Liz Smailes travels to Pasig, metro Manila for a worshiping ritual of paramount importance to the community. An estimated 85% of Filipinos follow the catholic religion; hence the act of reli­gious sacrifice remains beyond measure.

The recent Feast of the Black Nazarene (Janu­ary 9) is demonstrative of a long-held practice of Filipino Catholics in the Philippines. Through an enduring faith in the Black Nazarene, they believe there will be peace and harmony among families, long life and good health among people, deliverance from all calamities and disasters, and love among nations. But this is just one act of worship within the Catholic belief highly re­vered in the Philippines. Almost four centuries after the Church of Pasig was founded, the Marian tradi­tion lives on in the hearts of the community.

Celebrating Spring and New Life Stemming from an ancient pagan holiday going back to the time of the Celts, May Day is seen as the celebration of springtime. Similarly, the Romans celebrated “Florialia” (Festival of Flowers) for 6 days at the end of April and the beginning of May. Many of the customs of May Day today originate from the Roman and Greek celebrations such as gathering flowers and weaving them into wreaths or head garlands.

Celebrations of spring in most European communities sees homes decorated with the first blooming of flowers and selecting a Queen of May. The original custom was to have women first wash their faces in the early morning with the dew on May 1st. They believed that by doing this, it would improve their complexions and bring them eternal youthfulness.

In gathering flowers as offerings to the goddess, Maia – the ancient goddess of growth and spring -Roman children made symbolic May Dolls, known as “Flora” and decorated her with flowers. After Christianity was introduced into Rome, offerings to May Dolls found further significance and today they have become floral offerings to the Virgin Mary. For one family in the Philippines, over sixty years ago the May Day spirituality presented its full powers when they offered a child for life or death.

Miracles Do Happen

The true story of that family begins in the early 1940s. A young man and his wife gave birth to a baby boy, but after three months of bliss one morning the couple awoke to find their son had entered a permanent state of rest. Devas­tated and bereaved, they continued their daily struggle for life and gathered courage to give birth to a second son. This time, after just two months the couple was once again fated with yet another loss.

Understandably, the couple had now lost faith and still had many ques­tions unanswered. When the mother gave birth a third time, to a girl, she remained skeptical of Christian faith, while the father retained hope, belief and honor with his religious following. When after just one month the little baby girl developed a relentless cough, began turning paler and paler by the day, the couples’ hearts were filled with an overwhelming sense of sadness and yet more grief preparing for what they expected would be another loss of life.

It was the night of April 30th when the father and grandmother took the baby to their local catholic church in central Cuzos. Laying the child on the altar at the foot of the Divine Providence Blessed Virgin Mary, the father plead her to either take the child quickly and end their sufferings, or bless the child by returning it to health and into their household for a strong and long life.

By this time the baby was almost blue and cold to the marrow. The father had little hope of returning to find his daugh­ter alive, and so he left the church that evening with his own mother, leaving the baby with the Blessed Virgin Mary. The following morning the father and grand­mother returned with a coffin and funeral dress for the baby but were greeted with a rosy cheeked child, in good health and kicking her way free of the blankets. Still alive today in her late 60s she never fails to visit a church on May 1st, regardless of which country she happens to be in, and offers thanks to the Blessed Virgin Mary for granting her health, life and a strong family of her own.

Worshiping Mary

Catholic Church exalts Mary as an ide­a-larger-than-life, mother and to Catholic doctrine, Mary is the co­-mediator to whom we can entrust all our cares and petitions. When Pope Paul II was shot, while the ambulance was rushing him to the hospital, the Pope was not praying to God or call­ing on the name of Jesus. He kept saying, over and over, “Mary, my mother!” Polish pilgrims placed a picture of Our Lady of Czestochowa on the throne where the Pope normally sat. People gathered around the picture. Vatican loudspeak­ers broadcasted the prayers of the rosary. When the Pope recovered, he gave Mary all the glory for saving his life, and he made a pilgrimage  to Fatima  (Portugal) to publicly thank her.

Millions of pilgrims go to shrines that honor apparitions of Mary. Every year fifteen to twenty million pilgrims go to Guadalupe in Mexico, five and a half million go to Lourdes in France, five million go to Czestochowa (Jasna Gora) in Poland, and four and a half million go to Fatima in Portugal. Spe­cial dates draw huge crowds. On August 15, half a million pilgrims go to Czestochowa. On October 13, a million people go to Fatima. On December 12, over five million pilgrims go to Mexico to honor Our Lady of Guadalupe. The Blessed Virgin Mary of Pasig may be one of the latest additions to the pilgrims’ trail.

Canonization of Blessed Virgin Mary, Pasig Church

On the morning of September 29, 2008 the image of the Blessed Virgin was brought down from Her throne and in to the Museo Diocesano de Pasig for restoration where a series of divine manifestations occurred. While clean­ing the sacred image it was found that only the sculpture was filled with dirt, stain and dust but Her face was immaculately clean. Furthermore a subtle scent of very fine wood was detected from under her “Peana” (the base where the image stands); the wood is over a century old and generally considered to be too aged for it to emanate any scent.

During this period of restoration, while scraping the image clean a strong rose flower scent spread from the image that filled the whole museum. The “Manto” (cape) and the “Tunica” (Tunic) uncovered its true colors in royal blue and light yellow respec­tively with thick gold leaf trimmings, which unknowingly coincides with the design of the image “Aureola” (halo) for Her canonical coronation.

Adding to other numerous revelations, on November 18, 2008 at 2:30am working to complete the restoration in time for the Christmas celebrations w angels singing heavenly music were overheard. Again, at around midnight o 22, 2008 while finalizing the restoration, the two workers reported seeing a ch out from Her back as if guarding the image, rejoicing and giving thanks to w done to the blessed image.

A Canonical Coronation

On December 7th, 2008, a canonical coronation was granted to Our Lady of Immaculate Conception, who has been the patroness of Pasig since the August rived in 1571. His Eminence Edward Joseph Adams, apostolic delegate of th to the Philippines, conducted the ceremony and Fr. Roy Rosales, rector an priest, explains that the Pasig parish is the first Marian parish in Asia.

The Catholic custom of crowning images is an ancient practice, originating in when Alejandro Sfortia, Marquis of Placencia died, leaving in his will a pro in which a large sum of money was to be invested and the proceeds to form a for the purchase of crowns of precious metals for the coronation of the mos ebrated images in the world. In the West it was at the end of the 16th century the practice became widespread for the faithful, both religious and laity, to cro images of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Pope not only endorses this custom b on many occasions, either personally or through bishop-delegates, carries o the coronation of specific images of the Virgin Mary.

The Manto Vast sums of money are spent on jeweled crowns and lavish clothing for sp statues of Mary. Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception of Pasig is no excep­tion to this with lavish artwork and craftsmanship carried out for the crow and mantle.

The mantle is prepared with four layers: first is the beso manto made of very fine white lace. By its Spanish name, its purpose is to be kissed by the faith­ful. Extended to the back of the camarin, it is 60 inches in width and has a length of 12 feet. The second layer is a thicker manto of blue Vietnamese silk satin purposely prepared to give body to the overall manto of the virgin. Its length is nine feet and has a width of 10 feet.

The most expensive mantle is the third, which is made of fine handcrafted gilded floral threads accentuated by boullion threads on pina cloth and silk organza. This royal bearing. This manto is 8 feet in length and 9 feet wide. The fourth and last layer is the Tocado or Toca Sobremanto which is a small piece of pi?a cloth found at the crown portion of the image. This is made to hold the papal blessed gold crown of the image. This manto is a half-moon shaped of 3 feet by 3.5 feet.

The mantle was made by Ferdie Mopon of San Jose  del Monte, Bulacan, a young experienced artist  trained by well-known workers of and  in the  tradition  of Maximo Vicente,  a  respected image  carver.  The  manto  took  almost  three months  to prepare because of  its delicate hand embroidery. The design is inspired by Pasig flora frequently  and more  traditionally used during the Spanish period. Te design follows the pattern of agos – a continuous flow of embroidery without any planned pattern design.

The Crown

Should you be planning on attending a pilgrim-The crown, a valued Pasig treasure, was hand-age worshiping Mary anywhere in the world, crafted in the filigree style and together with its you can expect to observe pilgrims walking in intricate design and the infusion of the various a procession following a statue of Our Lady and sizes of pear and round brilliant stones, it had to singing songs in her honor. You may see people be a true beauty to behold befitting the crown-weeping and raising their arms towards Mary ing of the sacred statue.

To complete the Marian crowning, a matching Halo was also commissioned to the central jewelry by the same family from Pasig who undertook the restoration of the antique crown. The Halo design was basically patterned after the details found in the crown. After previously working on about six other designs in a span of 3 months, the pursuit to achieve the perfect one was relentless.

Not to be overlooked in the final design is the “sampaguita” (national fower of the  Philippines) found on the veil and cape of the antique image which can likewise be seen on the Halo as twelve stars cum “sampaguita” representing the twelve tribes of Israel.

Crafted to match the antique crown, the Halo also contains twelve medals of the different attributes of our Blessed Mother  such  as, Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, Our Lady of Fatima, Our Lady of the Miraculous medal to name a few.

Pilgrimages

A catholic pilgrimage is a journey to a religious place for devotion and The Pilippines is slowly joining churches, cathedrals and shrines, such as those found in Italy, Spain and Portugal, France, Ireland, Greece,  Eastern  Europe  and America. Should you be planning on attending a pilgrimage  worshiping Mary  anywhere  in  the  world, you  can expect  to observe pilgrims walking in a procession following a statue of Our Lady and singing songs in her honor. You may see people weeping and raising  their  arms  towards Mary and  probably  a  large  assembly  of  bishops and cardinals. There are many traditional ways of expressing devotion to Mary. Catholic  theologians  speak of  three degrees of homage; Latria  is  the kind of worship that is due to God alone. Dulia is appropriate for honoring the saints. Hyperdulia is appropriate for honoring Mary.