Victorias City’s Church of the Angry Christ

Church of the Angry Christ. The name invokes a sense of wonder. Perhaps because anger is one of the seven deadly sins and it’s strange that a Catholic Church would associate Christ with it.

I haven’t had the opportunity to visit the Church of the Angry Christ even though I often visit Victorias City. It was unfortunate also that when we visited several Negros Occidental churches, the Church of the Angry Christ was one of the churches we were not able to visit. So when a friend offered to take me there, I did not hesitate to accept the invitation.

The Chapel of St. Joseph the Worker, commonly known as the Church of the Angry Christ is located inside the Victoria’s Milling Company (VMC) compound. The company built the church to serve the Catholic employees and their families living inside the VMC community composed of seven barangays.

When VMC was in a financial crisis in the 1990s, most people feared that if ever the sugar refinery would be closed, the church would eventually be neglected. Fortunately, both did not suffer such a gloomy fate. VMC has recovered and the Church of the Angry Christ continues to draw art aficionados and Catholic faithfuls from around the world.

Roman Catholic Churches in the Philippines would have an icon or image of Jesus Christ that has  a gentle and merciful expression. However, the Church of Angry Christ defied tradition by portraying Jesus Christ with a fierce expression in its very famous mural.

The church apparently got its now famous name when a foreign journalist called it the Church of the Angry Christ in an article featured in Life Magazine. Another uniqueness of the church is that it depicts Mary and Joseph to have brown skin in traditional Filipino attire and the characters in the Fourteen Stations of the Cross wearing Filipino clothes.

Just imagine the reaction of the townspeople and church officials when they first saw the church mural when it was completed in 1949. Many conservatives probably raised their eyebrows and considered it inappropriate for a church. The combined imagery, vibrant colors and the size of the mural makes it an overwhelming picture to look at. Today, upon seeing the Church, one would wonder who the people responsible for designing this magnificent church were.

I was fortunate that my hosts were from Victorias City with family members previously working with VMC. They provided me with valuable information from the Church brochure and from the stories that circulated inside VMC.

The Church of the Angry Christ was designed and built by Anthony Raymond, who was Frank Lloyd Wright’s apprentice in his architectural firm in New York. Frank Lloyd Wright was considered the greatest American architect of all time, as voted by the American Institute of Architects.

The Church’s building architectural design was modern and futuristic. The building is made up of two sections, the nave and the tower. They are connected by movable beams holding the building up well even during earthquakes. This is a well thought design since the Philippines is in an earthquake belt. The church was constructed for air and light to keep churchgoers comfortable even in Philippine climate where it gets uncomfortably hot during summer.

The Belgian liturgical artist Ade de Bethuene was commissioned to design the decoration of the church’s baptism room. Bethuene opted for mosaic using broken glass gathered by the residents of the mill.

For the baptistery she depicted Jesus’ baptism at the Jordan, and for the facade showed three scenes from the life of St. Joseph, namely, the marriage to Mary, the workshop at Nazareth, and the death of Joseph. For the sides other scenes from the life of Joseph were depicted.

Local artists were also employed to work on the church. Benjamin Valenciano, a carpenter from Victorias, did the images of Mary and Joseph, the crucifix and the Stations of the Cross. Arcadio Anore, a local engraver, executed Bethuene’s designs for the brass plates decorating the pulpit, baptistery and other parts of the church.

The world famous mural decoration of the Church was done by Alfonso A. Ossorio, the son of Don Miguel J. Ossorio who founded and at that time the owner of Victorias Milling Company. Alfonso A. Ossorio was a Filipino-born American abstract expressionist artist of Hispanic, Filipino, and Chinese ancestry. He studied Fine Arts at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachussets, U.S.A. and continued his studies at the Rhode Island School of Design.

Prior to coming to Victorias to do the mural decoration at the behest of his family who owned VMC, Alfonso Ossorio was already a well-known abstract expressionist artist in New York who became friends with famous abstract expressionist artist Jackson Pollock and Clyfford Still.

Ossorio spent 11 months in Victorias City doing the mural decoration. Ossorio used ethyl silicate 40 as painting medium as recommended to him by Ralph Mayer, a paint chemist, to be appropriate for the tropics. The mural which was finished in 1949, has not been retouched until now but the bright colors still looks magnificent.

Ossorio explained in his own words the subject of the mural as follows:

“The subject was worked out in terms of the main action that takes place in the sanctuary, which is the sacrifice of the mass. I had a large seated figure of Christ with hands open, supported by the hands of God the Father that came out of the blue. Adam on one side, Joseph and John the Baptist on the other, Mary, and the beloved disciple, John the Evangelist. Then there were four angels of the Last Judgment, the four trumpeters. And on the beam facing the congregation there was the roll of those who are called, with the triangle, the old Masonic symbol.”

. . .it is the Last Judgment, it’s a continual last judgment with the sacrifice of the mass that is the continual reincarnation of God coming into this world. And it worked out beautifully because the services take place usually very early because of the heat and the church had been oriented so that the sun would come in and strike the celebrant as he stood at the altar with this enormous figure behind him. It worked, if I do say so myself. And although they loathed it at the time it was done it is almost now a place of pilgrimage.”

Indeed, the Church of the Angry Christ has become a cultural religious icon and a symbol of avant garde art. The church features the works of world famous artists that should be preserved for other generations to appreciate. I agree with the many artists who advocate that the church be declared as a Filipino Heritage Site to ensure its preservation.

The church is open to those who want to visit and take a look at the famous mural. Victorias City is 34 kilometers from Bacolod City and can be reached by jeepney or bus. Upon reaching the intersection of the main highway and the road leading to VMC, take a tricycle to the church.

References:

• St. Joseph the Worker Church Brochure
• Alfonso Ossorio interview, 1968 Nov. 19, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
• Panublion – Heritage Site for the Visayan Islands in the Philippines

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