Gomburza is the collective name given to three Filipino priests—Mariano Gómez, José Burgos, and Jacinto Zamora—who struggled in the mid-1800’s for independence of the Filipino Catholic Church from Spanish control. The three priests were arrested and executed by the Spanish colonial government in 1872. The word Gomburza is made from a combination of the three men’s surnames. Gomburza is also the name of an organization founded in 1979 that supports social reform in the Philippines.
The three priests were the leaders of a movement to transfer the administration of the Roman Catholic Church from Spanish colonists to Filipino priests. After an uprising in early 1872 in the Cavite province, the three priests were arrested and denounced as enemies of the government. On Feb. 17, 1872, after a mock trial on charges regarding their involvement in the Cavite rebellion, the three priests were publicly executed. The archbishop of Manila, Meliton Martinez, accepted the priests’ claims of innocence and refused to expel them from the priesthood. The three have since been remembered as martyrs by the Filipino people.
Mariano Gómez de los Ángeles
(1799-1872) completed a theological degree at the University of Santo Tomas. He was appointed parish priest of Bacoor in the Cavite province in 1824. In 1846, Gómez was named archbishop’s vicar, overseeing many Dominican and Recollect friars in the province. He organized a group of Filipino priests to help in the movement to return the control of the parishes from the Spanish religious orders to the Filipino people.
Gómez did not confine his work to spiritual matters. He also drew attention to the economic conditions of the people and taught them to increase rice production. He introduced the process of salt-making and provided people with capital by extending loans without interest.
José Apolonio Burgos y García
(1837-1872) was the youngest and most outspoken of the three priests. He was a curate at the cathedral in Manila and a chaplain at Manila University. Burgos was the author of Manifesto Addressed to the Noble Nation of Spain by the Loyal Filipinos (1864), which attacked the Spanish church friars who did not give the Filipino clergy proper recognition. Although his father was Spanish, Burgos considered himself Filipino and dedicated himself to defending the Filipino cause. He was known as a cura indígena (native priest).
Other books by Burgos include The Cultivation of Intelligence in Our Country (1868), which dealt with problems in the school system in the Philippines, and In the Wake of Blood (1869), which traced the history of abuse in the Filipino Catholic Church. Burgos also wrote letters that were published in the Madrid newspaper La Discusión in 1870, complaining of injustices to the Filipino people.
Jacinto Zamora y del Rosario
(1835-1872) studied theology and canon (church) law at the University of Santo Tomas, completing his studies in 1858. He was selected as a curate at the Manila Cathedral in 1864 with Burgos, after passing an examination given by the archbishop. Zamora was reported to have defied the Franciscan friars by celebrating a High Mass scheduled to be run by Franciscans. The Spanish church authorities expected Filipino priests to act only as their assistants.
