San Agustin: art and history 1571-2000 / Pedro G. Galende.

The Augustinians arrived in the Philippines in 1565,forty-four years after Magellan landed on the islands. On May 19, 1571 mass was said in the first wooden church set up by the Augustinians in Intramuros. San Agustin would be built and rebuilt out of nipa and wood three times, until finally it was built of stone and mortar over a twenty-year period (1587-1607). It would withstand centuries of fire and earthquakes, undergo pirate raids and occupations by the British and the Japanese armies, but it would survive to become the venerable institution that it is today. San Agustin was the mother church built in the heart of Intramuros. It was the first to be built, and the one that would outlast all others. For this reason, it has rightly been called "a permanent miracle in stone." It now holds a unique and special place in Manila. It is the first place to visit, a haven of peace, a temple of worship and a treasure house of ecclesiastical art.