Cagsawa Ruins

The 1,200 people, who sought refuge in the town’s church, thinking they would be saved, all perished when it was engulfed in the red-hot lava flows.

It was said that the word Cagsawa comes from two words, kag means “one who owns”

and sawa has two meanings, “python” or “snake charmer” and “too much or overmuch.” Fr. Francisco Aragoneses, OFM, the former curate of Cagsawa and Budiao, asserted that the name was because of the over-indulgence of the people during that time, and that the 1814 eruption of Mayon Volcano could have been meant as God’s punishment for the people’s over-indulgence similar to the great flood of the Old Testament.