San Simon: named for a governor and an apostle
How the farming village of Barrio del Pilar became San Simon in 1771, and the double meaning behind its name.
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Discover Pampanga Editors · October 2026
Photo: Judgefloro on Wikimedia Commons · Public domain / CC0 · via Wikimedia Commons
In 1770, Don Mariano del Pilar de los Reyes started a farming village between San Luis and Apalit. He called it Barrio del Pilar.
The village grew quickly, and its leading residents petitioned to join a slice of southern San Luis and northern Apalit into a town of their own. On November 15, 1771, Governor-General Simon de Anda y Salazar, then in his second term, approved it.
Two Simons
The new town took a name with two meanings. It honoured Anda, the governor who allowed it, and Simon Peter, Saint Peter the Apostle, patron of Apalit, the mother town that gave up part of its land.
Burned and rebuilt
The young town's path was not smooth. In 1898 retreating forces under General Antonio Luna burned the parish church. In 1904 San Simon was merged into San Luis and only became independent again about three years later; the borders between San Luis, Apalit and San Simon were fixed in 1920. The town began with 8 barrios in 1835 and has had 14 since the late 1940s.
The church was rebuilt in 1979 as Nuestra Señora del Pilar, keeping the name of the village that started it all.
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Nuestra Señora del Pilar Parish Church, San Simon
San Simon's parish of Our Lady of the Pillar, founded in 1771, burned in 1898 and rebuilt by local families in 1979.