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Francisco de la Cuesta

Su Excelencia Reverendísima
Francisco de la Cuesta
Arzobispo de Manila
FranciscodelaCuesta.jpg
Province Manila
See Manila
Installed August 12, 1707
Term ended July 25, 1721
Predecessor Diego Camacho y Ávila
Successor Ángel Rodríguez, O.SS.T.
Personal details
Born 1661
Colmenar, outskirt of Madrid
Died May 30 1724 (aged 62–63)
Michoacan, Mexico
Nationality Spain Spanish
Denomination Roman Catholic
Styles of
Arzobispo Francisco de la Cuesta
Mitre (plain).svg
Reference style Monseñor
Spoken style Su Excelencia Reverendísima
Religious style Reverendísimo
Su Excelencia
Francisco de la Cuesta
Governor-General of the Philippines
1719-1721
In office
October 11, 1719 – August 6, 1721
Monarch Philip V of Spain
Preceded by Fernando Manuel de Bustillo Bustamante y Rueda
Succeeded by Toribio José Cosio y Campo

Francisco de la Cuesta (1661 – May 30, 1724), O.S.H. was the 12th Archbishop of Manila from 1707 to 1722, and Spanish Governor-General of the Philippines from 1719 to 1721.

Francisco de la Cuesta was born in Colmenar, outskirt of Madrid. He was a master of theology and a preacher to the King of Spain. He was from the Order of Saint Jerome.

He was appointed as Archbishop of Manila on 1706 and was consecrated in Mexico on August 12, 1707. As archbishop, he tried to enforce the episcopal visitation upon the order of Pope Clement XI but was opposed by the friars. As a result, he was forced to wait for their reports to Rome.

de la Cuesta came in conflict with Fernando Bustamante, the Governor-General at that time. Tensions climaxed when the governor’s soldiers stormed the Manila Cathedral, thereby violating the right of sanctuary. The violation was due to the governor’s orders to recover the government inventories and official records held by a notary public who was then taking refuge in the cathedral. The series of troubles with the ecclesiastics led to the arrest and imprisonment of the archbishop, the Dominican friars, and all other clerics who support the Archbishop.

On October 11, 1719, according to popular account, angry friars led by the Franciscans, Dominicans and Augustinians instigated a siege on the Palacio del Gobernador|Governor's Palace as a show of support for the imprisoned archbishop. In the terror and confusion of the palace guards, the now defenseless Bustamante and his son were murdered by the friars. De la Cuesta was released afterwards.

However, according to Fr. Prof. Dr. Fidel Villarroel, a respected Spanish historian, master theologian of the Dominican Order and former archivist at the University of Santo Tomas, Hidalgo was misled by some advisers to wrongly portray the Spanish missionaries as the promoters of the tragic murder. Antonio Regidor, a mason prominent for his anticlerical sentiments, was the painter’s adviser. Villarroel goes further by concluding that at the moment of the assassination of the governor, the friars were far away from the scene. They were imprisoned together with the Archbishop prior to the assassination by the mob.


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