Barasoain Church

In 1859, Barásoain was separated from Malolos. As a new town and parish, the Our Lady of Mount Carmel was chosen to be its patroness. Francisco Arriola was appointed first parish priest on June 1, 1859, and he built the convent. A small ermita, constructed by Melchor Fernández in 1816 while he was parish priest of Malolos (1816–1840), served as the temporary parish church. One of the existing bells bears the year 1870. It was installed by Emterio Ruperez, and it was donated by the “principalía (sic) of Malolos.” The bell was also dedicated to the Our Lady of Mount Carmel of Barásoain. Francisco Royo replaced the temporary chapel with a hewn stone church built between 1871 and 1878. This was soon destroyed by fire. The only remnant of this church is one of its bells, installed by Royo in 1873 and dedicated to Saint Francis Xavier. Juan Girón, who succeeded him, used the chapel of the cemetery until this one, too, was destroyed by the earthquakes of 1880. Girón then built temporary chapel of nipa and bamboo which was burned down in 1884, during the solemn celebrations of the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

In 1885, Girón hired contractor Miguel Magpayo and began construction of a massive church made of masonry and bricks. The church was completed under Girón’s supervision. Jorde does not specify the year of its completion; he says only that, "at the time it was completed the pockets of Girón were drained."

In 1889, Martín Arconada started construction of the belfry and the restoration of the convent. Three bells were installed in 1897. One of them is dedicated to Saint Martin, Bishop, donated by Martín Arconada. In 1894, Miguel de Vera undertook another restoration of the convent.

As tensions were brewing between the Filipino revolutionaries and the Americans who have arrived in the country in the wake of the Spanish–American War, the Philippine Revolutionary Government under the leadership of Emilio Aguinaldo decided to move the capital north from Cavite to Malolos in Bulacan. Plans were made to write a new constitution for the soon to be proclaimed Philippine Republic; Barásoain Church was chosen to be the site of the First Philippine Congress, otherwise known as the Malolos Congress, which convened on September 15, 1898 to draft what would become the Malolos Constitution.

On January 21, 1899, the Malolos Constitution was ratified. This paved way for the formal inauguration of the First Philippine Republic on January 23, 1899)[5] with Emilio Aguinaldo taking oath as president. But the outbreak of the Philippine-American War on February 4 brought the Republic into crisis. The Malolos Congress held its last session on the last week of February as the Aguinaldo government evacuated from Malolos and transferred the capital to Nueva Ecija.

The First Philippine Republic at Malolos in 1898

On March 31, 1899, the American forces captured Malolos and Barásoain, which were placed under American control.

In 1903, the town of Barásoain was dissolved and annexed to Malolos.

By Presidential Decree No. 260, Barásoain Church was proclaimed as a National Shrine by President Ferdinand Marcos on August 1, 1973.[6] A museum was opened at the old convent of the church which is being managed by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines.

In the wake of the 1998 Philippine Centennial celebrations, the church became the venue for the inauguration of Joseph Estrada on June 30, 1998.[7]

The image of the church has been depicted in certain monetary bills until 2001, namely the English series one peso bill and the Pilipino, Ang Bagong Lipunan, and both the 1985 and 1997 New Design series ten peso bill together with an image of Apolinario Mabini (Andrés Bonifacio on the 1997 version) on the other side. However, it was replaced by a ten-peso coin without the representation of the church. In 2009, local priests and Laban ng Bulacan movement officials, led by their chairman John Paul Albert Limpo, initiated a signature campaign to appeal to the Philippine Bangko Sentral restoring at least the image of the church in any present Philippine bill.[8]

After three years of petition and nine years since the last printing of the ten peso bill in 2001, in December 2010, upon the issuance of the "New Generation Currency" series for Philippine banknotes, Barásoain Church was featured again, this time in the 200-peso denomination until 2017 when it was replaced with the scene of the opening of the Malolos Congress.[9]