section_path: History/Missions/Philippines
section_name: Philippines
paragraph_text: Philippines
  
  The Order of Saint Augustine is the oldest of the four main Catholic Religious Orders: mainly the Augustinians, the Franciscans, the Jesuits, and the Augustinian Recollects; that participated in Missions to the Philippines, with the Augustinian Chaplain, Rev. Fr. Pedro de Valderrama, present in the year 1519 Magellan expedition and he witnessed the conversion of Cebu's Rajah from Hinduism to Christianity. The Augustinians founded and are the caretakers of the oldest stone church in the Philippines, the San Agustin Church (Manila), which survived despite the British Occupation of Manila, the Philippine Revolution against Spain, the Philippine-American War, and the Japanese Occupation of the Philippines. The Augustinians also baptized Agustin de Legazpi of Tondo from Islam to Christianity.The choice of Agustin as baptismal name alludes to Saint Augustine of Hippo a Christian North African saint from Algeria, back when Algeria was once Catholic before it was conquered by Sunni Muslims. Miguel López de Legazpi, Agustin de Legazpi's baptismal godfather was a fervent Christian who mourned the loss of North Africa from Christianity to Islam and sought to do the reverse in the Philippines.: 77 He advocated Augustinian Spirituality, wherein rather than being focused on fallen Old Jerusalem of the broken City of Man, one should focus on the heavenly New Jerusalem, and manifest it with your actions, in which case Old Jerusalem was the Christian lands in the Middle East and North Africa which fell to Islam, and Legazpi's New Jerusalem, being Muslim lands in the Philippines, Miguel López de Legazpi, conquers for Christianity. Andrés de Urdaneta, the Augustinian Chaplain of the Legazpi expedition, also discovered the return route from the Philippines to Mexico, which allowed for the further colonization and settlement of the Philippines by colonists and officials from Mexico and Spain. The Augustinian Friar, Rev. Fr. Tomas Santaren nevertheless recorded the history of the precolonial kingdom called the Kedatuan of Madja-as in his book entitled "Bisayan Accounts of Early Bornean Settlements" (created in 1858, published in 1902). Furthermore, the Augustinians are now caretakers of the oldest Catholic religious relic in the Philippines, the Santo Niño de Cebú The Order of Saint Augustine also maintains the University of San Agustin in Iloilo City, the First Augustinian University in the Asia-Pacific.