AS FILIPINO devotees flock to the Minor Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary of Manaoag to mark the centennial of the miraculous image’s coronation, its history is worth revisiting.
The Marian image, commonly known in the Ilocano-speaking regions as “Apo Baket” (Venerable Mother in English), adds a new chapter to her rich storybook even as debate still rages about her origin.
Provenance
Fr. Wilhelm Boñon, O.P., a Manaoag-born Dominican and archivist of the Dominican Province of the Philippines, said there are two known versions of the image’s provenance.
The first was that the image was brought by friars from Mexico, and the other was that it was found at a tree in Manaoag by a farmer.
In an interview with the Varsitarian, Boñon said the former is more known among locals and devotees because that was what they were taught.
“Kapag tinanong mo ‘yung mga tao, taga-dito sa Manaoag, ‘Galing Mexico ‘yan, galing abroad, hindi ‘yan galing Pilipinas,’” he said.
Boñon said historians accompanying the Spanish missionaries in the 17th century recorded in their books that when they were sent out to missions, they brought an image of the Our Lady of the Rosary to serve “as their guide and protectress.”
It is believed that Fr. Mariano Rodriguez, O.P., rector of the basilica in the 1910s, spread the belief that the image of the Virgin Mary was transported from Mexico to the Philippines by the Dominicans on one of their missions.
While he was assigned to the parish, Rodriguez wrote this version of the image’s origin in his book, Historia de Nuestra Señora del Santisimo Rosario de Manaoag, to initiate the petition to Pope Pius XI in 1925 to recognize it as “miraculous” and “important to the faith of the people,” Boñon said.
It therefore became a popular belief that the image was transported from Spain via Mexico in the early 1600s by Fr. Juan de San Jacinto, O.P., Boñon said.
Filipino-made?
Regalado Trota Jose, chair of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP), argued that the venerated image of Our Lady of Manaoag was not of Mexican origin, but rather, made by Filipino artisans.
“I have always shown that the Manaoag ivory images, even that of the callejera (pilgrim image), like that of La Naval (de Manila), are of Philippine origin,” Jose, former archivist of the University, told the Varsitarian.
In his research series titled “A Visual Documentation of Fil-Hispanic Churches,” published in Philippiniana Sacra, the scholarly publication of the UST Ecclesiastical Faculties, Jose noted that the image of Manaoag exhibits Filipino and Oriental features beneath her ornate and lavish clothing.
He described the image as having “large eyes, impassive gaze, fleshy nose, long neck, long fingers,” and hair similar to the image of the Santo Niño (Holy Child).
She also wore a veil resembling those of Guanyin, a deity in Chinese Buddhism, further solidifying that the image was crafted locally.
Manoag’s “long, candle-like fingers” and the “repetitive locks of curled hair of the Sto. Niño, coupled with the gold-leaf finish,” Jose said, were some of the telltale signs that she was a product of Filipino craftsmen, as they have no similarities with those of Mexican-made images.
Boñon, however, noted that, unlike the image of Our Lady of Most Holy Rosary – La Naval de Manila, commissioned by a Spanish captain, Manaoag’s image had lookalikes.
“Kapag pumunta ka sa Norte, may mga makikita kang imahe ng birhen na hindi pangalan Our Lady of Manaoag, pero kung titingnan mo, ‘yung itsura niya, parang kamukha siya ng Manaoag,” Boñon said.
The need to rewrite history
The Dominican archivist said the idea that the Marian image was made in the Philippines should be promoted.
He said Jose’s and other scholars’ analyses and studies of the image presented a more accurate argument than Rodriguez’s claims, which lacked factual evidence.
It is essential to inform the faithful about the image’s origins by publishing more books and conducting further research, Boñon said.
“Ma-appreciate nila ‘yung work ng isang Filipino artisan o isang Filipino-made na [gawa] sa atin na maganda ring klase ng imahe. At ‘yung pagiging milagroso niya, ibig sabihin, hindi lang ‘yung mga gawang abroad ‘yung milagrosong imahe,” Boñon said.
Boñon said reintroducing the image’s origin story would elicit a reaction from the faithful, but should not weaken the devotees’ belief.
“It’s not the origin. Yes, it’s important for history to remember saan galing, pero for the faith of the people, [it] does not matter kasi kung saan siya galing,” the archivist said.
“Ang pakiramdam ng tao ay ‘amin siya. Mother Mary belongs to us, inaangkin namin siya.’ Kahit saan pa siya galing, para sa amin ang Birhen ay dito sa amin galing,” he added.
On Wednesday, April 22, the Manaoag basilica commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Marian image’s canonical coronation.
Our Lady of the Holy Rosary of Manaoag became the third Marian image in the country to be canonically crowned on April 21, 1926.
Msgr. Guglielmo Piani, apostolic delegate to the Philippines, presided over the coronation by the authority of Pope Pius XI. Yuvshenka Andrea R. Osea
