Our Mother of Perpetual Help of Baclaran - the Mother of Filipino Catholics
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| Our Mother of Perpetual Help of Baclaran |
This Shrine is the National Shrine of Our Mother of Perpetual Help where the Church is open 24 hours a day, 7 Days a week for all people from all walks of life who make a pilgrimage to her shrine, especially on Wednesdays.
Among all popular devotions in the country, the devotion to Our Mother of Perpetual Help is one of the most popular in the country and its almost mandatory that all Churches, chapels and homes to have a replica of the icon, regardless of its medium, and hold a novena service every Wednesday. The devotees in turn would testify it efficacy where miracles and answered petitions continues up to this day.
The Icon
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| The original Icon in Rome |
In a very beautiful way, the Child Jesus grasps the hand of the Blessed Mother. He seeks comfort from His mother, as He sees the instruments of His passion. The position of Mary’s hands– both holding the Child Jesus (who seems like a small adult) and presenting Him to us– convey the reality of our Lord’s incarnation, that He is true God who became also true man. In iconography, Mary here is represented as the Hodighitria, the one who guides us to the Redeemer. She also is our Help, who intercedes on our behalf with her Son. The star painted on Mary’s veil, centered on her forehead, highlights her role in the plan of salvation as both the Mother of God and our Mother
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| St. Alphonsus Liguori Church in Rome where the original icon is kept and venerated |
According to popular tradition, a merchant acquired the icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help from the island of Crete and had it shipped to Rome towards the end of the fifteenth century. During the voyage, a terrible storm arose, threatening the lives of all on ship. The passengers and crew prayed to our Blessed Mother, and were saved.
Once in Rome, the merchant, dying, ordered that the image should be displayed for public veneration. His friend, who retained the image, received further instructions however his wife liked the icon and persuaded him to keep it in their roof, but the Blessed Mother disagreed: in a dream to his little daughter, the Blessed Mother appeared and expressed the desire for the image to be venerated in a Church between the Basilicas of St. Mary Major and St. John Lateran in Rome. The image, consequently, was housed at the Church of St. Matthew, and became known as “The Madonna of Saint Matthew.” Pilgrims flocked to the church for the next three hundred years, and great graces were bestowed upon the faithful.
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| Pope Pius IX handing over the icon to the Redemptorist Order and instructed them to "Make her known to the World." |
The Arrival of the icon and the devotion in the Philippines
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| The Redemptorists Missionaries introducing the Icon to the Filipinos |
That same year, the Redemptorist Rector of Lipa City in Batangas happened to be visiting Iloilo. He was present at the Novena devotion and determined to introduce it in Lipa. There it was started the following year. When the Rector of Lipa, Fr. Gerard O'Donnell, became Rector of Baclaran, his first thought was of the Novena which he began at 6.00 pm on June 23, 1948.
Fr. Leo English conducted the first Novena in Baclaran. There were only 70 people present. The capacity of the church at that time was only 300. Within the next year, a second session had to be provided, and some extensions were made to the small wooden church. Before the end of 1949, there were eight crowded sessions of the Novena. The Wednesday of each week became a day of prayer to the Virgin of Perpetual Help throughout the entire nation.
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| The present Baclaran Church |
The increasing attendance of the devotees forced the Redemptorists to consider a more spacious church. Fr. Lewis O'Leary, Superior at the time, assumed management of the massive construction. The bulk of the money that financed the building came from the donation of the devotees. The foundation stone had been laid by Cardinal Gilroy of Sydney on January 11, 1953. On January 1958, the Philippine hierarchy officially declared the Baclaran Church to be the National Shrine of the Mother of Perpetual Help. And on December 1st, 1958, the completed church was solemnly consecrated by Archbishop Santos of Manila, assisted by Bishops Antiporda and Shanahan.
The official opening ceremony was held on December 5, 1958. Archbishop Santos celebrated the Mass, assisted by Cardinal Agagianian and several other bishops. In 2015, a Carillon belfry was built as part of the Shrine's redevelopment plan and on September 8 of the same year, Archbishop of Manila Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle blessed the newly-built belfry. This is the first time the Shrine has a bell tower after 60 years. Since the day when the Shrine was opened, it has never been closed, day or night with a special permission obtained from the Vatican. Since then, pilgrims flock the shrine to fulfill their Wednesday duty in honor of Our Mother of Perpetual Help.
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| The visits of Pope St. John Paul II, First in 1973 as a Cardinal and in 1981 as a Pope |
The Baclaran Shrine has a very special visitor that forever be remembered and immortalized in a plaque that can be seen in the facade of the Shrine - no other than the beloved Pope Saint John Paul II. He visited Baclaran, not once, but twice, first as a Cardinal in 1973 and later as a Pope in 1981.
A Swedish journalist, who had known the Pope when he was still assigned to the Roman news beat, shared that knowing he would not be here for long, took the first cab he saw at the airport and asked the driver to the take him to the nearest church. The nearest church happened to be that of Baclaran, a Marian shrine, where he celebrated mass, thanks to the Redemptorist fathers. He was impressed by the devotion of the Filipinos to the Blessed Mother under this particular title from the large attendance of devotees and who continue to flock the Shrine even in the late hours of the night until the wee hours in the morning. In his return in 1981 as a Pope, he was greeted this time with millions of devotees and reminded them to continue their devotion to Mary and stressed the importance of Social justice.
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| Throngs of devotees attending the Wednesday novena in Baclaran Church |
The devotion to Our Mother of Perpetual Help continues to be strong for decades for up to the present, the Wednesday novena is strictly followed from the day of observance down to the recitation of the prayers in a small novena booklet that almost every Filipino Catholic carry with them wherever they go either within or outside the country, Her Feast day is celebrated every June 27 and the devotees are in full attendance and walk the procession in the streets surrounding the Church while praying their rosaries, candles lit and singing the hymns that are sung in the Wednesday novena service.
The phenomena of the devotion to Our Mother of Perpetual Help only shows how Filipinos are still the people in love with Mary, especially in this modern world where God is almost non-existent with the advancements in technology, culture and others, but despite the modernity, the Filipinos still make it a point to pray to our Blessed Mother by means of the Perpetual Help novena and make it a point to pay her a visit in her shrine to ask for her guidance and her perpetual help in their lives.
Masintahing Ina, tulungan mo kami!
References:
"The Baclaran Phenomenon". National Shrine of Our Mother of Perpetual Help. Retrieved from http://baclaranovena.org/About_the%20Shrine/The_Baclaran_Phenomenon.html on January 16, 2017.
"Brief History Of Our Mother Of Perpetual Help in Baclaran". National Shrine of Our Mother of Perpetual Help, Retrieved from http://baclaranovena.org/About_the%20Shrine/History%20Of%20Our%20Mother%20Of%20Perpetual%20Help%20in%20Baclaran.html on on January 16, 2017.
Ferrero, Fabriciano. "The Story of an Icon: The Full History, Tradition and Spirituality of the Popular Icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help". Redemptorist Publications, 2001.
Credits to the owner of the photographs used in this bogpost.
+AM+DG+
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