Naga is one of the five oldest cities erected by the Spanish colonizers in the Philippines. (Manila, Cebu, Vigan and Iloilo.) The heart of Bicol, it is the seat of a nine-day religious and civic festivities. The feast of the Patroness of Bicolandia. The Virgin of Peña de Francia.
The religious rites begin with the traslacion of her miraculous image, on the Friday immediately following September 8, Mary's birthday, from the Basilica to the Metropolitan Cathedral for a novena of Masses. Each of the seven dioceses in the six provinces of Bikol—Camarines Norte, Albay, Sorsogon, Catanduanes and Masbate, one each, and Camarines Sur, two—has its special day.
It is concluded with the regional concelebrated Mass at the Basilica immediately after the fluvial procession of the Image back to her shrine along the Naga river, the following Saturday, nine days later.
There is one indubitable point of unity among the Bicolanos. Their unstinted devotion to the Virgin Mary whom they intimately, fondly call Ina. Mother!
And wherever Bicolano communities are found, from Abra thru Manila, to Zamboanga in the Philippines, from California to Florida in the U.S. or anywhere in the world, every September, they remember the Mystical Maiden of Naga.
Remembering is sensing a voice, touch, scent, scene. A cherished video in one's mind. Of someone far away in time, or space. From an icon, a statue or a narrative.
This is how we remember a maiden who lived twenty centuries ago. In Nazareth, in the Middle East, Mary of the House of David. Daughter of Joaquin and Ana. Mother of Jesus, the Christ, Whose Birth became the reckoning point of modern time - "B.C." before Christ, and "A.D.", Anno Domini, the year of our Lord. Who suffered under the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. And, in fulfillment of the Scriptures, rose again from the dead.
From the eye-witness account of the crucifixion in the year 33 A.D., part of His Last Will and Testament, is that moment when Jesus said to Mary, His mother, "behold thy son" and, turning to John, his disciple, "behold thy mother!" And Mary became mother of all mankind.
She is mother of all - those who believe, to whom "no explanation is necessary" and those who do not believe, to whom "no explanation is possible."
Praying is communicating. Person to person. There has to be a common point of contact. It could be purely mental. Thus difficult. Like conversing with God, the Father. Pure spirit. Unseen. Unsensed. One tends towards Hollywood imagery - Charlton Heston, as Moses, and the burning bush, the flash of lightning, the rolling thunder, in the movie, "Ten Commandments".
That is why it is easier to talk with the Son. For once, He, too, walked upon this earth. As Man. Somehow, we know Him. And with faith, like Peter, walk too, upon the waters - sense His presence with us then, now and till time is no more.
But it is easiest to talk with Mary. For she was only human. Like us. The centuries have passed unto us, varied images of her. For remembering is subjective. And corresponds to the degree of need that caused us to remember.
Thus, the most remembered, the most beloved, is her image as mother. Love and understanding, care and compassion; teacher, protector, mediatrix all rolled into one word - Mother!
As humans, we touch, kiss, embrace an image of, or a token from, the absent beloved. The point of contact for remembering. We prefer some of our own pictures over others. So, too, knowing the loving labor that went into the making of an image or statue of hers, Mary must have a favorite few. And willed these tangible tokens as the physical, oftentimes miraculous point of contact between her and her children.
A lost treasure in the land of the rabbits
About the 6th century B.C., the Carthaginians from North Africa, settled in the Iberian peninsula and named it Spania, "the land of rabbits". Rome defeated them during the second Punic War, between 218 and 201 B.C., and Spain became the Roman colony of Hispania.
After 429 A.D., Spain was ruled by the Visigoths who followed Arianism, a heretical form of Christianity. But by 589 A.D., the Visigoths adopted Catholicism as their official state religion.
The Moors invaded Spain in 711 A.D. And by 718 A.D., all of Spain, except the north and northwest areas, were ruled by the Moors. The unconquered areas eventually developed into the Christian kingdoms of Asturias, Leon, Castile, Navarre and Aragon.
These became the beachhead for seven centuries of intermittent wars of reconquest. By 1248 A.D., only the kingdom of Granada was left to the Moors.
By 1474, Spain was unified under King Ferdinand V, of Aragon, who in 1469, had married Queen Isabela I of Castile. In 1492, Ferdinand and Isabela, known as the Catholic Monarchs, conquered Granada. That same year, they sponsored Christopher Columbus' expedition to the New World.
Spain is a mountainous country. Between the cities of Salamanca (1970 pop. 122,241) and Santiago de Compostela ('70;65,270), about 300 kilometers northwest, as the crow flies, is the Sierra de Peña Negra. Near Salamanca is a village called San Martin de Castañar which is at the base of a high hill of rock named by the natives as Peña de Francia.
During the Moorish wars the villagers buried their church bell, sacred images and treasures in the hill of Peña de Francia. Their village was invaded, their warriors slain, their buildings levelled. And their sacred images lost to oblivion.
The hunter
A holy maiden of Sequeros, Juana Fernandez, before she died of a plague that wiped out her village in 1424, foretold that a holy hermit would find a sacred image of the Madonna and Child which had lain buried for almost 200 years in the mountains of Peña de Francia.
In Paris, France, on September 4, 1384, Simon Vela was born. He became the sole heir of his affluent family. But being a devotee of the Blessed Virgin, he entered the 3rd Order of St. Francis, in Paris, as a servant.
Mystically inspired, he set off for the western mountains of France seeking a buried image of the Virgin in "Peña de Francia, where the sun sets".
Five years of fruitless search passed. So he joined pilgrims bound for the tomb of the patron saint of Spain, Santiago de Compostela, in Santiago, in the northwest region of Galicia, Spain. But no one could tell him where Peña de Francia was. So, he then went to Salamanca, site of one of Europe's leading institutions of learning. Perhaps, the learned in the university, knew.
While at the market place of Salamanca, he heard a vendor talk about the good quality of his coal "because it came from Peña de Francia". Simon followed that vendor to the village of San Martin de Castañar. There, by the Church, the hill of Peña de Francia was pointed to him.
On May 19,1434, guided by persistent dreams, Simon found the buried statue of the Madonna and Child.
The official depositions given by Simon and his companions, attest that upon touching, kissing, and embracing the holy Image, they were instantly cured of their ailments: Simon, of his head wound; Pascual Sanchez, of his partial blindness; Antonio Fernandez, of his limping and deafness; Juan Fernandez, of his ten-year abdominal ailment; and Benito Sanchez, the village scribe, of his curled, hardened fingers.
Thru the centuries, the miraculous image became the object of devotion and pilgrimage under the title of Virgin of Peña de Francia.
A chapel for the cimmarones
In the 17th century, a Spanish family from San Martin de Castañar came to the Philippines and settled in Cavite. A son, Miguel de Robles Covarrubias, studied at the University of Santo Tomas. A devotee of the Virgin Mary, he carried with him her image as the Virgin of Peña de Francia. Prone to sickness, he attributed the cure of his illnesses to the intercession of the Virgin. So, he vowed to build a Marian shrine by the Pasig River.
Miguel was assigned to Naga where he was later ordained priest by Bishop Andres de Gonzales, O.P.
At that time, the cimarrones inhabited the foothills of Mt. Isarog, east of Naga. They were freedom-loving and refused to live with the colonizers in the poblacion. They were descended from the native Bikolnons, described by Spanish historians as ...
" ... the most valiant people we have ever met in the region of the Philippines." (Guido de Lavezares, successor of Legaspi)
" ... a race of great impetuousity and valor ... more intelligent ... industrious and warlike" (Castaño)
" ... Their customs and political ways of life most closely approach natural reason." (Rivadeneyra)
Dn. Miguel was named Parish Priest of Naga and Vicar General of the Diocese of Nueva Caceres. When the cimarrones asked the bishop for a chapel for them away from the poblacion, this coincided with Dn. Miguel's vow to build a chapel by the river for the Virgin. And so, a chapel for the cimarrones was built by the Naga river about 2 kilometers north of the poblacion. First of nipa and bamboo. Years later, of stone.
With the image of the Virgin of Peña de Francia in Spain as model, Dn. Miguel commissioned a native artisan to carve a statue of the Virgin Mary. The Naga sculptor carved one of dusky, Malayan features.
The Church makes haste, slowly
Dn. Miguel reported the miracles wrought thru the intercession of the Virgin of Peña de Francia in his letters to the Chaplain of Peña de Francia of San Martin de Castañar, province of Salamanca, Spain, in the years 1710, 1711, and 1717. He died in 1723.
Centuries passed and the devotion grew by multitudes. Both in Spain and in the Philippines. But the Church, as usual, moved slowly.
Then, rather paradoxically, the duplicate statue carved by an unknown Bikolnon venerated in Naga, the Philippines, was canonically crowned on September 20, 1924. Twenty-eight years later on June 4, 1952, the original statue found by Simon Vela in 1434, and venerated in Salamanca, Spain, was also canonically crowned. After over five centuries!
It is a people that make and live a devotion. And each Bikolnon that joins the multitudes that pay homage to their Ina of Kabikolan every September, is but witnessing that ...
"Ah, countless times we sighed!
She always heard!
"And God could not deny His Mother's word!"
_____________________
*Oragon, September 1993
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