UNWAVERING FAITH Male devotees of Our Girl of Peñafrancia, domestically often known as “voyadores,” scramble up a silver dome to the touch the Our Girl of Peñafrancia, domestically revered as “Ina,” through the procession that marks the beginning of the weeklong centennial celebration of the coronation of Bicol’s patroness in Naga Metropolis. —Mark Alvic España
NAGA CITY, CAMARINES SUR, Philippines — In a grand show of religion and custom, over 1,000,000 devotees from throughout the nation gathered to rejoice the a hundredth anniversary of the canonical coronation of Bicol’s patroness, Our Girl of Peñafrancia, on this metropolis on Friday.
Clad in shirts and headbands bearing the slogan ‘Viva La Virgen’ (Lengthy Dwell the Virgin), devotees took half within the traslacion, a revered procession that transports the photographs of the Virgin, domestically known as “Ina,” and the Divino Rostro (Holy Face) from the previous Peñafrancia Shrine to the Naga Metropolitan Cathedral on the metropolis heart, signaling the beginning of the weeklong non secular pageant.
READ: Over 5,000 cops to safe Peñafrancia pageant in Bicol
The male devotees, known as “voyadores,” who’re the one ones allowed inside shut proximity of Ina’s picture through the traslacion, historically be a part of barefooted, enduring the hours-long and bodily difficult journey via the town’s fundamental thoroughfares. Different pilgrims joined the procession from the perimeters of the streets or watched from a distance.
“We commemorate the centennial anniversary of Ina’s canonical coronation as Queen and Patroness of Bicolandia, which came about on Sept. 20, 1924,” Fr. Francis Tordilla, Director of the Caceres Fee on Communication informed Inquirer in an interview on Friday.
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The occasion displays a medieval custom of the Church the place venerable pictures are seen as sacred, typically attributed to miracles, and function potent autos for evangelization and devotion, Tordilla defined.
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The devotion to Ina began in 1710 with Spanish priest Miguel Robles de Covarrubias, who had the picture carved and housed in a chapel he had constructed within the metropolis, then known as Nueva Caceres.
Devotion transcends time
With the assistance of the natives, Covarrubias organized processions held in honor of the miraculous Virgin of Peñafrancia to honor the various favors he mentioned to have obtained via her intercession. Since then, devotees and locals attributed miracles to the patroness.
The Bicol police estimated that multiple million devotees, together with guests from completely different provinces and international locations, got here to hitch the traslacion.
Luz Fabian, 76, who was a spectator on the procession along with her grandchildren, mentioned she was comfortable being a part of the celebration.
“I really feel responsible that I can’t be a part of the procession as a result of I’m too previous and unable to stroll, however what’s essential is that I used to be capable of see the picture and specific my sturdy religion by waving my handkerchief,” Fabian, a resident of Pili, Camarines Sur, mentioned in an interview.
A Holy Mass adopted the top of the procession on the Metropolitan Cathedral the place 1000’s of devotees joined to hope.
Fluvial procession
A fluvial procession on the Naga River on the finish of the novenary week will cap the feast on Sept. 21.
Following a farewell service on the Naga Metropolitan Cathedral, the photographs might be carried via the streets from the cathedral after which to be ensconced in a “pagoda” (a adorned shrine barge) that can cross the Naga River on the return journey to the Peñafrancia Basilica, the place a Pontifical Mass might be held.
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With the deployment of 5,000 uniformed personnel alongside the procession route, the traslacion was declared peaceable by Brig. Gen. Andre Dizon, Bicol police chief.
