The Religious Sisters of Mercy, commonly called the Sisters of Mercy or Mercy Sisters, were the first permanent community of Catholic religious women in Guam and the first to accept local vocations. They soon became the largest community of Chamorro/Chamoru religious women after their arrival in Guam on 5 November 1946.
The Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, more commonly known as the Franciscan Sisters, are a consecrated community of religious women of the Catholic Church. The Franciscan Sisters are forever linked with their teaching apostolate at St. Jude School/Bishop Baumgartner Junior High School in Sinajana, and their health care work at the Catholic Medical Center in Hagåtña and Guam Memorial Hospital in Tamuning.
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To Bishop Apollinaris W. Baumgartner (1899 – 1970) belongs the honor and distinction of taking a church nearly decimated by World War II and rebuilding it out of the ashes of war into a strong and vibrant Diocese. In 1945, when Bishop Baumgartner was appointed Vicar Apostolic of Guam, most of Guam’s churches were damaged beyond repair.
Bishop Apollinaris William Baumgartner Read Post »
Although their tenure was but a brief one, the Mission Helpers of the Sacred Heart have the distinction of being the first community of Catholic religious women sent to Guam as well as being the first Catholic sisters in the Marianas and Micronesia.
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Pioneer promoter of the CHamoru language. Father Roman Maria de Vera (1878 – 1959), a Catholic missionary on Guam from 1915 until 1941, was one of the first important writers in the CHamoru language.
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Father Marcian Pellet (1909 – 1996), OFM Cap. was a Capuchin missionary, artist, sculptor, and amateur archaeologist. He spent 57 years dedicated to the Catholic Church in the Mariana Islands, almost four of those years in a civilian Prisoner of War camp in Japan during World War II. His artistic works grace several locations in Guam.
Father Jesus Baza Duenas (1911 – 1944) was the second CHamoru to be ordained a priest. He led the Catholic Church during the Japanese occupation of Guam during World War II and was later killed by the Japanese in July of 1944.
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In April 1898, war broke out between Spain and the United States. On 21 June 1898, Lieutenant Colonel Juan Marina, Spanish Governor of the Mariana Islands, surrendered Guam to the control of Captain Henry Glass of the US Navy.
Expulsion of the Augustinian Recollects Read Post »
For almost 300 years, the Spanish overseas Catholic missions took firm root in the Marianas. Spanish clergy and superiors — Jesuit, Augustinian Recollect or Capuchin — governed the Catholic Church in the Marianas. However, on 26 October 1945, that era came to a close with the departure of Miguel Angel Olano Urteaga, OFM Cap., the last Spanish bishop of Guam.
Bishop Miguel Angel Urteaga Olano Read Post »
Francisco Javier Vilá y Mateu (1851 – 1913) was the first missionary bishop of Guam. He was born Ricardo Vilá y Mateu in the Catalonian town of Arenys de Mar in Spain on 9 May 1851.
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