[21] Phelan, “The Hispanization of the Philippines,” pp. 125-127.
[22] Go, “Mothers, Maids and the Creatures of the Night,” pp. 189.
[23] John N. Schumaker, “Syncretism in Philippine Catholicism: Its Historical Causes,” Philippine Studies 32, no. 3 (1984): pp. 260.
[24] McCoy, “Baylan,” pp. 155.
[25] Phelan, “The Hispanization of the Philippines,” pp. 108.
[26] Ibid., 110-111.
[27] Go, “Mothers, Maids and the Creatures of the Night,” pp. 189.
[28] Phelan, “The Hispanization of the Philippines,” pp. 118.
[29] Schumaker, “Syncretism in Philippine Catholicism,” pp. 253.
[30] Phelan, “The Hispanization of the Philippines,” pp. 104.
[31] Ibid., pp. 103.
[32] Rafael, Constructing Colonialism, pp. 192.
[33] Ibid., pp. 106.
[34] Schumaker, “Syncretism in Philippine Catholicism,” pp. 257.
[35] José Rizal, Noli Me Tángere (Makati City: Bookmark, 1996), pp. 169.
[36] Rafael, Constructing Colonialism, pp. 97.
[37] Ibid., pp. 108.
[38] McCoy, “Baylan,” pp. 156.
[39] Antoine Vergote, “Folk Catholicism: Its Significance, Value and Ambiguities,” Philippine Studies 30, no. 1 (1982): pp. 6.
[40] McCoy, “Baylan,” pp. 89-90.
[41] Phelan, “The Hispanization of the Philippines,” pp. 121.
[42] Astrid Sala-Boza, “Towards Filipino Christian Culture: Mysticism and Folk Catholicism in the Señor Sto. Niño De Cebu Devotion,” Philippine Quarterly of Culture and Society 36, no. 4 (2008): pp. 287.
[43] Ibid.
[44] Ibid.
[45] McCoy, “Baylan,” pp. 81.
[46] Keck, “Influences of the European Middle Ages in the Philippines,” pp. 455.
[47] Phelan, “The Hispanization of the Philippines,” pp. 128.
[48] Go, “Mothers, Maids and the Creatures of the Night,” pp. 187.
[49] McCoy, “Baylan,” pp. 167.
[50] Ibid., pp. 168.
[51] Ibid., pp. 169.
[52] Ibid., pp. 172.
[53] Ibid., pp. 176.
[54] Ibid., pp. 178.
[55] “National / Regional Profiles – Region: Philippines,” The Association of Religious Data Archives.
[56] Robbie B. H. Goh, Christianity in Southeast Asia, 1 ed., ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute (2005): pp. 20.
[57] McCoy, “Baylan,” pp. 142.