Feast of Peñafrancia: Spectacle of Faith

from Philippine Panorama issue dated September 10, 2002

SEPTEMBER 21, all roads and routes will lead to Naga City in Camarines Sur where six million Bicolanos from here and abroad will troop to that progressive city to pay homage to the Virgin of Peñafrancia, miraculous patroness of the Bicol Region.

Bicolanos from all walks of life will gather in Naga City to pay homage to the Virgin and at the same time visit their relatives, friends, and loved ones.

Notwithstanding the distances and high cost of transportation, all Bicolanos will be in Naga on September 21 and even earlier. The rich, the powerful, the privileged, the poor, the young, the old, and even the sick will trek to Naga on that memorable day.

Bicolanos from all walks of life will be in Naga City to meet their relatives and partidarios, share food, drinks, and prayers with them, and most of all, to pay homage and render thanksgiving to the Virgin of Peñafrancia, whom the Bicolanos fondly call Ina, Viva la Virgen, they will shout to high heavens.

The Peñafrancia festival is not only an occasion for family reunions and much awaited visits. It is above all, a fiesta of faith. A spectacle of the Bicolanos’ strong faith in their Ina.

It is strong and endless faith that binds and unites all Bicolanos, irrespective of color and creed, through the years; through three centuries of foreign domination; through four years of Japanese imperial rule; through 20 years of the infamous Marcos regime; and through hard, difficult times, and sky high prices, and economic crises.

The miraculous Virgin of Peñafrancia has been part and parcel of Bicolano lore and legend through all these years. The Bicol saga would be incomplete and insignificant without a mention of the Virgin or Ina.

On September 21, millions of Bicolanos will once again show to the whole Christian world their strong faith and devotion to their Heavenly Mother. Amidst jubilant sounding shouts of Viva la Virgen, Bicolanos and pilgrims, with lighted candles in their hands, will kneel on the ground and bow their heads in prayer as the colorful fluvial procession carrying the Virgin plows through the Bicol River in downtown Naga.

A multicolored pagoda carrying the images/icons of the Virgin of Peñafrancia and the Divino Rostro will pass through the Bicol River. Male, suntanned devotees of the Virgin will cling to the huge pagoda in a heartwarming display of faith and devotion.

Actually, the fluvial procession marks the return of the Virgin from the Naga Metropolitan Cathedral to her home shrine at the Basilica. Upon its arrival, the Virgin will be received in solemn religious rites by Roman Catholic dignitaries of the Bicol Region led by Cardinal Jose T. Sanchez.

Considered the biggest and most popular religious event in the Philippines, the Peñafrancia fiesta is actually a one-week affair that starts on the second Friday of September when the miraculous Ina is transferred from her shrine to the centuries-old Naga Metropolitan Cathedral where a nine-day novena and prayers are held in her honor.

Ranking government officials, Cabinet members, ambassadors, governors, mayors, senators, diputados, business/industry leaders, landlords, etc., vie for the distinct honor of sponsoring a nightly novena and prayers at the Naga Cathedral.

A procession, locally called translacion, ushers in the weeklong festivities which include civic and military parades, sports competitions, agro-industrial fairs, cultural shows, and the coronation of Miss Bicolandia beauties.

During the translacion, which passes through the main streets of Naga, the miraculous Ina of the Bicolanos is borne on the rugged, muscular shoulders of barefooted cargadores who form a human cordon to protect the Virgin from the unruly crowd.

Call it sheer coincidence or plain superstition, but any Bicolano will swear to high heavens that the presence of a woman, Filipina or foreigner, aboard the gaily festooned pagoda will surely spell disaster. Whether this belief is true or not, only the Bicolanos know. But past events and experiences support their claim.

This happened on two separate occasions. The last time was on September 1972 when the Colgante suspension bridge in Barangay Tinago, along the route of the fluvial procession, suddenly collapsed killing at least 140 pilgrims, including some members of the media who covered the fiesta and spectators along the Colgante bridge.

The Bicolanos attribute the tragic event to the presence of a woman aboard the Virgin’s pagoda.

A few days after that tragic event, the late Pres. Ferdinand E. Marcos placed the entire country under martial rule. Hundreds of Filipinos, who opposed the late dictator, were thrown into jail.

Devotion to the Virgin of Peñafrancia originated in Spain, where a young and devout Frenchman named Simoun Vela, following what he claimed was a divine voice, found an old image of the Virgin in a small Spanish village.

Devotion to the Ina started in the Bicol region by Miguel de Cobarrubias, a Dominican missionary who was assigned as cura parroco (parish priest) of Nueva Caceres (now Naga City) and who built the first nipa-and-bamboo chapel in honor of the Virgin on the banks of the Bicol River.

This small chapel grew through the centuries, enduring typhoons, earthquakes, foreign invasions, and two World Wars into what is now the famous Peñafrancia Shrine at the Basilica, the mecca of six million Bicolanos and center of the Philippines’ biggest and most popular religious festival.