334. FROM PRAYERS FOR GOOD CROPS, THIS VIRGIN NOW HEARS APPEALS FOR BETTER GRADES, by Floy Quintos

NTRA. SRA. DEL ROSARIO, Panlilio-Santos Joven. Photo:Arwin Lingat

by: Floy Quintos

Reprinted from THE SUNDAY INQUIRER MAGAZINE , October 2, 2005 issue.

Lahar spelled death for the La Naval procession in Bacolor, Pampanga. This month, four La Sallians are bringing the tradition to the De La Salle Campus in Dasmarinas, Cavite so that students can begin their own tradition of homage to the Virgin.

The bucolic grounds of the Museo De La Salle in the Cultural Heritage Complex of the De La Salle campus in Dasmarinas, Cavite, are abuzz with student volunteers and museum personnel busy at work. Their task is a daunting one, perhaps a bit anachronistic in a campus where most of the students major in computer studies and nursing. They are restoring and assembling the largest extant 19th century “Carroza Triunfal” known, a massive yet graceful carroza of beaten silver.

For this October, the Nuestra Senora del Santissimo Rosario de La Naval of Bacolor, Pampanga comes home to the De La Salle campus in Dasmarinas. And here, every October from now on, she will ride forth again. One can almost hear Nick Joaquin rhapsodizing about his most beloved of Marian festivals.

And when she does, fours sons of De La Salle will have fulfilled a vow to rekindle a devotion to the Naval. They are Brother Andrew Gonzalez, FSC, two-time president of the De La Salle University System, who was just last week installed as the first President Emeritus; Brother Edmundo Fernandez, FSC, the youngest Brother Provincial of the De La Salle community in the country and Brother Armin Luistro, FSC, current president of the De La Salle University Manila and, quite recently, an active participant in national causes.

Providing a delightful counterpoint to this august company is Jose Ma. Ricardo Panlilio, or Joey, Executive Director of the Museo De La Salle and connoisseur of all things pertaining to 19th century Philippine Illustrado style. All four come from diverse backgrounds, but share a quiet devotion spread among the De La Salle students.

For Joey, 41, the image of the Virgin and the attendant St. Joseph, the massive and priceless carro and the very tradition of honoring the La Naval are, at once, a remnant of childhood and a symbol of a painful rite of passage into the real world. The image’s last custodian was his paternal grandmother, the late Luz Sarmiento Panlilio, a grand dame of Bacolor, Pampanga, and elder sister to the fabulous jeweler Fe.

“My childhood was greatly influenced by Inang Lucing,” says Joey. “I remember how the carro and the image of the virgen was the most important thing in her life. And how the entire year centered on the preparation for the November festival, which is when the La Naval was celebrated in Bacolor. My brothers and I were studying in La Salle and our immediate family was based in Manila. But every November just as the novena began, we had to come home. Inang Lucing would ask our parents to issue excuse letters. It was important to our family.”

FUN SIDE

Joey, from a very young age, took a great interest in the preparation of the carro. Weeks before, the pieces were taken out from the camarin or warehouse for polishing, reconstructing, repairing. “Inang would show me the lace and tissue that she had bought from her trips to Spain and involve me in the work. She would teach me the way the virgen must be dressed, the appropriate flowers, the appropriate music that the marching band would play. I just took to it naturally, it was all a part of my education in the traditions of the 19th century.”

But such archaic minutae also had a fun side. “Kapampangans are great eaters, and the day of the fiesta was one big celebration of Bacolor cuisine. We would wake at dawn to see the formal living room of the old house strewn with barongs. We would get into them and go to the high Mass. Then, we would come home to breakfast, a meal to which everyone in town was invited. At mid-morning, Segundo almuerzo, a heavy merienda was offered to all who had worked on the carro. Lunch was hectic because all the visitors from Manila would arrive, and it was a matter of Kapampangan pride that Inang offer them a table of the very best specialties.

NTRA. SRA. DEL ROSARIO in her Carroza Triunfal.

Then, at 3 p.m., another merienda for the latecomers from Manila. The parade would take place at around seven in the evening. And when we came home, there was a formal dinner in the main house, and food for everyone in the grounds below. It was exhausting, and even more so because at the crack of dawn the next day, my brothers would be herded into the car for the long drive back to school. I would stay an extra week to clean up and put everything back into place. My parents were not amused, especially my father. Looking back, I was really torn between two generations: Inang’s which believed in tradition, and my own family’s pragmatism and modernity!” His mother, the writer Lourdes Abad-Panlilio, once whispered to Joey, just as the carroza was sweeping past in all its dazzling grandeur, “You must always remember, hijo, the virgen was a simple woman.”

Joey looks back with little nostalgia and lots of pragmatism. “It was a feudal lifestyle, yes. But the one thing I most treasure about it is that it taught us to deal with everyone from all classes of life. It wasn’t this stereotyped ideal of having caciques and tenants at your beck and call. Everything was community-based. We worked alongside the people who worked for us. We decorated the carro together, we ate together, we marched in the procession together. It was for the Virgin, that was the way we thought about it. It was a dying tradition even then. But in Bacolor, the procession was a source of community pride.”

BENIGHTED TRADTION

Sadly as Joey grew into adulthood, he saw the gradual loss of interest in the benighted tradition. “It needed only the lahar to put an end to the procession, to that entire way of life.”

Joey and his siblings must have been ready to say goodbye to it in 1990, when the Pinatubo eruption covered most of Bacolor in lahar. But Inang Lucing, well into her eighties, had other plans. “I remember I told her that it would be difficult to organize an evacuation for the furniture and the household effects. She told me, “What furniture? All we really need is the carro.” It dawned on me that this feisty old woman had lived her entire life for only two things, her family and the virgen. We had to do it.”

CARVED ANGEL DETAILS,

Inang, Joey and his brothers and a few friends from Manila went back in a 10-wheeler truck. “She rode right up front next to the driver. We went back and tried to save as much as we could. Everyday, the lahar would rise a little higher, but we finally managed. On the long ride back, I started to complain. Inang was praying her rosary, but she stopped to say, “ at least we have somewhere to go. During the war, when I evacuated to the carro, there was nowhere to go.” That certainly said a lot about Inang and her character. WE brought everything back and put it into storage. However, there was no more community, no more old friends and neighbors. The entire structure that had made the procession come alive was gone. And there was nothing she could do about that.” Inang Lucing died in 1998, a shadow of her former self, but still an ardent devotee to the La Naval.

Brother Andrew Gonzalez FSC, former President of De La Salle University Manila, himself a descendant of the prosperous Arnedo-Gonzalez clan of Sulipan, Apalit, Pampanga, was no stranger to Kapampangan tradition. “But Brother is one of the most forward-looking men I’ve ever met. He admires the past, but he does not live in it. He knew we had saved all this stuff, he knew that it was in storage. He called me one day and said, “Put all your memories of childhood into a place where students can learn about them. You have a responsibility to the future generation. The Museo De La Salle was born.” As envisioned by Brother Andrew, it would be part of a cultural complex in the 27-Hectare De La Salle Dasmarinas campus, with the Aklatang Emilio Aguinaldo, the Campus Ministry Office and the Cavite Studies Center. All of a sudden, Joey who had been a practicing interior designer, had a new purpose in life. “It was no problem to get the family donate everything to the new museum. It was the least painful way to say goodbye to memories.”

WONDERFUL COUPS

Five years into operation, and the Museo De La Salle located in Dasmarinas, Cavite is not only one of the best-endowed museums in the country, it is also one of the most talked about. As Executive Director, Joey has managed some wonderful coups, such as important private donations, most notably the Guevarra Collection. His old-world tact and diplomacy, coupled with a wicked charm and serendipity, has gotten the museum many important bequests from the crème collectors. But it is his florid style of display, so true to the hyper-refined sensibility of the late 19th century, that make the museum truly unique.

“Still,” Joey says, “It lacked, in Brother Andrew Gonzalez FSC’s words, a spiritual center. Now that the museum is up and running, it seems the best time to bring out the Virgen again. It has been 14 years since she was last seen. But this time, it will be in a setting and at a time where she will give a different meaning to the festivities. And among young people who know nothing of Bacolor, Pampanga and the past, but who are ready to create their own traditions.”

NTRA. SRA. DEL ROSARIO

When the Virgen de la Naval of Bacolor rides forth again in the De La Salle Campus in Dasmarinas, Caviteon this month sacred to her and her devotees, there will be no more caciques and tenants, no proud matrons of feudal society, no children forced home from school to attend to her. Instead she will be pulled along by students who have volunteered for the honor of being her escorts. Perhaps, in Bacolor, she heard very different prayers - for better crops or kinder masters and cancelled debts. This time the prayers will be for exams, for careers, for much-needed jobs. No grand fetes, no groaning tables will mark her fiesta. Only the quiet admiration of a new community that is beginning something they can call their own. No need now for new jewels and crowns for this La Naval. 

330. THE TRANSPORTED DEVOTION OF BACOLOR'S VIRGEN DE LOURDES TO CABIAO, NUEVA ECIJA

CABETICAN;S LOURDES IN CABIAO, N. E.

Cabiao is a town in Nueva Ecija where Kapampangan is still widely spoken. That’s because it used to be a part of the province of Pampanga, until it was annexed to Nueva Ecija, along with  Gapan, San Isidro, Cabiao and Aliaga around 1848.

As such, many original Kapampangan families can still be found there, still speaking their mother tongue and living the ways of their  own culture. The Kapampangans were clustered in a place called Likod—so named because it was located at the back of the church—and it was here that the extraordinary devotion to Our Lady of Lourdes of Cabetican, Bacolor was introduced and propagated.

 

THE RELIGIOUS PRINT OF LOURDES

In  barangay Maligaya, a chapel now stands, where, a small, antique print of the Cabetican Lourdes can be seen atop the altar, framed in silver. The story of how this revered object of veneration came to Cabiao is told and printed on a small tarpaulin poster that hangs on the iron grill gate of the chapel.

In the 1930s, a Kapampangan woman named Gertrudes Dizon-Castañeda, had a reputation for seeing visions. Her granddaughter, Lucita Castañeda-Vivas, recalls that her Impong Tuding was often seen talking to herself, or so it seems. But in fact, her Impo claims that she was conversing with an old woman, whom she alone could see.

THE LOURDES STORY AT THE CABIAO SHRINE

 One day, this old woman, as the story goes, asked her to go to Cabetican in Bacolor to look for a particular picture of a lady there —and to bring it to Cabiao. Impong Tuding obeyed her order, and even though she had no idea how to go to Bacolor by herself, she reached the barrio on the feast day of our Lady of Lourdes.

After walking all over the barrio, Impong Tuding found the picture of the lady. She was sure it was the right one, as she could not take single step after she had beheld it.  But by then, she had run out of funds to pay for the print, so she sadly returned to Cabiao without it.

To her amazement, when she got back to cabio and began unpacking, she discovered the small print of the Lady among her belongings, bearing the caption : ING MAPAGMALA NANG LARAUAN NING NUESTRA SEÑORA DE LOURDES. Daralangiñan da qñg Santuario Cabetican, Baculud (Pampanga)

 

VIRGEN DE LOURDES BY FLORES

Our Lady of Lourdes became the patroness of Cabetican in 1906, when the populace was hit by a pestilence. The devotion was brought to the Philippines by Capuchin fathers, who had a church built in 1892 in honor of our Lady of Lourdes. Sculptor Manuel Flores was commissioned to make  a statue of the Virgin, who appeared to shepherdess Bernadette Soubirous in a grotto in Massabielle, France in 1858.

 

         ANTIQUE PRINT BASED ON VIRGEN DE
         LOURDES OF THE CAPUCHINS

The people of Cabetican asked for intercession from Virgen de Lourdes for the healing of the sick and to end the plague, which resulted in many miraculous recoveries.  A religious book to mark the miracle was printed by the printing press of Proceso Pabalan Byron entitled: “ING MALA NING VIRGEN LOURDES 1906, CABETICAN, BACULUD, CAPAMPAÑGAN. Qñg Mipnung Lugud Ampon Pacamal Mecopia ya iti qñg Imprenta nang  Proceso Pabalan Byron a Sinulat nang Jose Crisostomo Soto a Metung Munaman Sacsi qñgMesabing Mala Iniang ing balen Baculud Mirasnan ya qñg Salut …Ñgening Ala ne qñg Tau ing Sucat Ipanulu qñg Dios carin Panintunan”

 

LOURDES PRINTS, bhy Byron, and an unknown lithographer

(Translation: “The Miracle of the Virgin of Lourdes, 1906, Cabetican, Bacolor, Pampanga. By all the goodness and love, we caused this story to be published in the printing press of Proceso Pabalan Byron, written by Jose Crisostomo Soto, one the witnesses to the miracle when Bacolor was hit by pestilence. Now that the cure is no longer in the hands of the people, it is in God that we search for a cure. ) 

THE ALTAR OF LOURDES AT BRGY, MALIGAYA

That’s how the religious print of the Virgen  de Lourdes of Cabetican found its way to Cabiao, and for awhile was kept in Impong Tuding’s nipa hut. She hanged it on her wall and the picture inexplicably began to get wet. The more she wiped off the wetness, the wetter the picture got. Word went around the barrio about this unexplained that was deemed as a miracle, and soon people began flocking to Impong Tuding’s hovel to pray to Virgin de Lourdes from Cabetican.

The duplicate image of our Lady of Lourdes and the sacred but tattered print are now housed in a shrine that was built through donations to accommodate the faithful and the pilgrims who go there. The roof and ceiling were added in 1993.

 

THE LOURDES SHRINE, FRONTAGE

Descendants of Impong Tuding are the caretakers of the shrine; they keep the premises clean, as well as sell candles for devotees to light. Cabiao and Cabetican, together with their Kapampangan faithful, have now been united by one Lady, who continue to shower them with blessings and graces, wherever they may be.

327. THE ALTAR SANTOS OF SAN GUILLERMO CHURCH, Bacolor, Pampanga

The venerable San Guillermo Church, in the former capital of the Philippines, Bacolor, is a beautiful legacy of the Agustinos who built the church in 1576 on land donated by Don Guillermo Manabat, town founder. Completely destroyed by an earthquake, it was rebuilt in 1897 by Fray Manuel Diaz.

SAN GUILLERMO CHURCH,
wikimedia commons

The gilded retablo mayor, and the side retablos are intact—despite being half-buried in the lahar inundation of 1995 triggered by the Pinatubo eruption. They are profusely carved with baroque and rococo designs, and the richness of the details are better seen now that they have been beautifully restored. Inside the nichos are various antique  Augustinian santos from the colonial period. These, too, have been restored, repainted, and regilded under the supervision of the late Thom Joven, Pampanga’s most eminent ecclesiastical artist.

Now a tourist attraction, the San Guillermo Church continues to be a place of worship, a witness to the history and old glory of Bacolor, acclaimed for its arts and artists, hence the sobriquet—“Atenas ning Pampanga”-- the Athens of Greece.

180. ANTIQUE COLLECTORS AS CRUSADERS OF CULTURAL HERITAGE

 VIRGEN DE LA CORREA OF BETIS. Photo courtesy of Mr. Richard Diño

The recent theft of the antique ivory Nino Jesus of the Virgen de la Correa of Betis last Dec. 30 (the district’s fiesta, no less) once again put antiquarians and sacred art collectors on spotlight. Often, the knee-jerk reaction is to impute suspicion on antique collectors and their inordinate urge to acquire antiquities at any cost, leading many to conclude that collectors themselves are the major masterminds of church theft.

THE DRESSED UP CARROZA OF THE VIRGEN DELA CORREA, BEFORE THE PROCESSION.

Photo courtesy of Mr. Richard Diño

 There are allegedly horror stories of affluent collectors running a ring of antique dealers, financing them so they could acquire prized church art, through all means—from cajoling priests to part with their old santos as they renovate their churches, to resorting to paid crimes like theft and robbery. True, there are spurious collectors, middlemen and dealers, but they are few and far between. Past events involving the theft of church art have, in fact, included collectors playing significant parts in their return and recovery.

 AT THE SANTIAGO APOSTOL CHURCH.

Photo courtesy of Mr. Richard Diño

 Indeed, it is this instinct to save, to recover, to conserve and preserve—that drives a collector to do what he does, which, in a way, is aligned with the work of cultural and heritage activists. It took an antique collector with a discerning eye, for example, to recover the Santo Nino de Romblon, which had been lost for 22 years. In 2009, antique collectors networked online with heritage workers to find the image of an antique San Juan, stolen from one of the retablos in the Cathedral of Tayabas.

 MR. TOM JOVEN, WITH THE RECOVERED NINO OF THE VIRGEN DE LA CORREA

Photo from the FB page of Auxiliary Bishop Pablo Virgilio David.

Thankfully, there is a happy ending too, to the recent event in Betis. A few days after the reported theft of the ivory Nino, the Archdiocesan Commission on Church Heritage (ACCH) of the Archdiocese of San Fernando, announced the successfully recovery of the revered image, with the help of yet another collector and renown ecclesiastical artist, Tom Joven.

Joven, who heads the Parish Pastoral Council of San Guillermo Parish of Bacolor and who also serves as member of the Tangible Heritage Committee of ACCH, reported his find to diocesan church authorities as the image surfaced in the antiques market, days after it was reported to be missing. His network of collector-friends provided him leads that allowed him to track the image in Manila, and which he eventually purchased---the ivory parts brought to him discreetly in a plastic bag, minus the wooden body.

 "I ONCE WAS LOST...BUT NOW I'M FOUND".

THE RETURNED NINO, MINUS THE WOODEN BODY.

Photo from the FB Page of Auxiliary Bishop Pablo Virgilio David

Immediately, he notified the church authorities headed by Auxiliary Bishop Pablo Virgilio David and the Pastoral Council of Betis. The acknowledged santo expert offered to restore the image and have it ready for official turnover to diocesan and local church authorities in time for the celebration of the Santo Niño Feast on January 19 (3rd Sunday of January).

 

Photo courtesy of Mr. Richard Diño

The ACCH circular acknowledged with gratitude the role that antique collectors played in the recovery of the Nino—alongside media entities, heritage advocates and netizens who helped spread the word about the theft of this treasured image which is imbued with priceless historical, cultural and spiritual meanings—a special part of the Augustinian legacy in Betis, Pampanga.

In the crusade against church crimes, count antique collectors in.

175. Retro-Santo: STA. INES OF THE RODRIGUEZ FAMILY, Bacolor

AGNES WITH AN AGNUS. The private image of Sta. Ines, owned by the Rodriguez Family of Sta. Ines, Bacolor, Pampanga, as she appeared in the early 1970s.

One of the most prominent families of Bacolor were the Rodriguezes, who were part of a much bigger Rodriguez clan that originated from Bataan and Mariveles. The Bacolor branch had as its progenitor, Don Olegario Rodriguez who settled his family in Barrio Sta. Ines.  A descendant, Dna. Gorgonia Rodriguez y Yabut (b. 19 Sept. 1886/ d. 14 Nov. 1960) came to live in the "Bale Sim" family mansion as its resident-in-charge in the early 20th century.

Into the large, art-filled Rodriguez Mansion, Dna. Oniang added the devotional image of Sta. Ines. Touring Europe in the 1920s, she and her entourage visited Spain, and had an image of the young virgin-martyr of Rome wrought there. The 4 foot plus image of Sta. Ines (St. Agnes) is iconographically depicted with her attributes—a palm of martyrdom on her right hand, and a lamb on her left, symbolizing her purity (also, the Latin word for a lamb is agnus, a play on her name).  The completed santa was brought home to Bacolor where it has now become a much treasured and revered family heirloom.

Though privately owned, the Rodriguezes allow Sta. Ines to be brought out during the saint's feast day,  21 January.