Santa Ana de Hagonoy - The Miraculous Patroness and Matriarch of Hagonoy, Bulacan
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| Santa Ana de Hagonoy |
The devotion to Santa Ana de Hagonoy in time became one of the most important devotions in the province of Bulacan that enjoyed much popularity along with that of Nuestra Señora de Salambao of Obando, Mahal na Krus ng Wawa of Bocaue, Santo Niño de Malolos of Malolos among others.
The Visage of the Matriarch
The image of Santa Ana de Hagonoy is a de tallado wooden image of Saint Anne with the Blessed Virgin Mary enthroned at the main altar of the Church. The image of Señora Santa Ana de Hagonoy presents St. Anne facing the Child Mary teaching the Scriptures while the Child Mary is holding and reading a book. The image is also vested with real clothing made from different materials offeed by devotees over the centuries. Recently, both Mother and Daughter are wearing crowns and Santa Ana is holding a sheaf of flowers. At times, Apo Ana and La Niña Maria would sport their signature paragua or an umbrella-like halo which is a common accessory during the olden days.
An image of San Joaquin, the Father of the Blessed Virgin Mary also compliments the image and appears in the altar from time to time.
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| Santa Ana, La Niña Maria and San Jaoquin of Hagonoy, Bulacan |
All our information concerning the names and lives of Sts. Joachim and Anne, the parents of Mary, is derived from apocryphal literature, the Gospel of the Nativity of Mary, the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew and the Protoevangelium of James. Though the earliest form of the latter, on which directly or indirectly the other two seem to be based, goes back to about A.D. 150.
In the Orient the Protoevangelium had great authority and portions of it were read on the feasts of Mary by the Greeks, Syrians, Coptics, and Arabians. In the Occident, however, it was rejected by the Fathers of the Church until its contents were incorporated by Jacobus de Voragine in his "Golden Legend" in the thirteenth century. From that time on the story of St. Anne spread over the West and was amply developed, until St. Anne became one of the most popular saints also of the Latin Church.
In the Orient the Protoevangelium had great authority and portions of it were read on the feasts of Mary by the Greeks, Syrians, Coptics, and Arabians. In the Occident, however, it was rejected by the Fathers of the Church until its contents were incorporated by Jacobus de Voragine in his "Golden Legend" in the thirteenth century. From that time on the story of St. Anne spread over the West and was amply developed, until St. Anne became one of the most popular saints also of the Latin Church.
The Protoevangelium gives the following account: In Nazareth there lived a rich and pious couple, Joachim and Hannah. They were childless. When on a feast day Joachim presented himself to offer sacrifice in the temple, he was repulsed by a certain Ruben, under the pretext that men without offspring were unworthy to be admitted. Whereupon Joachim, bowed down with grief, did not return home, but went into the mountains to make his plaint to God in solitude. Also Anne, having learned the reason of the prolonged absence of her husband, cried to the Lord to take away from her the curse of sterility, promising to dedicate her child to the service of God. Their prayers were heard; an angel came to Anne and said: "Anne, the Lord has looked upon thy tears; thou shalt conceive and give birth and the fruit of thy womb shall be blessed by all the world". The angel made the same promise to Joachim, who returned to his wife. Hannah gave birth to a daughter whom she called Mary.
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| Santa Ana de Hagonoy |
The devotion to St. Anne began in the Church of the East. In the Orient the cult of St. Anne can be traced to the fourth century with Justinian I had a church dedicated to her. The canon of the Greek Office of St. Anne was composed by St. Theophanes, but older parts of the Office are ascribed to Anatolius of Byzantium. Her feast is celebrated in the East on the 25th day of July, which may be the day of the dedication of her first church at Constantinople or the anniversary of the arrival of her relics in Constantinople.
In the Latin Church St. Anne was not venerated, except, perhaps, in the south of France, before the thirteenth century. Her picture, painted in the eighth century, which was found lately in the church of Santa Maria Antiqua in Rome, owes its origin to Byzantine influence. Her feast, under the influence of the "Golden Legend", is first found in the thirteenth century. The devotion was introduced in England by Urban VI on November 21, 1378, from which time it spread all over the Western Church. It was extended to the universal Latin Church in 1584.
The supposed relics of St. Anne were brought from the Holy Land to Constantinople in 710 and were still kept there in the church of St. Sophia in 1333. The tradition of the church of Apt in southern France also holds a tradition that the body of St. Anne was brought to Apt by St. Lazarus, the friend of Christ, was hidden by St. Auspicius, and found again during the reign of Charlemagne; these relics were brought to a magnificent chapel in 1664.
St. Anne is the patroness of some areas in France and Canada where she is the principal patron of the province of Quebec, the shrine of St. Anne de Beaupré is well known.
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| The National Shrine of Sta. Ana de Hagonoy, Hagonoy, Bulacan |
The devotion to Santa Ana in Hagonoy, Bulacan began from the time the town of Hagonoy is founded by the Augustinian friars in 1591 and the parish was placed under the patronage of St. Anne, the Mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary by Fray Diego Ordoñez de Vivar, OSA. Fray Diego establish Hagonoy as one of the visitas of Convento de Calumpit. Proof of the establishment of the visita of Hagonoy can be found on the documents from a private meeting of the Augustinian dated January 17, 1582.
From 1731 to 1734, a stone and brick church was built by Fray Juan Albarràn, possibly still on the Brgy. Santa Monica site. The said church was razed by fire in August 12, 1748. As for the present church, its foundations were laid in 1747 on its current site in Barrio Sto Niño during the time of Fray Eusebio Polo. The site was moved to its present location due to flooding on the former site. Fray Buenaventura Roldán completed the church in 1752. Another church was said to have been built from 1815 to 1836 by Fray Juan Coronado.
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| Santa Ana de Hagonoy |
The venerated image of Santa Ana de Hagonoy according to extant records of the parish has veen venerated in the shrine's retablo mayor since the tenure of Fray Manuel Alvarez, OSA, the longest serving parish priest of Hagonoy since 1862. Since the enthronement of the image of Santa Ana de Hagonoy, numerous miracles were attributed to her intercession and countless testimonies have been reported on the efficacy of the intercession of the Mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Grand Mother of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Santa Ana became an integral part of the lives of the people of Hagonoy that she earned the term of endearment "Apo Ana".
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| Santa Ana de Hagonoy |
The devotion to Santa Ana de Hagonoy continued to flourish and proper over the next centuries from the time Hagonoy was placed under her patronage and the enshrinement of her image. Tuesdays are set as the day of devotion to St. Anne where perpetual novenas to her are prayed.
The feasts of Santa Hagonoy is much celebrated by the townsfolk of Hagonoy, its neighboring towns and other parts of country. There were three feast days that are dedicated to celebrate the feasts of Apo Ana: Last Sunday of April - the Pistang Pasasalamat ng Bayan, July 26 - the Liturgical Feast day and October 29 - the shrinehood anniversary.
The first fiesta is the Pistang Pasasalamat ng Bayan held every Last Sunday of April where the townsfolk of Hagonoy give thanks to Apo Ana for saving Hagonoy form different calacmities asn crisis that befell the town over the centuries. It is on this day where the patrons from different barangays and barrio under the jursidiction of Hagonoy shrine would join Apo Ana in procession and the traditional fance called "Lerion" is performed.
The second fiesta is the Liturgical feast that falls every July 26. The month of July is known as "Buwan ni Apo Ana" where devotees dedicated the whole month of July celebrating the feast of Apo Ana and this is culminated on her July 26 fiesta. In this fiesta, the people of Hagonoy would also honor San Joaquin since in the current liturgical calendar, they share the same feast day.
The third fiesta is set every October 29 to commemorate the declaration of Sta. Ana Church of Hagonoy as a National Shrine.
There were many things that we can lern from the devotion to St. Anne , most especially in our family life and for this case , the powerful protection of our saints. First is that we have to value and appreciate our grand parents and never take them for granted because without them, we won't have our parents with us and do listen to them and never abandon them. The secondlesson is that we should be thankful to our saints for the protection they obtained for us for they are always keen to help us in every way.
Santa Ana de Hagonoy, Ina ng Hagonoy, Ipanalangin mo kami!
References:
Espinosa, Jose Paulo, "Debosyon at Kasaysayan ng Santa Ana de Hagonoy", Retrieved from https://dambana.blogspot.com/2014/04/feature-article-debosyon-at-kasaysayan_7787.html on November 6, 2019.
Galenda OSA, Pedro, "Angels in Stone: Architecture of Augustinian Churches in the Philippines" (Second ed.). Manila, Philippines: San Agustin Museum, 1996.
"National Shrines in the Philippines". Philippines' Catholic Directory. Retrieved Novemr 10, 2019.
"St. Anne", Retrieved from http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01538a.htm on November 5, 2019.
Special credits to the owner of the photographs used in this blogpost. The first photo in this blogpost is from the blogger's personal collection.
+AM+DG+
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