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Virgen

The Kapampangans have a unique Marian devotion where instead of pilgrims going to the shrine of the Virgen de los Remedios, the statue of the Virgin Mary leaves its shrine to visit the people. The devotion began in the 1950s when the bishop had images of the Virgen travel around Pampanga to inspire the people. Over the decades, additional copies were made so that the Virgen could visit more towns in the province more quickly. Today, two identical copies continuously journey across Pampanga, bringing the Virgin Mary directly to the Kapampangan people.

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Lyka Pangilinan
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38 views1 page

Virgen

The Kapampangans have a unique Marian devotion where instead of pilgrims going to the shrine of the Virgen de los Remedios, the statue of the Virgin Mary leaves its shrine to visit the people. The devotion began in the 1950s when the bishop had images of the Virgen travel around Pampanga to inspire the people. Over the decades, additional copies were made so that the Virgen could visit more towns in the province more quickly. Today, two identical copies continuously journey across Pampanga, bringing the Virgin Mary directly to the Kapampangan people.

Uploaded by

Lyka Pangilinan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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THE AMAZING AND UNIQUE MARIAN

DEVOTION OF KAPAMPANGANS

 Kapampangans' devotion to their Virgen de los Remedios is beautiful and unique because instead
of devotees going on pilgrimages to her shrine, it is she who leaves her shrine to go to the people.

 The devotion was started by Pampanga's first bishop, Cesar Ma. Guerrero after observing that
"aqui en Pampanga, hay mucha piedad, pero poca caridad!" (here in Pampanga, there is much
piety, but little charity!) In Kapampangan: "keti Pampanga, deng tau mapangadi la, pero
maimut la!". He was also concerned about the Communist insurgency and peasant unrest, which
resulted in numerous incidents of burning of plantations, assassinations of landowners and bloody
military campaigns. Pampanga at the time was known as "Little Russia."

 Bishop Guerrero initiated the Cruzada ning Pamanisi at Lugud (Crusade of Penance and
Charity) where an image of the Virgin Mary would go around Pampanga to inspire
Kapampangans. Bishop Guerrero chose the image of Virgen de los Remedios, having once served as
parish priest of Malate whose patron saint is the same Virgen de los Remedios. He borrowed an
existing similar image (PHOTO 1) from Baliti, an old parish within San Fernando, for the
Cruzada processions around the province, starting in 1952. The first town visited by the Virgen
was Masantol.

 After several months of continuous processions around the province, the image finally returned to
Baliti. So Bishop Guerrero had another image of Virgen de los Remedios made (PHOTO 2), in 1953,
which became the processional image that was canonically crowned three years later, on Sept.
8, 1956. More than 75,000 Kapampangans witnessed the event presided by the papal nuncio
Msgr. Egidio Vagnozzi.

 And so in 1978, Archbishop Oscar Cruz had two identical images made to quicken the pace of
the Virgen's provincial rounds, one image for the southern towns and the other for the northern
towns, with the canonically crowned image staying in the Chancery (archbishop's residence)
and coming out only every Sept. 8 for the reenactment of the coronation, which is alternately
hosted by the two most populous cities, Angeles and San Fernando.

 Meanwhile, the original Virgen de los Remedios in Baliti continues to be venerated by local
parishioners, while its replacement image remains in the chapel of the Chancery waiting for its
annual big day. It is the two identical copies of this replacement image that tirelessly brave the
mountains and the rivers and the floods all over Pampanga to go to all Kapampangans, instead of the
Kapampangans going to her.

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