During the administration of many parishes in Cavite by the Jesuits, the Spanish Recollect friars started to buy lands and build haciendas to support their mission. By 1854, the administration of Silang (including Barrio Latag) was handed over to the Recollects. Imus and Dasmariñas were then haciendas owned by them and were also under their spiritual care.

It was customary then for the Spanish religious priests to focus their efforts in the poblacion. It was also a common practice to get Filipino secular clerics who would serve as assistants. They were usually sent to more difficult areas of the parish, usually far from where the center was. Although the road connecting Latag and Silang was too bad, they said masses for the natives and baptized these natives’ children. Filipino priest B. D. Eulogio Fabian is believed to have ministered the people and took care of Latag from 1768 to 1857.

Barrio Latag became an independent town and was named Carmona on February 20, 1857 through a superior decree issued by Ramon Montero, Governor of the Superior Government of the Philippine Islands.

On December 15, 1857, Carmona became an independent parish with St. Joseph as its patron. Fr. Ramon Zueco de San Joaquin became its first Recollect parish priest. The Jesuits who were the former evangelizers must have been influential in choosing St. Joseph as patron of the new town and the Our Lady of the Holy Rosary became its patroness.

The town leaders of Carmona sent a petition to the Governor and Captain General of the Philippines on November 8, 1867 asking for the investment of the communal land tax in the construction of public edifices including the church which at that time was just a small covered hut made of bamboo and in a very bad condition. Although the petition was not initially accepted, a church made of stone and a massive convent was built eventually.