San Mateo, officially the Municipality of San Mateo (), is a 1st class municipality in the province of Rizal, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 273,306. It is bordered by Quezon City to the west, Marikina and Antipolo to the south, and by the Municipality of Rodriguez to the north. San Mateo is approximately east of Manila and north of Antipolo, the provincial capital of Rizal. Conurbated to the urban agglomeration of the Greater Manila Area, San Mateo is one of the fastest-growing municipalities in Rizal Province, according to the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and the Provincial Government of Rizal. It is a commuter hub to Metro Manila. San Mateo is the home of the miraculous image of Our Lady of Aranzazu (Nuestra Señora de Aranzazu). History In his book Conquistas de las Islas Filipinas, Father Gaspar de San Agustín records what is now San Mateo in 1572 to be a satellite settlement of Pasig. He described the inhabitants being “fierce but friendly and of quiet disposition.” Father Juan de Medina, in his account Relación de los Conventos Y Pueblos Fundados por los PP. Agustinos likewise put 1572 as the year the Parish of San Mateo was established. However, according to Miguel López de Legazpi, the first Governor-General of the Philippines from 1571 to 1572, it was his nephew Juan de Salcedo who arrived at the site of the town during an expedition to Manila from Cebu. Accounts say that two years prior, Legazpi sent Salcedo along with 150 soldiers to prepare the inauguration of the City of Manila. It must have been Salcedo who discovered the town before Legazpi inaugurated Manila on June 24, 1571. Still, another account was that of a certain Augustinian named Father Cavada, who said that the first chapel in the islands with Saint Matthew as patron was built by the riverside in 1596 south of the present Población of the town, which was then only a Barrio of Tondo. Saint Matthew thus gave the town his name as the chapel was built on his feast day. What may be gleaned from the above accounts somehow is that San Mateo was discovered sometime in 1571, while its first church was built in 1596. It may be true, too, that the Parish of San Mateo was erected in 1572. Aside from the disagreement over the town’s precise foundation date, there