In 1596 a mission was founded in Inabanga by the Jesuits. Like Talibon, it was administered in Jesuit times from the Colegio de San Ildefonso in Cebu. La Iglesia de San Pablo de Inabanga was founded by Fr. Silvestre Puigvert, S.J. in 1726.[1] It was passed on to the Recollects in 1768 and they remained its pastors until 1898. One of the significant events in the history of this parish was the Dagohoy rebellion which is considered the longest revolt in the Philippine history. In the year 1744, Francisco Sendrijas alias Dagohoy started this revolt that was to last for eighty nine years. The cause of this was an incident, in which the brother of Dagohoy was killed. Father Gaspar Morales, the Jesuit curate of Inabanga ordered that his brother, who was a constable, to capture a man who had left the Christian religion. The constable pursued the fugitive, but then was killed by him in a duel. However, when his body was brought back to town, the Jesuit refused the constable a Christian burial. Infuriated at the priest, Francisco Dagohoy organized the people in an armed rebellion. The uprising started on 24 January 1744 with the killing of the Italian Jesuit curate of Jagna, Father Guiseppe Lamberti. Not long after that, Dagohoy also killed Father Morales, and the rebellion swept over the entire island. By 1829, the rebellion ceased.
The church is ideally situated on an elevated area beside the banks of the Inabanga River. Stone embankments protect the site. An earlier church of stone was built during Jesuit times but it was burnt probably during the Dagohoy revolt. The church was in bad condition and so was the adjoining convento. A new stone church was completed in 1899 but this was burnt by Americans in 1902 in retaliation for the attack on the garrison at Tubigon. The church is composed of various materials, the last being concrete, introduced by the secular priest Fr. Quiterio Sarigumba in 1931. The church uses gothic elements in the façade and has a portico in front of the entrance. The interior is disappointingly modern, except for the murals of the Garces brothers, done in the style of Canuto Avila and Ray Francia.
St. Paul Parish was part of the Diocese of Tagbilaran which was established on November 8, 1941 separating it from Cebu, its mother diocese. On January 9, 1986, the new Diocese of Talibon was created, separating half of Bohol from the Diocese of Tagbilaran. St. Paul Parish of Inabanga is located at the northwestern boundary of this diocese. At present it is composed of 33 barangays with and estimated 28,000 parishioners.
[1] Jose Maria Luengo, A History of the Philippines: A Focus on the Christianization of Bohol (Tubigon, Bohol: Mater Dei Publications, 1991), 229.
