Our Lady of Peñafrancia is a wooden statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary venerated in Naga City, Bicol, Philippines. The image comes from the original image enshrined in Salamanca, Spain. It is currently housed at the Peñafrancia Basilica where every September is held for the novena festivities in honor of the image as the principal Patroness and Queen of Bicol.
According to the history According a Spanish colonial official from Peña de Francia, Spain (a native of San Martín de Castañar) settled with his family in Cavite in 1712. One day, Miguel Robles de Covarrubias, a son of the official and a seminarian studying at the Universidad de Santo Tomás in Manila, fell seriously ill. He and his family prayed to Our Lady of Peñafrancia, whose picture Miguel clutched to his breast as he hoped for recovery. Miguel vowed that if cured, he would out of gratitude construct a chapel on the banks of the Pasig River in Manila which is now called Paco.
Miguel was miraculously cured, and ordained a priest not in Manila but in Ciudad de Nueva Cáceres (now Naga City) by Bishop Andrés González. To fulfill his vow, Miguel (who was the first diocesan priest ordained in Naga), did two things. First, he mobilized natives along the slopes of Mount Isarog to build a chapel from the local nipa and bamboo, at a site by the banks of the Naga River and not the Pasig as he earlier desired. Second, he ordered a local artisan to carve an image patterned after the picture of Our Lady of Peñafrancia that he always carried with him.
Stories of miracles surrounding the image began circulating immediately, beginning with the account of a resurrected dog. The animal was killed for its blood, which was to be used in painting the newly carved image of Our Lady, and the carcass was dumped into the Naga river. The dog suddenly came back to life and began swimming; hundreds allegedly witnessed the event. News of many other miracles spread quickly, as did public devotion to the image. A letter sent by Miguel to the Dominicans in Salamanca, Spain in 1712 reported numerous miracles through the intercession of Our Lady. The number of devotees eventually increased beyond the Diocese of Nueva Cáceres, which comprised the Bicolandia and Marinduque, and in modern times the devotion has reached other parts of the world along with the Filipino diaspora.
The image is known to devotees by the title Ina, a local term for "Mother".
The feast of Our Lady of Peñafrancia is celebrated on the Sunday after the Octave (8 Days) of September 8 (The Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary) that usually falls on the second or third Sunday of September in Naga City.
Considered the biggest and most popular religious event in the Philippines, the Peñafrancia fiesta is in fact 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, provincial governors and board members, mayors, senators, congressional representatives of the Bicol Region, business/industry leaders, landlords, employees of the government and state firms, etc., vie for the distinct honor of sponsoring novena masses and prayers at the Naga Cathedral during the novena period.
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