Pilgrimage to Manaoag.

My grandmom is an avid devotee of the Virgin Mary. The thing with that is, she would always go to a Marian shrine whenever she feels like going. She doesn’t plan about it, she’d just wake up one day having the idea of visiting the Lady.

That would be okay, of course, if the shrine is just next door. But yesterday, she felt like going to Manaoag Church, which is located five hours away by bus from Manila. And she asked me to accompany her.

Not that I have problems with it though. I love seeing churches. I admire their precious art collections. And I love their solemn atmosphere. It makes you want to pray intently. Which is what I did.

The bus ride wasn’t bumpy. And the trip had no stop-overs, which was good because it made the trip faster, but bad because we weren’t able to catch breakfast.  The North Luzon Expressway was quite impressive, too.

We arrived around eleven in the morning and went to eat, and eat big time, at Chowking.

Wikipedia told me Manaoag is a third-class municipality, so I was expecting to see a church surrounded by rice fields. That’s why I was surprised to find out they have a Chowking. But then again the Philippines is a third-world country and it has NLEX.

Here’s a view of the town from the Chowking window:

The left picture shows the post office and the police station while the left one shows the main road leading to the church. 

The church is of Spanish-Romanesque design, with traces of Renaissance architecture. The exterior facade is painted yellow and white, giving it a modern look, similar to the Santo Domingo Church in Quezon City.   

It’s been said that Mary herself designated the location of the church in an aparition to one of the locals there. It was built, presumably by slave labor, in 1605. The bell tower, which resembles the Lyceum tower a lot, was added in 1955.

The church’s interior is quite devoid of ornaments and stained glasses. But there is an imposing octagonal dome in the middle of the structure, above the tabernacle.

Like the dome of Santo Domingo, the four corner of the Manaoag dome’s uppermost parts bear the images of the four writers of the Gospel.

The tabernacle is quite huge, and is situated in the middle of the church right below the dome, apparently patterned after the St. Peter’s basilica in Rome:

Here’s the view of the tabernacle from the right wing of the church:

The mass started at around eleven thirty. There were few people hearing it, which is a suprise. 

Here’s grandmom during the consecration of the host: 

Here’s the Responsorial Psalm:

Here’s the view of the altar during the mass:

The altar showcases the statue of the Lady, flanked by the statues of St. Francis of Assisi and St. Dominic de Guzman. I don’t know the relevance of St. Francis to the church, but St. Dominic’s presence in the altar reminds the pilgrim that the shrine and the statue of the Lady of Manaoag is under the custody of the Dominican friars. 

The Dominicans were the most vigorous missionaries during the Spanish era. They ran most rural parishes and owed many lands in colonial Philippines.

Preaching and learning are two core values of the Dominican order. The order is recognized for its brilliant scholars like Albert Magnus and Thomas Aquinas, and its great universities like the Angelicum in Rome and the UST in Manila.

(Above: the Dominican seal engraved in the church’s main doors) 

But aside from education and preaching, medieval and colonial Dominicans were notorious for their land-grabbing schemes, support for the horrible Inquisition, looting of farmers, and other human rights abuses.

It is not surprising, therefore, that when the Philippine Revolution of 1896 broke out, the church in Manaoag was looted, vandalized and burned by the Katipuneros.

This particular event makes me curious, for it is the only event where the Lady apparently did not save her church.

Pior to the Revolution, a group of native Pangasinanenses attacked the town of Manaoag with burning arrows. The town was set on fire, but the church was "miraculously" saved. 

A hundred years later, in World War II, a Japanese plane dropped four bombs on the church. Three of them destroyed the structures surrounding the church, but the fourth one, which landed on the church’s roof, refused to explode. This was, again, said to be through the Lady’s intercession.

But how come the church was not saved during the Revolution? 

The image of the Lady of Manaoag was brought to Pangasinan by Fr. San Jacinto, OP from Spain. It is made of pure ivory and adorned with different jewels.

Although it is not a perfect representation of the Mother of God, I must say it is an impressive work of art:

Many miracles have been attributed to this image. And my grandmom believes she owes many favors of her life to this particular statue.

That the image is miraculous is something that’s hard to prove and is simply a matter of faith.

As for me, I do believe in miracles. And I do believe anything can be a tool for miracles. So yes, i do believe Manaoag is miraculous

Like these people:

They are queuing up for a chance to touch the Lady’s veil.

On the left and right wings of the church are four murals depicting the history of Manaoag, including the Lady’s apparition, the attack of the natives, and the canonical coronation of the statue by Pope Pius. 

Outside the church was a museum which unfortunately were closed that day.

There was also a big place to light candles. Lighting candles in churches is a Catholic tradittion. It’s significance is something I do not know, though. But this sign gives a clue:

Another interesting facility is the Rosary Garden. It’s like a step-by-step trail that lets you stroll in between Hail Marys.

After the mass, we went to the altar. My grandmom prayed while I took pictures of the church’s interior as seen from the altar:

And after that, my grandmom went shopping.

Just like many other churches in the Philippines, Manaoag is full of side-walk vendors selling candles, rosaries, novena booklets and other religious items as well as fruits and other delicacies:

The moment we stepped out of the church, we were flocked by a bunch of vendors selling tupig. Each told sad stories to lure my grandmom into buying. And she indeed bought from all of them.

Tupig is a kind of rice cake from northern Luzon. It tastes like chocolate. And it costs 30 pesos per pack.

My grandmom was talking to this vendor in Ilocano and I couldn’t make out what they were saying. When I asked, grandmom told me she was telling the vendor maybe her tupig is overpriced. The vendor’s response was: "well, we won’t do those things. Not in a church!"

I hope she was honest. And I also hope many people in this country would be honest as well, not just in a church but everywhere else.

It was quite interesting to know that grandmom speaks Ilocano. It’s not her native language, she just learned it from her Ilocano friends. But it enabled him to bargain with the vendors.  

She also bough lots of sweet ripe mangoes. It costs only 25 pesos per kilo there, while in Manila its PhP 45.

In the end, my grandmom ended up having four kilos of mangoes, two kilos of that tropical fruit that looks like grapes, and a lot of tupigs.

And it was I who carried all those heavy things she bought.

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HOW TO GET TO THERE:

Ride a Dagupan Bus Liner in Cubao, Quezon City. Get off in front of the church.