The Spaniards and the inhabitants as well, valued the spring so much that they erected the Catholic Church, one of the remaining vestiges of the Spanish Rule in the country.

Up to latter part of the 16th century, 1795, Sta. Catalina was a part of Vigan, then called Ciudad Fernandina, founded by Juan Salcedo, the Grandson of Miguel Lopez de Legazpi. The other towns were part of Vigan were San Vicente and Caoayan. These informations were gathered from the archives at the Archbishop’s Palace at Vigan. The Holy Cross, planted in barangay Cabittaogan attests that Sta. Catalina was the mooring place for boats (rafts), thus, a very impertinent of Vigan. But it was only in 1795 that the late Bishop Juan Ruiz made Sta. Catalina a Parish. There was no assigned Parish Priest then, so the clergy of Vigan did the administration. Seeing that the Parish could well stand on its own, the next Bishop, Most Rev. Pedro Blacquier, appointed the Parish Priest in 1800, in the person of Rev. Fr. Manuel de los Reyes. At the start there were only 3,000 inhabitants. By nature a devoted community, these people were fond of remembering their dead. So in 1837, during the incumbency of Rev. Vicente Villanueva, the “Gofradiade las Almas Benditas del Purgatorio” was establish. The people have, since then, always devoted to the God. Although there was no written record as to the exact founding of Sta. Catalina, it can be calculated from reports, verbal and written, that the town was founded sometime in the latter part of the 16th century.