Nuestra Señora del Santisimo Rosario de Coloong - The Catalyst of the Rosary devotion in Valenzuela City

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Nuestra Señora del Santisimo Rosario de Coloong
The highly urbanized Valenzuela City is known by the majority as the location of two of its key Churches, the historic parish of San Diego de Alcala in Polo with its still existing bell tower - the lone survivor of the Second World War, and the famous National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima. The latter became a popular pilgrimage site and the center of the devotion to Our Lady of Fatima to spread the devotion and importance of the Rosary and her message and exhortations for peace in the world and conversion of sinners.

But if we look closely to the history of the Catholic faith in Valenzuela City, there was already a rosary center in the city with a unique image of Our Lady of the Rosary as the point of devotion in old Valenzuela City. The devotion to Our Lady of the Rosary of Coloong, Polo, Valenzuela spread throughout the city by means of a old pious practice that is performed by the month of October where it was brought to different parts of the city that later became parishes or chapels dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary.

Nuestra Señora del Santisimo Rosario de Coloong
The image

The image of Nuestra Señora del Santisimo Rosario de Coloong is a painted image of Our Lady of the Rosary which is one of the most unique in Rosary images in the country for it shows the Rosary Virgin with Sts. Dominic de Guzman and Francis of Assisi, with two cherubs on each side. The Virgin is painted seated with her long wavy hair, wearing a white robe with a blue cape decorated with golden trimmings and fleur-de-lis as its design, holds a rosary and sport a crown on it head . The Child Jesus on the other hand also wears a crown, wearing a the white robe holding a globe and a seven petal flower and seated on the Virgin's lap.

In this icon, it depicts Sts. Dominic de Guzman, Founder of the Dominican Order, kneeling on the right receiving the Holy Rosary from the Blessed Virgin Mary while holding the staff with a two barred Cross. Besides St. Dominic is the black and white colored dog bearing a flaming torch in his mouth and has a globus cruciger on its feet which alludes the dream of his mother, Blessed Jane of Aza, where she saw a dog of black and whire in color bearing a flaming torch and setting the world on fire. It is said that this dream predicts the future of her son as great preacher which he was and later found the Order of the Preachers, also known as the Dominicans. Interestingly, the term "Dominican" can also be read as a combination of two Latin terms "Domini" (Lord) and "canes" (dog) which means "Hounds of the Lord" where the Order became known to chase away heresies from the faithful by their effective preaching. The Order is also famous for spreading the devotion of the Holy Rosary as part of their mission.

St. Francis of Assisi, Founder of the Franciscan Order, on the other hand is holding a Cross, kneeling on the left receiving the 7-petal flower from the Child Jesus which somehow alludes to the Order's Franciscan Crown. The Franciscan Crown is a set of prayer beads of the Franciscan Order, just like the Rosary of the Dominicans, where it meditates on the Joys of the Blessed Virgin Mary and its 73 beads signifies the 73 years the Blessed Mother lived on earth in the Franciscan tradition.

The replica of Nuestra Señora del Santisimo
Rosario de Coloong
The origins

The devotion to Nuestra Señora del Santisimo Rosario de Coloong began when one rainy season, the wife of a certain Ambrosia Pasco found a painting of Our Lady of the Rosary with Sts. Dominic and Francis of Assisi stuck in a mangrove tree in Coloong located near the current chapel dedicated to the Virgin. Once the image was retrieved, all of a sudden, the rain stopped and the townsfolk took it as a miracle since it has been days that the rain was pouring that later flooded the barrio. A chapel was immediately established in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title Our Lady of the Rosary. The devotion to the Virgin spread immediately to the parish and other parts of the town.

The devotion would reach its turning point when the parish of San Diego de Alcala of Polo, Valenzuela was taken over by the secular clergy. Around 1900 - 1907, Rev. Fr. Esteban Daez was appointed as the parish priest of the said parish that became instrumental on further spreading the devotion to Our Lady of the Rosary of Coloong to Valenzuela. It was during his tenure that he commissioned a statue of the Virgin based from the painting and also said masses in a visita in Karuhatan after it was established between 1910 and 1919 in honor of the Virgin of the Rosary.

At present, the replica of the icon is currently enshrined at the chapel of Coloong since the family decided to keep the original one to safeguard it from theft and preservation.

The statue of Nuestra Señora del Santisimo
Rosario of San Diego de Alcala Parish in
Polo, Valenzuela pattered after the Coloong icon
The Taluki and the spread of the devotion

It was during this time that a pious tradition of "taluki" or a daily recitation of the rosary accompanied with a set of prayers, meditations and hymns came to being that sometimes would culminate to a "lutrina" procession in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary. The term "taluki" was taken from Tagalog which literally means a facial veil or covering and the name of the tradition was taken from the last few stanzas of the hymn for this tradition:

 Reyna ng Langit, ako ay paalam
Ng bituing payak na kokoronahan
Inang sinisinta, ako ay paalam
Paalam sa iyo, paalam paalam

 Paalam at iyong tabing mong TALUKI
Sa iyong mukhang luwalhati
At sa aming Pulong magdadalamhati
Siya ring naglalambong ng luha't pighati

 Paalam Ina Kong pinakaiîbig
Templo ka't sagraryo ng Diyos sa langit
Sa Iyong Rosaryo ang Bayang tahimik
Pakamtan sa Amin ngayo'y nananalig.

The prayer manual "Buwan ng Rosaryo o Buwan ng Oktubre" of the "Taluki" tradition was originally written in Spanish by Rev. Fr. Jose Maria Moran, OP and it was later translated in Tagalog a few years later and it's last edition was printed by the University of Santo Tomas Press in 1956 which was arranged by Rev. Fr. Excelso Garcia, OP. The manual can be seen as the Rosary month's counterpart of the famous manual of Rev. Fr. Mariano Sevilla of the Flores de Mayo traditions for the month of May.

The images of Our Lady of the Rosary in Karuhatan,
Gen. T. de Leon, Maysan,and Mapulang Lupa, Valenzuela City
The taluki rites are headed by the elders of the town who would go to their respective visitas dedicated to the Virgin accompanied by other devotees of all ages who are willing to participate to the rites. The taluki rites would became a catalyst of establishment of visitas in Malinta, Maysan, Torres Bugallon (now Gen T. De Leon) and Karuahatan that would later became parishes a few years later in order to perform the taluki rites in their own locations due to the proximity of Polo to these far reached towns. Soon after, these towns would commission their own images of Our Lady of the Rosary that can still be venerated in their respective parishes.

It was from the spread of the devotion of the Rosary and  the Taluki tradition that would mark the establishment of parishes in Valenzuela City that would foster the Catholic faith in the city. It is also interesting to note that a few decades later, the Parish and National Shrine of  Our Lady of Fatima will be established in the city (in Marulas area) where the Rosary is the essential corner stone in the history and development of Valenzuela City.

The devotion at present

Although the devotion of the Rosary and the aged old tradition of Taluki played a key role in the establishment of numerous parishes in Valenzuela City, it is unfortunate that the tradition was almost forgotten and as of this writing, only the surrounding visitas of the Polo Parish (where Coloong is included) continues this tradition and only the elders of the are the ones who are still performing this tradition. Numerous factors contributed to this decline from the decreasing number of participants due to migration to other locations or death of some elders who pioneered the practice and the loss of some copies of the Taluki manual yet a few copies still exists to this day. It wasn't until a research regarding this tradition came out in 2017 that helped renew interest on this almost forgotten rosary tradition in Valenzuela City. (Blogger's note: It was this research material that was utilized for this blogpost).

St. Louis de Montfort once said: "We make one great prayer together, so that if one person is not praying well, someone else in the same gathering who prays better may make up for his deficiency. In this way, those who are strong uphold the weak. Those who are fervent inspire the lukewarm. One who says his Rosary alone only gains the merit of that one Rosary. But if he says it together with others, he gains the merit of each Rosary. This is the law of public prayer." In the history of Nuestra Señora del Santisimo Rosario de Coloong and its accompanying tradition, we see here once again the power of the Rosary, not only as an instrument of peace, a powerful weapon against heresy and evil but also a corner stone of a community that would became a prosperous one that is today.

References:

Lumabas, Danilo, Iyang tabing mong Taluki, O Maria: Ang tradisyon ng pagtataluki at anf simula ng pagbuo ng mga pamayananng Kristiyano sa Lungsod ng Valenzuela, 4th International Confernece of the International Council for Historical and Cultural Cooperation - Southeast  Asia, September 15, 2017.
Montfort, Louis Marie, The Secret of the Rosary, Montfort Publications, New York, USA, 1950.

Photographs:

Lumabas, Danilo

Special thanks to Mr. Danilo Lumabas for the document and photographs of Nuestra Señora del Santisimo Rosario de Coloong that was utilized for this blogpost.
+AM+DG+

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