According to locals, a Spanish government official from Peñafrancia, Spain, a native of San Martin de Castañeda, settled with his family in Cavite in 1712. One day, Miguel Robles de Covarrubias, a son of that Spanish official and a seminarian studying at the Universidad de Santo Tomas, Manila became seriously ill. He and his family prayed to Our Lady of Peñafrancia whose picture he clutched to his breast as he hoped for recovery. Miguel vowed that if cured, he would construct a chapel on the banks of the Pasig River in Manila, in gratitude to Her. Miraculously cured, he was ordained a priest not in Manila but in the Ciudad de Nueva Caceres (now Naga City) by Bishop Andres Gonzalez. To fulfill his vow, Padre Miguel, the first diocesan priest to be ordained in Naga, did two things. First, he mobilized the natives along the slopes of Mt. Isarog to construct a chapel made of local materials, nipa and bamboo by the banks of the Bikol river in Naga, not by the Pasig river as earlier envisioned. Second, he ordered a local artisan to carve an image patterned after the picture of Our Lady he always carried with him. Miracles happened then and there. One miraculous story involved a dog that was killed so that its blood could be used to paint the newly carved image of Our Lady. Dumped into the river, the dog came back to life and began to swim again, an event witnessed by hundreds of people. News of many other miracles spread fast, and so did public devotion to Nuestra Senora de Peñafrancia. A letter sent by Padre Miguel to the Dominican Fathers of Salamanca, Spain in 1712 reported numerous miracles through the intercession of Our Lady. In the meantime, the devotees grew in number as the devotion spread far and wide, even outside the Diocese of Nueva Caceres, which comprised the Bikol region and Marinduque. Like the biblical mustard seed, the Peñafrancia devotion today has borne fruit and now resembles a giant tree whose branches extend to other parts of the world, including the rest of Asia, Australia, the Americas and Europe. The love story between our Lady of Peñafrancia, whom we lovingly call Ina, and us, her children, is never ending.
Posted on: Sun, 21 Sep 2014 10:53:12 +0000
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