Established in 1904, San Antonio is a 5th class municipality in the province of Northern Samar, Philippines. Several stories have been told that the place was named three times before it was called San Antonio.
In the start of 19th century, San Antonio is known as a sanctuary of fish and birds, which is why settlers from the mainland of Samar found this place an ideal ground for fishing and hunting. They come to the island to catch fish and hunt birds, and go back after a handful of catch.
People from Bohol and Cebu came to the island in the second half of the 19th century and introduced a method of catching fish using net, commonly known as "laya". With its introduction, the name "Manoglaya" was born, which literally means "mano nga paraglaya" or fishermen using laya.
As new settlers came and built new communities, they changed the name to "Sugod-sugod", a Cebuano derivative meaning "just to start or begin".
The name was changed to "Matabia", but no one knows exactly why it was changed that way. Some people claimed that the word has probably something to do with the knife-like shape of the island.
Having no particular preference to immortalize the name without great significance, Christians decided to change the name to San Antonio and set Saint Anthony of Padua as their patron saint.
0 comments:
Post a Comment