The Reverend Father Don Bartolome de Carmen y Gador was the former curra paroco of the San Miguel Archangel Parish of Argao, Cebu.

     Bartolome was born in Moalboal, Cebu, in 1859, to Don Pio Quinto del Carmen and Doña Petrana Gador. His mother, a devout Catholic, was his first teacher. He must have served as a sacristan to the Church of San Juan Nepomuceno of Moalboal for he later decided to become a man of God. He studied in a seminary, possibly in Manila, and later came back to Cebu in the 1870's to become the assistant parish priest in Argao.

     In Argao, he met and became involved with Doña Basilia B. Lucero, a scion of the influential Lucero family of the town. He later fathered a daughter, whom he himself baptized as Teopista Lucero. He succeeded as the Parish Priest of Argao in November of 1898, during a time when the Filipinos were waging the war for independence against Spain.

     He became a powerful force in the town, and became especially close to Basilia's cousin, Don Benigno Lucero. Benigno, who served briefly as a sacristan in the church, later named one of his sons a Bartolome in his friend's honor.

     He also revived the choir, and assigned another cousin of Basilia, Rosa Lucero Sarmago, to head it. He remained close to Basilia in his later years and was said to visit her house constantly.

     Bartolome died at the age of 55 in 1914. His line continues today through the descendants of his daughter, Teopista Lucero-Campaner.