AFTER over four centuries of existence, La Naval de Manila, the Philippines’ and Asia’s first canonically crowned Marian image, remains the Mother of all Marian icons for its miraculous reputation and its rich history.
The book, The Saga of La Naval: Triumph of a People’s Faith (Dominican Province of the Philippines, 2007), seeks to chronicle La Naval’s place in Philippine Church, culture and society. The 361-page coffee-table book was launched last Oct. 7 at the Santo Domingo Parish in Quezon City to mark the centennial of the canonical coronation of La Naval.
With authors from the academe and the media including UST Acting Rector Fr. Rolando de la Rosa, O.P., UST Secretary-General Fr. Isidro Abaño, O.P., UST Graduate School professors Florentino Hornedo, Jose Victor Torres, and Regalado Trota Jose, Conservatory of Music professors Eugene de los Santos and Julie Anne Hallazgo, UST Archivist Fr. Fidel Villaroel, O.P., and Philippine Daily Inquirer editor and Varsitarian publications adviser Joselito Zulueta, Saga is perhaps the most comprehensive book yet on the phenomenon of La Naval.
In the first chapter, “La Naval: Definition, History and Icon,” the book tells of the history of the devotion, from the Chinese pagan who sculpted the icon, to the battles she had helped win, up to the modern-day La Naval processions held every second week of October where she is the crowning glory among the icons of the greatest Dominican saints arrayed in the traditional grand procession.
The second and third chapters, “The Cult of Mary” and “Marian Ceremonies of Grace,” respectively, detail the Filipinos’ endearment to the Blessed Virgin, visible through Mary’s numerous and diverse icons throughout the country and through the precious jewels which adorn these icons, especially La Naval.
The next chapter, “House of Mary,” brings readers back to memory lane to Intramuros or Old Manila, where La Naval was once housed. This section includes detailed histories of the Dominican quarter inside the Walled City. An architecture history article reports about the series of Santo Domingo churches in Intramuros, the last one destroyed by the Second World War, and new Santo Domingo Church in Quezon City.
The next two chapters, “The Dominicans and Our Lady,” and “Ave Maria,” display the Dominicans’ advocacy La Naval, also known as Nuestra Señora del Santissimo Rosario or the Our Lady of the Holy Rosary. Dominican lore of course tells that the Blessed Mother handed the rosary devotion to St. Dominic, the founder of the Dominicans and whose spiritual sons and daughters remain the most ardent propagators of the devotion.
The propagation dovetails with the missionary activities of the Dominicans in Asia, underscored by the martyrdom in Japan of San Lorenzo Ruiz, the Filipino protomartyr who was a member of the Dominican confraternity of the rosary. Ruiz’s companion-martyrs were Dominicans who were alumni of the University of Santo Tomas and the Colegio de San Juan de Letran.
The last chapter, “La Naval and the Filipinos,” conjures memories of the 1907 canonical coronation of La Naval, which drew Asian Church dignitaries to Manila and triggered the biggest gathering of humanity at that time in the Philippines.
The interesting sidelight to all of this is the article by Eloisa de Castro, history professor of the Faculty of Arts and Letters, which discusses the attempts of the enemies of the Dominicans to stop the canonical coronation. The interesting story shows how ecclesiastical politics and social and national concerns mix to nearly spoil the Dominicans in their hour of triumph.
The welter of social, cultural, devotional, and theological riches that La Naval conjures should provde the book’s claim that La Naval is indeed a “saga.” La Naval is a grand narrative still unfolding. It is a spectacle of faith being unveiled, like the grandest opera.
