Palo Cathedral

The Metropolitan Cathedral of Our Lord's Transfiguration, also known as Palo Metropolitan Cathedral or simply Palo Cathedral, is a Roman Catholic church located at Palo, Leyte in the Philippines belonging to the Vicariate of Palo under the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Palo.HistoryIn 1596, the Jesuits established the church and became their residence for some time. It was later on administered by the Augustinians in 1768 and then by the Franciscans in 1843. The church was repaired in 1850 by the supervision Fr. Agustin de Consuegra who also oversaw the construction of the two towers of the church. On March 25, 1938, the church was declared a cathedral and Msgr. Manuel Mascariñas became its first bishop. During the Second World War, the American liberation forces used the church as a hospital.In November 2013, the cathedral was damaged by Typhoon Haiyan. After the church's rehabilitation, Pope Francis briefly visited the cathedral in January 2015. In 2015, it was declared as one of the pilgrim churches of the archdiocese by Archbishop John F. Du.