Sogod, Southern Leyte
The name of the municipality originated from the Cebuano word, "sogod", meaning ""to start."" Founded as a Catholic mission station by the Society of Jesus in 1601, Sogod became a regular municipality on June 10, 1853.
Sogod, Southern Leyte
With the founding of the town and "residencia" of Jilongos in 1737, the Leyte mission was already divided into three residencies. The other two were Carigara and Dagami. Jilongos had then the settlements of Palompon, Poro, Ormoc, Baybay, Maasin, Cabalian, Hinundayan and Sogod as its annex "visitas". As a consequence of the 1754 sacking, the "visitas" of Buntuk, Sogod and Maak were incorporated to the newly-established municipality of Maasin, which was guarded by a stone fortification equipped with "lantakas", from 1755 to 1768. [The historian Manuel Artigas states that Sogod was a premier "visita" of Maasin from 1774 to 1785]. Due to its distance from the "poblacion", the parish priests of Cabalian and Maasin would take turns in administering the mission station of Sogod. "Padre" Joaquin Romeo would be the last Jesuit to administer the mission stations of Hinundayan, Cabalian and Sogod when all the Jesuit missionaries were suppressed from all colonies of Spain in May 19, 1768.