318. Against Lightning and Fire: STA. BARBARA

STA. BARBARA is known to a few Philippine towns, in Iloilo & Pangasinan.

STA. BARBARA IN ART

One of the 14 Auxiliary Saints, the Greek martyr-saint Sta. Barbara, is not so well-known in the Philippines. Barbara was renowned for her beauty which prompted her ich pagan father to lock her up in a tower to shield her from the world. 

She became a Christian and spurned the men that her father presented to her for marriage. Her father attempted to kill her, but Barbara escaped—a hill opened up and hid her.

A shepherd betrayed her, and Sta. Barbara was loced up by her father, who then turned her to the city prefect, Martianus, who tortured her to death. Sta. Barbara was condemned to death by beheading by her father. Dioscorus and Martianus were both killed after being struck by lightning.

The history of St. Barbara was removed from the General Roman Calendar, but not from the Catholic Church's list of saints. Her relics rest at the St. Vladimir cathedral in Kiev.

Her iconography includes her chained, standing by or holding a tower with three windows, carrying a palm branch, and sometimes with cannons. She is the patron saint of armourers, artillerymen, architects, mathematicians, miners and the Italian Navy. Sta. Barbara is invoked against lightning and fire. Feast day: December 4.

Sta. Barbara is the patron of the historic town of Sta. Barbara, in Iloilo, and Sta. Barbara town in Pangasinan,

This rare depiction of the saint is done in baticuling wood. She is shown wearing a crown (of martyrdom), and dressed in robes notable for its folds. It stands 21 inches tall, inclusive of its mortar-shaped base.

SOURCES:
Sta. Barbara in art: Pinterest
https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=166

107. 'SANTONG BANGKAY' IGNITES RELIGIOUS FERVOR

by Yolanda Sotelo
(originally published on the Philippine Daily Inquirer, 3 April 2012)

BANI, Pangasinan—In a cramped room inside a shack at the back of the Catholic church in Bani, Pangasinan, lies a religious treasure for the town—a life-size ivory statue of “Santo Bangkay” (Dead Jesus Christ). The Santo Bangkay is a detailed rendition of Jesus Christ when he was taken down from the cross, complete with blood oozing from his face down to his chest, with holes in the hands and feet where the nails were driven, and wounds in his knees.


“It has been with our parents when they got married in 1932,” Norma Optinario, 76, says. Norma and her sister, Herlyn, 64, are the keepers of the statue.

The sisters say the statue was given to their father by the family of a military official. They do not know from what country the icon came from, or how old it is, only saying it has been with their family for a very long time.

The Optinarios’ house was burned in 1942, but the fire stopped before it reached the area where the icon was being kept, they say.

Religious procession

Days before Good Friday, the sisters’ house comes alive with preparations of the Santo Bangkay for the religious procession along the streets of this agricultural town. Already, a white garment adored with sequins and silver thread is waiting to clothe the statue.

“Every year, we prepare a new garment for what they lovingly call Apo Santo Bangkay. This year, it will be outfitted with white, but mostly, it is garbed in maroon. We also decorate the ‘karo’ (coach where the icon is laid),” Norma says. The icon’s long, curly hair, is changed every five years.

In another part of the town, at the front yard of a house destroyed by a typhoon, a steel carriage is set to be painted and adorned with different flowers for the Good Friday procession. This replaced an old wooden carriage in 1981, Dennis Orilla, 44, says. Orilla inherited the carriage, along with the responsibility to prepare it for the procession, from his parents.

Every Maundy Thursday, the houses of the Optinario and Orilla families are full with family members and friends to prepare the Santo Bangkay, the coach and the carriage. All expenses are contributed by relatives and residents.

“It is an affair where our families and residents join hands in staging. Church and local officials are not meddling with this religious activity,” Herlyn says.

At noon on Good Friday, the carriage, with the Santo Bangkay on top, is pulled around the streets of Barangay Poblacion.


“The religious fervor is similar to that shown in the procession of Quiapo’s Black Nazarene, although in the case of Bani, only residents join the activity,” says Marietchu Natividad, head of Poblacion village.


“The devotees would try to go up the carriage or hold on to the rope that pulls it,” Orilla says.

At 3 p.m., the Santo Bangkay is taken to the Catholic Church for a Mass. It is left near the altar for a vigil and “agep,” a customary kissing of the icon by devotees, until midnight.

64. RETRO-SANTO: Ntra. Sñra. del Santissimo Rosario de Manaoag

The province of Pangasinan is home to one of the most precious and honored Marian image in the country: Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary of Manaoag. The ivory image was brought to the Philippines by an Augustinian, P. Juan de San Jacinto via the Manila Galleon route, originating from Spain, in the early 1600s.

The title of the Virgin comes from an event in 1610, when a Pangasinense, on his way home, heard a woman’s voice, calling out to him ("taoag” means to call, in the native language). He tracked down the voice to a Lady with a rosary and a child, atop a cloud hovering above a tree. He quickly recognized this beautiful apparition as that of our Blessed Virgin Mary with the Christ Child.

On the spot where our Lady appeared, a chapel was built. Here, devotion grew and wondrous miracles were reported. One of the earliest account was the saving of the church and the people from a fire set by pagan pillagers who swooped down on the town. This miracle was repeated during World War II when the shrine of Our Lady of Manaoag remained unscathed even after bombs were dropped onto the roof of the church by Japanese planes.

The Marian image was canonically crowned on 21 April 1926 by the Papal Nuncio, the official emissary of His Holiness Pope Pius XI.

Both the images of Our Lady and the Christ Child have ivory heads and hands which are now lined with age. The Virgin herself owns gem-encrusted crowns donated by mostly Filipino devotees living here and abroad. It is enshrined on the altar behind bullet-proof glass. Pilgrims and devotees can venerate the Virgin by ascending a second-floor landing that allows them to touch the her holy vestments from the back.

The Shrine of Our Lady of Manaoag continues to be one of the most popular pilgrimage destinations. It also houses a shrine museum and a souvenir religious shop. Regular dawn processions are held every first Saturday of the month. Her feast day is on the 3rd Wednesday after Easter while its universal feast day (as Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary) is observed on the first Sunday of October.