Viva la Virgen!
Posted by Filipino Cultured - Art, Entertainment, Culture, and Inspiration on Friday, September 21st, 2007 @ 11:41 pm in Entertainment.
This article is about the Holy Virgin Mary procession, one of the most revered religious events in the Philippines.
Viva la Virgen!
Saturday, September 22, 2007
The biggest Marian pageant in
RP happens in PeñafranciaThe miraculous image of the Virgin of Peñafrancia,
patroness of the Bicol region in southern Luzon, is one of the most revered
Marian images in the Philippines.
Less than one meter high, this beautiful
17th century statue is a manifestation of the Virgin as Queen of Heaven rather
than Mother of God, although she carries the Holy Infant in one arm. She is thus
arrayed as a royal lady in splendid garments of silver and gold, with a
magnificent jeweled crown on her head. The crown was originally a simple gold
crown but so many rich people donated jewels the moment they learned there was
going to be a coronation, it eventually became quite elaborate.
From 1925
until the outbreak of World War II, the Virgin wore this jeweled crown on her
feast day, which is celebrated on the third Sunday of September, but after the
war, church authorities deemed it wiser to deposit the crown in a bank vault and
to put a replica in its place.
The Peñafrancia in Naga is a "native Virgin"
meaning it was not one of the images brought into the country by Spanish
missionaries. It was carved in local wood by a Filipino sculptor who copied it
from a picture shown to him by a Dominican priest. According to church
authorities, the image in Naga dates back to the year 1710 and is therefore
considerably older than the one now contained in the Peñafrancia shrine in
Salamanca, Spain.
Miracles
It is interesting to note that while the
original statue was unearthed near the province of Caceres, in Spain, the
Philippine replica is enshrined in a place once called Nueva Caceres, or New
Caceres, Naga to local residents. Public devotion to the Virgin of Peñafrancia
started in the country in 1710 when Miguel de Cubarrubias whose own devotion to
the Lady began during his student days, was appointed as parish priest of Nueva
Caceres. Cubarrubias fell seriously ill several times while studying for the
priesthood and each time he would place a picture of the Peñafrancia on his body
and implore her to cure him. The blessed Virgin always answered his prayers.
"So many are the miracles wrought on me by the Virgin of Peñafrancia that I
have no tongue to relate them, no paper on which to write them, nor numbers to
count them," Cobarrubias wrote in his diary.
The young priest vowed to build
a chapel for his patroness on the banks of the Pasig River but after he was
assigned to the parish of Nueva Caceres (Naga), he decided to build one near the
Bicol River instead.
The present shrine in Bicol is believed to have been
constructed in 1750 by Bishop Isidro Arevalo. The façade was originally
decorated with Chinese art, a tribute from Chinese devotees of the Virgin and it
was they who first thought of constructing a floating pagoda for the fluvial
procession and who contributed to the building of one for the first of several
river processions. Later, the pagoda became the annual contribution of a rich
and devout Bicol family.
In recent years, however, the townspeople have
assumed the cost of the pagoda and other expenses incurred in the conduct of the
festival.
The Peñafrancia Festival is considered the biggest Marian pageant
in the Philippines. The religious observance begins on the second Friday of
September or nine days before the actual feast day, when the Virgin is carried
from her shrine to the City’s cathedral where she reigns in solemn splendor for
the duration of the novena.
Colorful ritual
This ritual transfer is known
as the translucion and during the two–kilometer trek, male devotees vie for the
honor of carrying the Virgin on their shoulders. The spectacle is best viewed
from an upper storey window for it is truly a sight to behold: all those eager
arms stretching up from a sea of human bodies, reaching desperately to touch the
Virgin as drowning men clutch at a floating object.
The Virgin is floating.
Borne on a wave after wave of suntanned shoulders, she sways this way and that,
sometimes coming perilously close to capsizing on the uneven currents of her
cargadores (bearers).
On the last day of the novena, which falls on the third
Saturday of September, the Virgin journeys back to her shrine via the river
route. She is placed aboard an elaborate pagoda and rowed down river by an all
male crew, escorted by a flotilla of bamboo rafts and outriggers gaily decorated
with banners. Those who are unable to join the fluvial procession jam the banks
of the river and the bridge that spans to view the proceedings.
Eagerly,
impatiently, they wait for signs of the approach of the magnificent image.
Suddenly, shouts of "Viva la Virgen" tells them that their patroness has come
forth. And there she is — beautiful as the moon in her finery, radiant with the
veneration of centuries, as awe-inspiring as any conquering figure with her
bannered armada and towering pagoda.
"Viva la Virgen" the crowd chants in
enthusiastic welcome, for the Lady after all is coming home.
