José Julián de Aranguren

José Julián de Aranguren (16 February 1801 – 18 April 1861) was a young Spanish Augustinian missionary when he was sent to the Philippines in 1829. He later served as the 22nd Archbishop of the Philippine archdiocese of the Latin branch of the Catholic Church from 1847 to 1861.

José Julián de Aranguren

Biography

Known as hard-working and economical, the Spanish prelate demonstrated great piety, empathy, and a terrific work ethic, qualities that inspired people to name churches and towns after him and after his natal hometown. For instance, the Barasoain Church in Malolos, Bulacan, founded in August 31,1859, was named after his hometown in Spain. The Aranguren Village, likewise, located in Capas, Tarlac, was named after him. This village subsequently was made part of New Clark City in 2021.

José Julián de Aranguren was born in Barasoain, a small, picturesque town which is located within the historical lands of the Basque Country. His parents were Bernardo Aranguren of Cizur Mayor and Nicolasa Leoz of Sada. He had two sisters, Juaquina Aranguren Rodriguez Hurtado and Maria Jesus Aranguren Huarte Mendicoa, and a brother, Angel Maria Aranguren.

He was baptised on February 17, 1801, the day after he was born. His sole godfather was his maternal grandfather, Jose Leoz, the town’s church organist. He was then confirmed on October 18, 1801, by His excellency, Lorenzo Ygual de Soria, the Bishop of Pamplona.

At 17, young José left Valle de Orba and began his studies in Zaragoza University where he pursued philosophy (logic, metaphysics, and ethics) and science (physics, chemistry, and mathematics). In this same university, during 1822 to 1824, he studied civil law to later enlist in the army.

However, soon he would change the military career for the religious life at the College of Alfaro in La Rioja where he took on the priestly garments of the Augustinian Recollects on December 7, 1825, to begin his religious profession on December 8 of the following year.

Once he obtained his diploma as professor of sacred theology, he took on the task of discipling and forming young aspirants to the religious life, a work that had to be interrupted in April 1829 when he was sent on a mission to the Philippines. He was to lead a group of Spanish missionaries bound for those islands. Their ship, 'Preciosa', left the port of Santander on May 30, 1829.

Upon his arrival in Manila on 2 October 1829, the young priest began to teach theology classes in the Recollect Convent of San Nicolas Friary in Intramuros. Shortly after this, in May 1831, he left the cathedral to study Tagalog with the parishioners of Taguig, Rizal, and in three months of practice and execution of the Catholic mission, he started serving in Capas and Patling, in the province of Tarlac. He began this maiden mission in Tarlac on 10 August 1831.

On 13 April 1836, after a 50-year hiatus of the Recollect ministry in Zambales, he became the parish priest of Masinloc. In 1837, he became the parish priest of Baclayon in the province of Bohol. He beautified its La Purisima Concepcion de la Virgen Maria Parish Church, a church made of coral stones, founded by the Jesuits in 1596 but heavily renovated by the Augustinians in the 1800s.

In the Recollect Province of the Philippines, he became the provincial secretary for the incumbent Prior Provincial of the Recollect Friars in Masinloc (1834), Vicar of Zambales (1837), Foreign Vicar of the clergy in Manila, and in 1843, he was elected Prior Provincial of the Augustinian Recollects.

He had to resign from this last position because on November 13, 1845, Isabel II, the Queen of Spain, nominated him to the post of Archbishop of Manila, and in a secret consistory dated January 9, 1846, Pope Pius IX signed his appointment.

Archbishop Aranguren's merits earned him the appointment of Adviser to Her Majesty, Queen Isabel II of Spain. Consequently, she then knighted him conferring him the Grand Cross of the Order of Isabel la Catolica. The Queen further offered him the position of Senator for Life in the Spanish government but he respectfully turned this down.

There was a recurring claim that the biological father of Archbishop Aranguren was the then 17-year old King Ferdinand VII of Spain, the father of Queen Isabel II, but this was not officially substantiated. If verified, he would have been the half- brother of Queen Isabel II.

In 1802, one year after Jose Aranguren was born, Ferdinand VII, aged 18, married his cousin Maria Antonieta of Naples and Sicily. However, she died of tuberculosis on May 21, 1806 without producing an heir.

In 1816 Ferdinand VII remarried, this time to Maria Isabel of Portugal. She managed to give birth to a daughter, Maria Luisa Isabel, but the baby died at 4 months old. The queen became pregnant again but the baby was in breech. After a bout of heavy bleeding, the queen died on December 26, 1818.

In 1819, the king, now 35, took another wife, Maria Josepha Amalia of Saxony, his young bride of 16. The union was not a good one and the queen remained childless till her death on May 18, 1829.

Lastly, King Ferdinand married his niece Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies in 1829. The union produced two daughters, Maria Isabel and Maria Luisa. Before Maria Isabel was born, the king had invoked the acceptance of the Salic Law and therefore she was able to precede his father upon his death.

Meanwhile, the episcopal consecration for Archbishop Aranguren was executed at the Augustinian Recollects Church in Intramuros on January 31, 1847. His principal consecrator was the Bishop of Cebu, Romualdo Jimeno Ballesteros of the Dominican Order. His episcopal lineage can be traced as far back to Cardinal Scipione Rebiba, Titular Patriarch of Constantinople consecrated in December 8, 1565.

During his 15 years of tenure, Archbishop Aranguren, in addition to regularly visiting his mission stations and parishes, stood out for the practice of charitable ministry for the poor and the infirm, love for priests, interest in church beautification and improvement, zeal in pastoral visits (he visited almost all the parishes and mission stations of his vast archdiocese twice), reduction and evangelization of infidels, simplification of the archdiocesan administration, and interest in missions in China.

As to his profitable works, Archbishop Aranguren, along with current illustrous businessmen including Antonio de Ayala, founded El Banco Español Filipina de Isabel II (now Bank of the Philippine Islands) the first bank established in both the Philippines and Southeast Asia. This pioneering bank that started on August 1, 1851, provided credit to the National Treasury. It issued the Philippine Peso Fuerte, a precursor to the current Philippine peso.

Along with this bank, Archbishop Aranguren also erected a statue for Queen Isabel II of Spain inside the walls of Intramuros, the Bridge of Queen Isabel II in Imus Cavite which is an archbridge made of stone, and in 1856, he led the creation of the province of Isabella in the Philippines, initially called Isabela de Luzon.

Archbishop Aranguren was an active participant in the war against Joloano pirates in the Philippines. The Spanish engaged the Joloano pirates frequently in the 1840s, sending out several fleets of warships and Spanish Army troops to the Balanguingui Island in the Sulu archipelago. It was rumored that after several Spanish expeditions to the island and its vicinities, in 1849, no more significant Joloano pirate force remained in the area.

Archbishop Aranguren was instrumental in inviting the Carmelite Sisters of Charity to Manila out of his concern for ill people and for the education of the youth. This proved successful although the Sisters of Charity only arrived in Manila after his demise in 1861.

Among his achievements, Archbishop Aranguren was, for the most part, credited with upholding the integrity of the native secular clergy in the Philippines by defending their rights and interests. Following his death, his secretary, Pedro Pelaez, as vicar capitular of the archdiocese sede vacante, took up the baton and continued his work. The current archbishop of Manila is Cardinal Jose Advincula who started serving his post on June 24, 2021.

Archbishop Jose Aranguren died of chronic dysentery in Manila on April 18, 1861. He was 60 years old. His mortal remains rest next to, specifically to the right of the main altar of the Manila Cathedral, the Minor Basilica and Metropolitan Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.