Nuestra Señora de la Consolacion y Correa de Paombong - The Queen and Patroness of Paombong, Bulacan

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Nuestra Señora de la Consolacion y Correa de Paombong

Paombong, Bulacan, is known as the "Vinegar Capital of the Philippines" due to its famous "Sukang Paombong" made from nipa sap which is very popular in the country. It is also in this town that the historic St. James the Apostle Parish is located where the folks of Paombong have a great devotion to their two patron saints: St. James the Great, the town's Patron and Nuestra Señora de la Consolacion y Correa, the town's Queen and Patroness.

Nuestra Señora de la Consolacion y Correa
de Paombong
The image

The beautiful ivory image of Nuestra Señora de la Consolacion y Correa is one of the most presitne and well preserved image of the Blessed Virign Mary in the province of Bulacan. THe facial features of the Virgin has a serious mien while the Child Jesus has a cheerful smile.  The image of La Consolacion of Paombong is a de vestir image of the VIrign where she is vested richly like most images of the Virgin of ots time. She and her Son wears a correa (the Black cincture of the Augustinians Order), a set of jewels and crowns. The Virgin sports the diagnostic estrellas and a uniquely crafted rostrillo. The image at present is kept in her well secured altar, watching over her devotees. 

The origins of the devotion

The devotion to Nuestra Señora de la Consolacion de Paombong traces its beginnings with the establishment of the Parish of St. James the Apostle was originally built as visita of Malolos in 1580, established as parish in 1639 made of light materials. The parish parish was then administered by the Augustinian Order. It suffered a massive fire causing it to lost its ancient architecture. It was reconstructed in the 1970s and reconstructed again in 2003. 

The devotion to Nuestra Señora de la Consolacion y Correa is believed to be introduced by the Augustinian Friars when the visita became a parish in 1639. Since then, the devotion to La Consolacion became popular to the town and gained much devotees through the centuries.

Nuestra Señora de la Consolacion y Correa de Paombong
In 1988, the Blessed Virign Mary as Nuestra Señora de la Consolacion y Correa was proclaimed as the Secondary Patroness or "Patronang Pandangal" of Paombong, Bulacan and the devotion was further streghten at that time. WIth this proclamation, with the permission from the Archbishop of Manila, the Cofradia dela Nuestra Señora dela Consolacion y Correa (based in San Agustin Church in Intramuros) was established in Paombong to further strengthen the devotion to La Consolacion in 1974. 

The Feast of Nuestra Señora de la Consolacion y Correa de Paombong is celebrated every First Sunday of September.

The decline of the devotion

Since the establishment of the Cofradia dedicated to Our Lady of Consolation, the devotion grew in the course of years. However, the devotion faced a decline with the death of most of the Cofradia's members. 

Another contributing factor of the decline when  it was discovered that the image was made of ivory when a finger of the Child Jesus was broken. Out of fear of theft and for safekeeping measures, the image was kept in a well guarded glass altar-vault and it remained there for decades up to this day. To compensate, a replica was commissioned for processions and other parish functions. Though the safekeeping measure is understandable, the devotees felt that there was a wall that separated them with their patroness which led to the waning of the devotion.

The resurgence and revival

In recent years, there was a renewed interest to revive the waning devotion to Nuestra Señora de la Consolacion de Paombong in line of the 400th founding anniversary of Paombong, Bulacan and the 380th anniversary of establishment of the parish and the arrival of the Virigin. Since 2009, a series of programs and activities were carefully planned for the revival of the devotion from setting up Marian exhibits, a Marian procession, recitation and praying of the Coronilla (Chaplet of Our Lady of Consolation and Cincture), votive masses in honor of Our Lady of Consolation, accepting new members to the Cofradia among others.

In 2019, a movement to have the image to be vested with a new regalia (she wore the same vestment for decades) gained much momentum that would eventually led to the re-introduction of the original image of Nuestra Señora de la Consolacion y Correa de Paombong to general public and Marian devotees nationwide. The much awaited event took place on December 28, 2019 - Feast of the Holy Innocents. 

With these efforts to revive the devotion to Nuestra Señora de la Consolacion y Correa de Paombong by her devotees, it can be said that work has just began and it is gaining momentum at this point. Let us all pray that the devotion would flourish once again and once again enjoy acclaim and a renewed devotion to the Blessed Mother as the Lady of Consolation who guided and protected Paombong since her enthronement.

Nuestra Señora de la Consolacion y Correa de Paombong, pray for us!

References:

Calayag, Teresita, "Ang Debosyon sa Nuestra Señora de la Consolacion y Correa sa Parokya ni Santiago Apostol", Retrieved from https://dambana.blogspot.com/2014/01/paombong-cultural-section-ang-debosyon.html on December 22, 2019.
"Paombong Bulacan Suka Festival", Retrieved from http://www.centralluzon.com/content/view/26/9/ on December 15, 2019.
Sarmiento, EJ, "Nuestra Señora de la Consolacion y Correa: La Gran Madre y Reina al Pueblo de Paombong", unpublished manuscript.

Special thanks to the owners of the photographs used in this blogpost.
+AM+DG+

Comments

  1. YohmDecember 29, 2019 at 10:43 AM

    Thank you for this article. This would help a lot of people to know more about our Second Patroness.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownSeptember 3, 2020 at 8:08 AM

    I hope it will help us to search for more things about our second patroness

    ReplyDelete

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