The Pe�afrancia Festival: For the love of 'Ina'

On Friday last week, barely a month after the death of Interior and Local Government Secretary and beloved ex-Naga mayor Jesse Robredo, devotees flocked to the Basilica Minore in Naga to transfer the image of the Our Lady of Peñafrancia, patroness of Bicol, to the Naga Metropolitan Cathedral for a week-long novena.

It was time for the Traslacion, an integral part of Naga City's Peñafrancia Festival.


A barge carrying the image of Our Lady of Penafrancia passes through the river in Naga City during the patron saint's 300th anniversary fluvial procession in 2010. Roy Lagarde
Although the devotees have been doing this for years, there was something different about it this year.

“Jess was sorely missed at the Traslacion,” said Nagueño professor Paz Verdades Santos, referring to Robredo.

The Secretary was en route to his hometown when the plane he was on crashed off the coast of Masbate on August 18.

“There was a heavy downpour, but no one left his or her place in the procession. Some said the skies were weeping because Jess wasn't there,” Santos added.

It was no secret that Robredo has been a devotee of the Our Lady of Peñafrancia since he was a young man.

The festival

Naga City’s Peñafrancia Festival is one of the country’s biggest displays of religious devotion, uniting Bicolanos of all ages and from all over the world in devotion to their beloved “Ina” — Our Lady of Peñafrancia, patroness of Bicol.

This year marks the festival’s 302nd anniversary.

According to the Peñafrancia Basilica website, the devotion to the Lady of Peñafrancia originated from Salamanca, Spain in the 1400s, when hermit Simon Vela had a vision of the Virgin Mary and later discovered an image of her in the Peña de Francia mountains.

In the 18th century, the Cobarrubias family of San Martin de Castañar in Spain came to the Philippines and settled in Cavite, bringing with them their son Miguel, who was a devotee of the Lady of Peñafrancia, and who would eventually be ordained in Naga.

According to the website, whenever the sickly Miguel fell ill, he prayed to the Lady and recovered thereafter. In gratitude, he built a chapel in her name near the hills, so that the Cimarrones tribes who lived at the base of Mt. Isarog could easier hear mass.

At the same time, Miguel also commissioned a sculptor to craft a wooden image of the Lady, patterned after the original in Spain. The image was painted with the blood of a dog that was said to have become the Lady’s first miracle when it swam back to life after its body was discarded in a river. The image was stolen in 1981, but returned — some say miraculously — the year later.

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/273412/lifestyle/culture/the-pe-ancia-festival-for-the-love-of-ina
The Pe�afrancia Festival: For the love of 'Ina'

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