Situated at the center of the aged town of Agoo, the Basilica of Our Lady of Charity has stood for scores of centuries now as one of the long venerated configurations of the Virgin in the Philippines.

It was founded in 1578 when two zealous Franciscan priests, Fray John Baptist Lucarelli of Pesaro, Italy and Fray Sebastian de San Francisco of Baesa, Spain on the time they got in the country for their evangelical mission. The settlement of the Franciscan Order opened the doors to Agoo’s embrace to God’s supremacy over mankind, making the town the first point of contact with Christianity for the Southern Ilocos region.