Paules Church

These portals are at the side of the Paules Church, now known as the St. Vincent de Paul Parish, at San Marcelino, Ermita, Manila. Today being Ash Wednesday, ashes are distributed at the Paules church as well as in other parishes in the city. The ashes were made by burning palms from last year’s Palm Sunday. The faithful receive them from the priest or lay minister who makes the Sign of the Cross with the ashes on each person's forehead and says, "Remember, man, that thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return" or some other scriptural passage.

The Padres Paules or missionaries of St. Vincent de Paul arrived in the Philippines in 1862 and were largely responsible for the training and education of the Filipino native clergy. In the latter part of the nineteenth century they were running most of the seminaries in the Philippines.