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"So many are the miracles
wrought on me by the Virgin de Peñafrancia, that I have no tongue to
relate them, paper where to write them, no numbers to count them. All I
could say is that I am the miracle of her miracles."
These words were written sometime in the
1700s by the man
who brought the Bicolanos their Ina (mother.) But
actually,
the miracles have started way before then when Simon
Vela,
sole heir to a rich French family, was
awakened by a dream:
"Simon, do not sleep; go to Peñafrancia
on the part where the sun sets and there
you will find an image of the
Virgin which
shall be afterwards an object of great
devotion."
For more than five years, he
searched until his pilgrimage brought
him to the province of Salamanca in
Spain on a market day where he
heard two vendors argue on the
quality of coal that was taken from
the slopes of Peña de Francia.
Following one of the
vendors home, he
was at last able to find the mountain that
was named in his dreams.
It was on May 19, 1534, in the company
of five witnesses, that Simon Vela unearthed the image whose carbon copy
brings thousands of devotees to Naga every September.
Nearly 470 years have passed since then.
The prophecy as it was told in Simon Vela's dream could not have been
more accurate. Every year, especially in September, there is an
outpouring of love for the Lady who crossed the seas to become the
Bicolanos' Ina.
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Both in the
Traslacion, which transfers
the image to the Naga Metropolitan Cathedral, and the Fluvial
Procession, which then brings the image to the Basilica, men clamor for
the privilege of helping bear the weight of her andas (a carriage) as
women pray novenas and rosarios in a seemingly endless cavalcade of the
faithful. The onslaught of heat on bare feet from the melting asphalt
roads and of the odor and crush of hundreds of bodies are ignored. The
downpour of rain is considered a blessing.
Capital: Pili
No. of Towns: 35
No. of Cities: 2
Land Area: 5,267 sq. km.
Telephone Area Code: 054
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Location |
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Bounded
on the north by its siste province Camarines Norte and San Miguel
Bay, by the province of Albay and Ragay Gulf on the south by Lagonoy
Gulf on the east and by Quezon and Ragay Bay on the west. |
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Viva La Virgen!. )
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