Francisco Encinas, S.J., travelled from Dulag to Palo along the eastern coasts, accompanied by the leading principales, Don Alonso Ambuyao and four others.
On the following day, they reached the settlement of Kutay (now, the present site of Palo town proper) on the bank of the Bangon River.
(who was commissioned by Rome to make a visitation of the Philippine Vice-Province) arrived in Tinago, Samar, and proceeded to the mission-stations in Leyte, which led to a Jesuit conference of both island-provinces in Palo.
The following are the Jesuit missionaries who have served Palo beginning at the time when an operarius (a priest in-charge) was assigned: In 1768, the Jesuit in Samar, Leyte and other islands in the Visayas were expelled by King Charles III of Spain by virtue of the royal order called the pragmatic sanction.
The Augustinian Fray Agustin Maria de Castro, O.S.A., described the pueblo of Palo as having six hundred tribute payers.
The church is beautiful and very furnished with carved silver and ornaments and is dedicated to La Transfiguracion del Senor Jesucristo.
In 1843, the Augustinians bequeathed the parish church of Palo to the Franciscans through a royal decree dated October 29, 1837.
It was said that the Church of Palo was visited by Monsignor Martin Alcocer y Garcia, O.F.M, then Bishop of Cebu, in 1892 to solemnize confirmation rites for the parishioners.
Agustin Medalle's tenure as parish priest, the parochial administration of the church was passed down to Juan Pacoli, a native of Paranas, Samar.
Also during that year, Ambrose Agius, O.S.B., who was then the Apostolic Delegate to the Philippines and the representative of the pope, visited the church of Palo.
Here are the following diocesan secular clergy who have served the parish Church of Palo from the period of the transition from 1898 to the present: On November 28, 1937, Palo was separated from its mother diocese, Calbayog and was elevated into a separate diocese comprising the whole province of Leyte by virtue of apostolic decree Si Qua in Urbe issued by Pope Pius XI.
[4] After the war, Bishop Lino Gonzaga decided to expand and renovate the cathedral because of the town's growing population.
[6] A memorial service for the typhoon's casualties was held in the cathedral and the church grounds became a mass burial site.
On Christmas Eve, Pope Francis appointed the Apostolic Nuncio to the country, Giuseppe Pinto, as his papal legate to lead a Midnight Mass at the roofless cathedral and to inspect the damage on churches in Eastern Visayas.
[7] After the church's rehabilitation, Pope Francis briefly visited the cathedral on January 17, 2015, brought about by impending Tropical Storm Mekkhala.
[2] In 2015, it was declared as one of the pilgrim churches of the archdiocese by Archbishop John F. Du in observance of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy.
[13] The Kimball was originally installed in Showalter Hall, of the Eastern Washington University, in two chambers built into the theatre.