Nuestra Señora del Mar Cautiva - La Union's Star of the Sea
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| Nuestra Señora del Mar Cautiva |
The miraculous image of Nuestra Señora del Mar Cautiva is becoming known for the numerous miracles that were attributed to her intercession and pilgrims are now flocking the parish to ask for divine intervention through the help of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Star of the Sea.
The image
The beautiful image of Nuestra Señora del Mar Cautiva is that of de vestir image of the Blessed Virgin Mary with a wooden bastidor body and the heads, hands and the Child Jesus is made of ivory. The image of the Mother and Child sports a set of crowns, doce estrellas for the Virgin. The Virgin and the Child Jesus is vested with simple yet beautiful vestments that adds to the charm of the image. What was unique to this image is that the image holds a rosary, at the same time, the Virgin is wearing the Augustinian Correa since the parish was under the Augustinian Order yet the image was intended to be an image of Our Lady of the Rosary as the parish priest initially requested.
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| Nuestra Señora del Mar Cautiva de La Union |
In 1845, when the Holy Guardian Angels, the titular patron saints of Sto. Tomas, La Union, Rev. Fr. Santiago Romero, the parish priest at that time, propagated the devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary as that of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary. He asked the help of some sculptors in Manila to carve three statues to be enshrined at the parish church - The Virgen del Santisimo Rosario, San Miguel Arcangel and the San Angel Custodio (Holy Guardian Angels). In July of that year, the statues were packed in three boxes and sent to Sto. Tomas by sailboat named Matutina via China Sea.
Near Bolinao, Pangasinan, the "Matutina" was attacked by sea pirates from Jolo. The crewmen of the sailboat fought valiantly while praying to the Blessed Mother for help and protection, and though outnumbered and wounded, no one among them died.
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| Holy Guardian Angels Parish, Sto. Tomas, La Union |
The pirates seized all their belongings, including the boxes containing the holy statues. They mocked at the statues and cut the left forearm of the statue of the Blessed Mother then threw the three boxes into the sea.
Two of the boxes sank while the one that contained the Blessed Mother's statue floated to the shores of Bolinao. Christian soldiers found the open box with the holy statue amazingly dry. They took the statue to their parish priest who noted the address Sto. Tomas, La Union on the box. He wrote Fr. Santiago who asked that the holy image be sent to Sto. Tomas.
On July 19, 1845, the holy image of the Blessed Mother was brought to the parish church of Sto. Tomas amid music and ringing of church bells ten enshrined at the altar for public devotion. Since then, numerous miracles, conversions and cures, including safe and easy childbirth, were attributed to her.
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| Nuestra Señora del Mar Cautiva |
Fr. Lorenzo Rodriguez, an Augustinian, had tried to replace the Virgin's lost arm with a golden forearm. But the replacement shrank and fell off the statue on the third day. It was replaced with an ivory arm, but the same thing happened.
So what the devotees did was to tie the ivory forearm with strings to avoid its falling off. This condition of the image remains until now for all to see.
The devotees later concluded that the Blessed Mother perhaps preferred it that way. Maybe she wanted a permanent mark of what she had suffered in the hands of the pirates. Or she wanted a memento of the manner her holy image reached Sto. Tomas.
With this holy image, the Blessed Mother is venerated as Virgen del Mar Cautiva, the patroness of Sto. Tomas, La Union, owing to her mysterious story by the sea.
Miracles
Numerous miracles were attributed to the Virgen del Mar Cautiva over the years and these miracles continues to this day. The devotees would usually borrow the dress, the veil or the correa of the image that will be brought to the sick members of their family and miracles of healing were reported up to this day. One of this cases is that a man was in a state of comatose for days, then his family brought with them a cape of the Virgin and was placed to him like a blanket. While the family are praying for his recovery, suddenly, the man woke up as if nothing happened and thanked Our Lord, through the Virgin his cure.
It can also be noted that the Virgin is also known as the patroness of fishermen in the area and the thriving fishing industry in Sto. Tomas, La Union is attributed through the protection and intercession of Virgen del Mar Cautiva.
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| Fluvial Procession with the image of the Virgen del Mar Cautiva |
The Feast of Virgen del Mar Cautiva celebrates two feast days, her actual Feast day, April 26 and July 19, the day of the arrival of the image to Santo Tomas, La Union where Sanglad Festival is held. Both fiestas are held in thanksgiving for the miracles that the Virgin wrought to her people and devotees.
Up to this day, pilgrims continued to flock her shrine in La Union to ask for her intercession and healing. As we close this blogpost dedicated to the Virgen del Mar Cautiva of La Union, here is an excerpt from the sermons of St. Bernard of Clairveaux, Doctor of the Church and noted Marian devotee on his reflection on Mary as the Star of the Sea:
"If the winds of temptation arise; If you are driven upon the rocks of tribulation look to the star, call on Mary; If you are tossed upon the waves of pride, of ambition, of envy, of rivalry, look to the star, call on Mary. Should anger, or avarice, or fleshly desire violently assail the frail vessel of your soul, look at the star, call upon Mary."
Nuestra Señora del Mar Cautiva, pray for us!
Reference:
Daugthers of St. Paul (2004), Shrines, Incarnating Christ Today, Paulinian Publications, Makati City
Holy Guardian Angels Parish, (2015), History of Nuestra Señora del Mar Cautiva, Holy Guardian Angels Parish, Santo Tomas, La Union.
Sanchez, Francisco (1904). La Virgen Maria Venerada en sus Imagenes Filipinas, Manila: Imp. De Santos y Bernal.
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