In This Small Chapel, Believers Pray for Divine Justice to 'San Antonio Maldito'

A rift broke out among supporters in Cebu City during the grand rally of a national candidate in the 2022 national elections. One camp felt they were sidelined and complained against the machinations by “traditional politicians.” 

The camp looked into what happened and identified the cause of their being set aside as someone who recently took the bar exam. While some members of the camp aired grievances on both traditional and social media, one group member decided to seek “divine retribution.”

The person went to Sibulan in Negros Oriental to seek the intercession of what some people call San Antonio Way Kaluoy (without mercy) or what the person described as San Antonio Maldito (Naughty or Wicked). The person, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue and the fact that the parties have reconciled, prayed “that if God has a sense of justice for what happened, through the intercession of the black St. Anthony, the person (will) be excluded from the passers of the bar.

This privately-owned chapel on A. Lopez Street in Barangay Calamba is referred to by some as San Atonio Way Kaluoy or Without Mercy. Adherents of this folk belief light candles as offerings to recover a lost item, gain back a cheating spouse or lover, or seek divine punishment for wrongdoing. Those running the chapel have been reprimanded by the Archdiocese of Cebu and its caretaker is now trying to weed out the practice

“This was the 2020-2021 bar, highest passing ever... Only three takers from (the person’s school) failed... including (the person behind the grand rally incident),” the person said in an interview.

Because of that and a previous incident in childhood, the person believes in the power of the intercession of San Antonio Way Kaluoy. Many do, even until today.

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'Divine retribution'

The putative center of this devotion is a privately owned chapel that houses a small image of San Antonio de Padua in a walled off compound located on a narrow alley strewn with dog poop off A. Lopez St. in Barangay Calamba, Cebu City. 

Rules posted in the chapel offer a peek into practices Roy Alquizalas, its current caretaker, said he has been trying to suppress. Alquizalas is a volunteer for the local parish and has been reprimanded several times by the church over activities in the chapel.

San Antonio de Padua 

Don’t use black candles; don’t use salt, pepper, needles; don’t wrap candles in black thread and pieces of cloth. These prohibitions are listed in a notice posted near the entrance to the compound.

Alquizalas installed CCTV cameras to monitor activities in the chapel. Without fail, he said in an interview, at least one person is caught on camera performing banned rituals every Tuesdays and Fridays, days when the lighting of candles is allowed.

One folk healer they caught on CCTV and asked to leave went to the barangay to complain.

When Esquire Philippines visited the chapel last June 12, the eve of San Antonio’s feast day, the author chanced upon a female devotee striking the floor with a fistful of candles near the area where people can light offerings. The devotee then wrapped the broken candles in a piece of paper that contained writings before lighting these up. All this happened below a sign that explicitly told people not to break up candles in the area.

When asked at the compound’s entrance why she broke up her candles by striking it at the floor, she answered that it was how one was supposed to do offerings. She quickly left the compound.

Posted at the San Antonio chapel in Barangay Calamba are these warnings against using black candles and performing rituals that adherents to the so-called San Antonio Way Kaluoy believe in

Reminiscent of voodoo

The devotion to San Antonio in this chapel was started by Alquizalas’ grandmother, Consolacion Estela. He described her as “tuo-tuohon” or one who was quick to believe things such as the occult or folk Christianity.

The first chapel was located on V. Rama Ave. near the Calamba Cemetery. The proximity to the cemetery and the black candles there may have been the source of the first black candles used in the chapel, Alquizalas said. He explained in a November 2005 article on Cebu Daily News by heritage advocate Haide Palapar that the candles may have darkened by repetitive recycling of the wax.

Palapar noted in her article how candle rituals were linked to the devotion: beating of the candle on the urna or case containing the image of San Antonio, tying the candles into a bundle with written petitions and burning them together, and pricking the candles with needles, which she said is reminiscent of the voodoo practice of barang or kulam.

More warnings

Alquizalas said he has tapped the kids in their neighborhood, where he is well-respected, to correct what he said was a mistaken belief. When I asked around for directions to the chapel of San Antonio Way Kaluoy, a teener playing basketball was quick to reprimand the author, “Ayaw ana kuya. Dili na tinuod.” (Don’t say that. That’s not true.)

Most of those who say their petitions were granted involved finding lost things or regaining a cheating spouse, Alquizalas said. San Antonio de Padua is the patron of, among many things, lost things and lost people.

A former journalist who is now in corporate communications said she once accompanied a friend there who was depressed when her boyfriend cheated on her. This was in the early 2000s.

They initially wanted to go to Alcoy, a town in the south of Cebu, for a ritual to prick the conscience of thieves and cheating husbands. Since Alcoy is far away, they were referred to the San Antonio chapel in Calamba, she said in an interview.

She said her friend just lit a black candle and placed it on the urna. Soon after, the former journalist said, her friend’s ex-boyfriend sought her forgiveness and ask that they get back together.

Candle menu

The former journalist said the chapel had a “scary atmosphere” and she was afraid to go back, even when she was also cheated on. 

Heritage guide Balbino Guerrero said that when he joined the hubo ritual of changing the saint’s garments on the bisperas or eve of the fiesta, several photographs with petitions written on the back were found tucked under the image. The petitions included a picture of a woman with a petition written on the back asking that she stop “chatting” with the petitioner's husband.

“They leave their private agonies at the altar,” an editor said of the practice. Domestic problems, particularly over unfaithful husbands, are common petitions raised to the saint, several people familiar with the practice said.

This 1910 prayer booklet for San Antonio de Padua may have had a hand in the genesis of the belief of a saint without mercy, said lawyer Harve Abella, who also studies Cebuano history and culture. The revision traced to 1879 'has some strong language which may have evolved into the practice of asking St. Anthony to intercede in order to bring down divine retribution'

Folk Catholicism

The devotion is an example of folk Catholicism based on syncretism with non-Christian beliefs, said Laila Labajo, a member of the University of San Carlos faculty who studies church history and Cebuano culture and heritage. 

“This is common not only in Cebu but in the Philippines, having paganistic religious practices in the pre-colonial period and Christianity thereafter,” Labajo said.

It is a “remaking of Christianity in the people’s image,” Palapar quoted Nick Joaquin in her article.

Rachael Jadraque, 61, has been a caretaker of this chapel of San Antonio de Padua since she was in Grade 10, when she started selling candles. It is located across the highway from another chapel to San Antonio de Padua belonging to the Archdiocese of Cebu. This is the chapel some people refer to as San Antonio Way Kaluoy in Bolinawan in Carcar

Lawyer Harve Abella, who also studies Cebuano history and culture, said the belief on San Antonio Way Kaluoy may have had its roots in the old novenario to the saint. 

“A July 7, 1879 revision of the Novenario has some strong language which may have evolved into the practice of asking St. Anthony to intercede in order to bring down divine retribution,” Abella said. “The bilingual version is quite revealing as the supplicant adjures the Saint to defend his honor, to save him from false witnesses, evil friends, false accusations and judgments.” 

In any place where a chapel or parish is dedicated to San Antonio de Padua, there are likely believers, no matter how few, of San Antonio Way Kaluoy, sources said.

Jadraque, insists there is no such thing as a saint without mercy. She said it might be that people who feel aggrieved ask for the saint’s intercession and are granted “divine justice.” She said she sees people sometimes breaking candles when lighting them

Another prominent chapel known for the practice is located on the national highway in Bolinawan in Carcar City, a three-hour drive from Cebu City. The chapel is run by a local family and is located right across another chapel to San Antonio, one recognized by the Archdiocese of Cebu. 

When Esquire Philippines visited this chapel last June 12, 61-year-old Rachael Jadraque stood at the entrance near a table that contained various types of candles and a novena booklet to San Antonio. After her initial reluctance, apparently anticipating the questions, Jadraque acceded to an interview. 

It’s not true that this chapel is that of the San Antonio Way Kaluoy, she said.

“Walay santos nga walay kaluoy,” Jadraque said. (There is no such thing as a saint without mercy.)

She said it might be that people who feel aggrieved ask for the saint’s intercession and are granted “divine justice.”

When the author returned to the San Antonio chapel compound in Barangay Calamba, he was met by this group of mostly women who stood up as soon as he entered. It was the night before the fiesta. Many of the devotees of the so-called San Antonio Way Kaluoy are battered women. The group then played on a loudspeaker the song “The Prayer” by Josh Groban as invocation. What ritual is this? The author sent messages to contacts in the church. Before the song finished, however, it was abruptly cut off. Then a loud voice told everyone to sit. “Ato nang sugdan” (Let’s start) “Sa unang letra, O, 61!!!” It  turned out to be a neighborhood bingo

Jadraque, however, admitted that she sees people sometimes breaking candles when lighting them. She was reticent when asked about black candles and using needles, only saying that we have no way of knowing the intentions of people.

Her companion at the gate, a relative who refused to give her name, pointed out during our interview a woman who bought P50 worth of candles. She lit all 25 pieces at once, combining for a large flame that seemed to threaten to raze the chapel.

See her? She asked in a hoarse voice while pointing at the woman who looked to be in her mid-40s. She has been granted her petition for her husband to reform and stop womanizing.

They leave their private grievances at the altar, an editor said after seeing these pictures of petitions found tucked under the image of San Antonio de Padua found during the pre-fiesta hubo ritual in 2016. Hubo is when the vestments of the saint are changed. The photos were taken by tour guide Ka Bino Guerrero and showed petitions for divine intervention into domestic problems

“Nagpasalamat siya?” I asked her. (Is she here for thanksgiving?)

“Dili,” she chuckled. (No).

“Ang kabit na sab nag samok-samok.” (The mistress is now the one causing trouble.)