With Carigara, Palo was one of the places visited by the Jesuits in 1595. On 15 October, the Jesuit Cristóbal Jiménez arrived in Palo. The following year, the Jesuits founded a mission. Because it was a coastal town, the flourishing community was easily attacked by slavers in 1613, leaving the settlement gravelly ruined. But by mid-century, it had recovered prompting the Jesuits to establish Palo as a residence which included Dagami and Leyte in its jurisdiction, after 1655.

In 1718, the Jesuits built a stone church in Palo; Saderra Masó says that they also built a fort. The year of the Jesuit expulsion (1768) Palo was created a parish, and ceded to the Augustinians who in turn ceded it to the Franciscans in 1843.

In 1850, the Franciscan Agustín de Consuegra replaced the old convento roof, retouched the five retablos in the church, repaired the choir, added a baptistry, built a fence to enclose the plaza, and constructed an outdoor stations of the cross.

In 1890s, Fray Pantaleón de la Fuente, parish priest from 1887 to 1898, built two 2 symmetrical towers in front of the Jesuit façade.

In 1892, He reconstructed the convento and installed clocks made by José de Altonga of Intramuros. Altonga was a well-known clock maker whose works are found in many colonial churches around the islands. Unfortunately many Altonga clocks no longer work. Money for the new construction was raised from the priest’s winnings in the Madrid sweepstakes.

In 1897, A devastating typhoon unroofed the church, destroyed the convento and other houses in town.

Heritage sites: Palo church was totally renovated when the Diocese of Palo was created in 1937 and more so when it was elevated to archdiocese in 1987. It is now the diocesan cathedral. Nothing remains of the twin towers and the façade; and of the five retablos, three remain but greatly renovated. The attractive tabernacle flanked by Renaissance-style gilded angels is a new addition to the altarpiece.

Old pictures of Palo show a single-naved church with windows along the second story of the nave. The church had side entrances and a single main door decorated with the emblems of Jesus and Mary. The twin towers, located before the façade, hide its main lines, but one can see enough of it to discern the commonplace two-story articulation. The pediment, however, is not triangular as expected but rounded. The pediment may have been renovated during Franciscan times.

Of the three remaining old altars, all belong to the florid baroque period although the images appear to be of late 19th- or early 20th-century vintage. They have all been garishly painted in silver and gold. A bas-relief depicting an allegory of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was donated by the church to the Divine Word Museum in Tacloban. Informants say that this was part of an altar to the souls in purgatory. This may in fact be true because the relief shows souls in flames quenched by the blood flowing from Jesus’s side. Stylistically the relief belongs to the 18th century.