Our Lady of Peñafrancia

The devotion to Our Lady of Peñafrancia originates from the province of Salamanca, Spain. In the 1400s, Simón Vela, who came from a rich family, gave up his inheritance to become a laybrother of a Franciscan convent in Paris. He journeyed to the mountains of Peña de Francia ("Rock of France") in Salamanca, after hearing a voice instructing him to look for a sacred image of Mary; this is where the title "Peñafrancia" came from. The statue had been hidden with other images and church bells to prevent them from falling into the hands of Moors and Saracens. In 1434, Vela rediscovered the statue buried under a rock on the mountain of Peña de Francia. When reports of miraculous healings began circulating, Vela built a chapel for the image. Later, a larger church, the Santuario de Nuestra Señora de la Peña de Francia, was built on the plains at the top of Peña de Francia and entrusted to the Dominicans. In the fifteenth century, they built the church, the convent, and a hospice to accommodate pilgrims, with the tower built in 1767. The Spanish image was canonically crowned in 1952. ==The Philippines==

In 1712, Miguel Robles de Covarrubias, a seminarian at the Universidad de Santo Tomas in Manila and whose father was a Spanish official from Peña de Francia, fell seriously ill. He had a holy card of the image found by Simón Vela and placed it on the parts of his body which greatly pained him. This gave him relief from his suffering, and in gratitude he built a small church of nipa by a brook near the Pasig River, and housed a circa 1690 canvas copy of the Spanish image. The painting is now at the Archdiocesan Shrine of Nuestra Señora de Peñafrancia de Manila in Paco. Covarrubias was ordained to the priesthood in Ciudad de Nueva Cáceres (now Naga City), where he became parish priest of the cathedral. He had a local artisan carve a statue replicating the painting of the Virgin, and built a stone church for it. Theft of the image , Naga City On August 15, 1981, at around 4:30 in the morning, the caretaker of the Peñafrancia Shrine discovered the image of Our Lady of Peñafrancia had disappeared. The police reported the culprits had sawn the iron grilles behind the church and stole the image. The identity of the thieves remained a mystery, with the leading theory being they were selling it on a black market for valuable items. The manto and steel bar which held the image were found in the graveyard of Peñafrancia Shrine, without the image. In May 1982, an antiques dealer and devotee, Francisco Vecin, obtained information suggesting a man based along A. Mabini Street in Malate, Manila, was selling the image, which at the time was allegedly in the hands of a friend. He reported to Florencio Yllana that the missing image was located in Cebu. On September 3, 1982, the image was handed to Vecin in a sealed box, and returned to Naga on September 8, 1982 – the Feast of the Nativity of Mary. Following the theft, Church officials commissioned a replica for use in the 1981 celebrations. Today, the original image is enshrined in Peñafrancia Basilica along Balatas Street in Naga, which was built to accommodate the growing numbers of devotees starting in the late 1970s. The replica is instead used for all major processions. Basilica In 1960, the first Archbishop of Cáceres, Pedro P. Santos, dreamt of building a new and bigger church to be a basilica and permanent shrine of the Lady of Peñafrancia in Bicol. The task was assumed by his successor, Teopisto V. Alberto. On October 30, 1973, the shrine was made a parish with the Auxiliary Bishop of Cáceres, Concordio Sarte, as its first parish priest. The new church was completed in 1981 and dedicated as the "Church of Nuestra Señora de Peñafrancia". The original statue commissioned by Covarrubias, recovered from theft in 1982, was moved to the new church, which in 1985 was elevated to the rank of minor basilica. Tercentenary Celebration In 2010, the devotion marked its 300th year. The Archdiocese of Caceres outlined a three-year preparation for the tercentenary, with each year focused on a particular theme and objective. • Year 1 (September 2007 to September 2008 ) – the theme was "Remembering the Gift of the Devotion to Ina", dedicated to revisiting the history of the devotion in view of deeper understanding. • Year 2 (September 2008 to September 2009) – the theme was "Renewing the Faith through Ina", dedicated to appreciating devotees' giftedness towards a more vibrant and relevant faith life. • Year 3 (September 2009 to September 2010) – the theme was "Sharing the Future in Hope", dedicated to envisioning the future with the intent of sharing fruits of the devotion with subsequent generations. In Year 4 (September 2010), the Church in Bicol celebrated the tercentenary itself with the theme, "A Gift Received, a Gift to Share" (Balaog inako, Balaog itao). ==Feast day==

In Spain, the Feast of Nuestra Señora de la Peña de Francia is September 8. In 1895, Pope Leo XIII, acting on the petition of the clergy and members of the Diocese of Nueva Cáceres, issued a rescript fixing the feast day of Our Lady of Peñafrancia on the first Sunday of July, and declaring her principal patroness of the city of Nueva Cáceres. Pope Pius X, through a rescript dated April 8, 1905, reassigned the Feast of Our Lady of Peñafrancia to the Sunday after the Octave of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. To determine the annual date of celebrations in Bicol, the main reference point is the Nativity of Mary (September 8), then its Octave day of (September 15), with the actual feast day on the Sunday immediately after. The Traslación to begin the novena is held on the afternoon the Friday ten days before, and the Fluvial Procession on the Saturday or vigil of the feast day. ==The Peñafrancia Festival==

The Peñafrancia Festival, which has been described as the biggest Marian event in Asia, is a celebration of two feasts: first, the Divino Rostro (Holy Face of Jesus) on the second Friday of September, and the Our Lady of Peñafrancia the third weekend of September. Considered one of the biggest and most popular religious events in the Philippines, the Peñafrancia festivities open the long celebrations of Christmas in the Philippines for Bicolanos. Tens of thousands of pilgrims and tourists visit Naga every September for the novena and subsequent events. Feast day . The feast day of Our Lady of Peñafrancia is on the third Sunday of September. Filipinos at home or abroad gather with relatives and friends to share food and drinks, and together give homage and thanksgiving to the Virgin. The feast day is preceded by a novena to the Virgin. On the first day, the replica of the Virgin is brought to the Metropolitan Cathedral and Parish of Saint John the Evangelist, where the novena is held. On the last day, the image is returned to the shrine on a barge sailing the Naga River. The evening procession is lit with thousands of candles held by devotees in boats escorting the barge. When the image reaches its destination, devotees shout "¡Viva la Virgen!" ("Long live the Virgin!"), and the image is carried back to the cathedral in a land procession. Devotees with lit candles will often kneel on the ground and bow their heads in prayer as the fluvial procession carrying the Virgin travels on river in the downtown area. A multicolored barge carries both the Virgin of Peñafrancia and the Divino Rostro passes the river from the Metropolitan Cathedral to her home in the basilica. Upon arrival, the Virgin is received in formal religious rites by Catholic prelates of the Bicolandia, led by the Archbishop of Nueva Cáceres, the local ordinary. Devotion to the Divino Rostro The celebration begins with the Feast of the Nativity of Mary on September 8, which is marked by Masses in the image’s former shrine of the Metropolitan Cathedral. The feast day of the Divino Rostro (Holy Face), kept locally on the second Friday of September, is the first highlight of the celebrations. The festival begins with a novena to the Divino Rostro, first venerated in Naga in 1882 after a cholera outbreak. According to legend, the epidemic subsided after the Divino Rostro – a painting of Saint Veronica holding her veil with an imprint of Jesus’ Face – was placed on the cathedral altar. As such, the following changes were made: • Instead of holding public novena prayers to the Divino Rostro from September 2 to 10 and the novena to Our Lady of Peñafrancia from September 11 to 19, at the Peñafrancia Shrine, Metropolitan Naga Cathedral, and the Minor Basilica, the Novena was instead prayed in the homes of the faithful. • The annual Traslación and Fluvial Procession were cancelled. • The feast day Mass on 20 September 2020 was streamed live from the Peñafrancia Basilica. • Other dioceses in Bicol were asked to hold Masses locally on the same date, to avoid pilgrims entering the city. • All civic and commercial activities connected to the feast, such as the Voyadores Festival, civic and military parades, trade fairs, exhibits, and concerts, were cancelled. The same changes were adopted for the 2021 Peñafrancia Festivities from 01 to 19 September 2021. Traditional celebrations resumed in 2022, with precautions against COVID infections. ==Patronage==

In Spain, Our Lady of Peñafrancia is the patroness of Ciudad Rodrigo. In Fuerteventura a festival is held on the third Saturday of September. Our Lady of Peñafrancia is the patroness of the Bicol Region of the Philippines. She is also the patroness of the city of Naga, the province of Camarines Sur, and the Diocese of Caceres. She is also considered the patroness of seafarers, farmers, and fishermen. ==Elsewhere==

In the United States, the Feast of Our Lady of Peñafrancia is one of the oldest and largest Filipino Marian celebrations in San Diego, California, with almost 50 years of active celebration. ==Hymn==

The Himno a la Nuestra Señora de Peñafrancia, commonly known to devotees by its incipit "Resuene Vibrante", is the official hymn of the image and its devotion. Composed by the priest Máximo Huguera, it won first prize in the hymn-writing competition for the image's canonical coronation in 1924. The hymn was translated to Central Bikol by Jesús Esplana and Sohl Saez, but the original Spanish lyrics were made the sole official text at the image's tercentenary in 2010. In 2023, a bilingual version with the Spanish chorus and Bikol verses was released. Spanish text Coro: Resuene vibrante el himno de amor Que entona tu pueblo con grata y emoción Resuene vibrante el himno de amor Que entona tu pueblo con grata emoción Patrona del Bícol, Gran Madre de Dios Sé siempre la Reina de Nuestra Región Patrona del Bícol, Gran Madre de Dios Sé siempre la Reina de Nuestra Región. Estrofa I: Los ríos murmuran tu nombre al correr Los montes proclaman tu gloria y poder El pueblo creyente con gozo te ve Te canta amoroso y besa tu pie El pueblo creyente con gozo te ve Te canta amoroso y besa tu pie. (Coro) Estrofa II: Patrona del Bicol altar del amor Reliquia bendita que el cielo nos dio Escucha benigna del pueblo el clamor Que acude a tu Templo con fé y devoción Patrona del Bicol altar del amor Reliquia bendita que el cielo nos dio Escucha benigna del pueblo el clamor Que acude a tu Templo con fé y devoción. (Coro) Estrofa III: Los pobres y tristes te buscan con fé Te miran llorando les miras también Al punto sus lágrimas se truecan en bien Y a casa gozosos les vemos volver Los pobres y tristes te buscan con fé Te miran llorando les miras también Al punto sus lágrimas se truecan en bien Y a casa gozosos les vemos volver (Coro) Central Bikol version I Maski an kasalogan, Sambit an si'mong ngaran Maski an kabukiran, Ika an rokyaw. Kami si'mong aki, Pano' nin kaogmahan Si'mong nangangako, Ika kamo'tan. Kami si'mong aki, Pano' nin kaogmahan Si'mong nangangako, Ika kamo'tan. Chorus: Awiton an awit nin pagkamoot Sa saimo samuyang idinodolot Awiton an awit nin pagkamoot Sa saimo samuyang idonodolot. Patrona nin Bikol, Ina ka nin Dios Magdanay na Reina nin samuyang rehiyon, Patrona nin Bikol, Ina ka nin Dios Magdanay na Reina nin samuyang rehiyon. ==See also==