Towards the end of the 1980s the TOR Province of Assisi, Italy, promoted vocations in the Philippines. Four young men replied to the invitation. Out of the four, two became priests, Dante Anhao and Milestone Japin. Dante Anhao (still a deacon at that time) together with Carlo Stradaioli and Marcello Fadda, came to the Philippines in 1997. They were welcomed by Bishop Emilio Bataclan, the Ordinary of the Diocese of Iligan. This was the beginning of the TOR Philippine Mission under the Assisi Province.
The small community of three friars has grown in number as some young men came and received formation. Nilo Laput, a diocesan priest, who stayed with a local Franciscan community in Labason, Zamboanga del Norte, through the invitation of former Minister General, Bonaventure Midili, came to join the new community in 1999. He received his novitiate formation in Assisi, Italy. Alvin Galicia, a former member of Laput's community in Labason, came later and also did his novitiate formation in Italy.
At first the friars and their candidates lived in two semi-concrete houses before the establishment of a permanent friary and formation house in 2005. By this time, the temporary professed friars studied theology at St. John Vianney Theological Seminary (SJVTS) in Cagayan de Oro, a city about eighty kilometers from Iligan. In 2007, George Mailadil, a friar from Ranchi Province, India, came to help in the formation of the friars in theology in Cagayan de Oro.
In 2009, with the support of George Mailadil, it was decided that the theological studies of the Junior Friars will be transferred from Saint John Vianney Theological Seminary (SJVTS) to St. Alphonsus Theological and Mission Institute (SATMI) in Davao City. Davao City is around 4,000 kilometers away from Iligan or Cagayan de Oro. At first, they were renting a house in the city while a simple house was constructed in a two-hectare land in Indangan.
On January 6, 2012, the small TOR Philippine Mission was raised to the status of a Delegation, placing them directly under the TOR Generalate in Rome in terms of administration and decisions. The statutes of the new delegation was drafted and was approved by the General Minister on March 20, 2012. The name of the new delegation is The Delegation of Saints Cosmas and Damian.
