The Penafrancia Basilica Minore

My Bicol trip this 2011 was scheduled on the last day of July to early part of August had to be cancelled cos of the two typhoons (Juaning & Kabayan) , that came consecutively. One of the most injured parts of our country was the Bicol Region where my itchy feet were supposed to land on the exact dates the typhoons were on the rage.
Today it's all sunny here in Manila, but at this age of climate change/global warming , no one can really predict an exact weather status.

My last visit to Bicol was 7 months ago. It was a high school reunion trip to CamSur. Part of the trip was a small pilgrimage to some churches in this province.The first church we visited was Immaculate Concepcion Parish, it has an awesome ceiling _a dome of Christ's 12 apostles.

I thought  I would bring you to the second church we visited, so we all can pray together for the Bicolanos who are badly affected by those typhoons, may their sufferings cut short and a steadfast recovery for everyone.

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The Penafrancia Basilica Minore in Camsur is quite modern in architecture. I gathered that the construction was finalized on 1981. Very new compared to the old/antique churches we have all over the country.

The main door was closed when we touched the ground of the massive premises of the church. We had to enter through the side door . .

. . cos there was a beautiful wedding going on inside.

the side door led to the back of the main altar. .

Beautiful stained glass windows of the church.

this part was elevated and from here we could see the rest of the church.
very modern interior with lots of colors. .








Also here at the back of the altar is a staircase going to the altar where devotees have closer encounter with the statue of the Virgin Penafrancia..

Quite popular as a miraculous patroness of the province, Virgin Penafrancia's feast day is being celebrated grandly in the month of September particularly in Naga City.

If weather permitted, I wish I could revisit to observe the Feast of Penafrancia next month.

Visita Iglesia 2011

We are now in the middle of Lent Season/ Holy Week. The peak would be on Holy Friday which traditionally Catholic church commemorates Jesus' death by special masses, way of the cross, processions and many do their "visita iglesia" on the eve of this day. Churches welcome churchgoers and basically open their doors til' dawn before Black Saturday. I, however, personally haven't done a single visita iglesia in my not-so-religious life which in our lay man term means church hopping.
I do, however, always make sure to visit first the town church everytime I get to land in a new place. I flipped over my archives and realized I had only posted less than 5 church blogs against the countless number of church I've visited . This is because taking photos is not a respectable thing to do inside a church. Thus prevented me to feature the beautiful churches around our predominantly Catholic country.
For quite sometime (about 1/2 year), recent photos I took of San Agustin Church and Manila Cathedral have been sitting on my files. As mentioned, I'm not comfortable taking photos inside a holy church, so the following images are mostly church facades but grandiose just the same.

So for Ascertain Bliss' visita iglesia 2011 let's take a glance of San Agustin Church. I'm sure many of us have attended a wedding held in this famous historical church in one time or another. Known as the oldest church still standing in the Philippines, built in the late 15th century, this church is found inside the equally historic Intramuros, Manila.

I know you think what I thought. . the facade doesn't look any old. With the bright paint and all, but history recalls how many times this church had been damaged by earthquakes, looted by different forces, destroyed by fire and war and had undergone rebuilding countless times.

There was a wedding ceremony being held when we dropped by at San Agustin. We dared not to go further inside cos obviously in our jeans and shorts that we were not part of the entourage/guests.




For those who haven't been inside this grand church, I borrow a photo and above is how fab the inside is. Now you know why this is a favorite wedding church of the Filipinos.

On the side note, the church contains the tomb of Spanish conquerors like Miguel Lopez de Legazpi (sounds history book familiar, right?), he is the founder of city of Manila. Their bones are buried in a communal vault near the main altar. One of the lay persons whose remains are housed within this church is our history book famous painter_ Juan Luna.








I actually have a big thing for old intricate church doors so here I grabbed a photo of San Agustin main door. I have lots of photos of this door I took many years ago and some lately. But they are lost now in my crowded files.

Now we hop to Manila Cathedral which is located walking distance to San Agustin church inside Intramuros Manila.




Another wedding church favorite, this church is like the queen of Catholic churches in the country in terms of grandeur and popularity.

Again, there was a wedding ceremony going on that prevented us to go inside.I did , however, attended in the past , wedding ceremony masses here of my relatives and friends, even been part of the entourage more than once.




Borrowed this image from the church website, for those who haven't been inside.

I told you I have a thing for old intricate doors. .




This church got intensely intricate carved wood doors, so grand!!!








When it comes to architecture, I'd say Manila Cathedral comes a winner.




Ooops... I know. . .I'm running away from the spiritual essence of visita iglesia. I just want really to introduce to you the churches then it's up to you now. I'm not even sure if these two grand churches are open for visita iglesia. Atleast, we all had a glimpse of them even only virtually spiritual.

Hey, if you want to continue visita iglesia ala Ascertain Bliss, I got more church post here :

The Dome of the Apostles
The Luminous Sanctuary
The Church of Lucban
The Penafrancia Basilica Minore

God Bless us all.

Naga City :The Dome of 12 Apostles

Three years ago, we passed by Naga City, as we came from a resort nearby. Since we were already there, we decided to look for the famous Penafrancia Church. We just asked around for the direction and found ourselves in Naga Metropolitan Cathedral. It was a beautiful church but we hadn't seen the image of Our Lady of  Penafrancia. Someone there said it was in another church that time.

Lately, I gathered that there are three major churches in the province that sit their own Virgin Penafrancia's replica on their altars -  Naga Metropolitan Cathedral, Our Lady of Penafrancia Shrine and Penafrancia Basilica Minore.

Two days before this 2011 ushered in, I attended a highschool batch reunion which was held there in touristy Camsur. Included was a tour,  visits to 2 Naga churches which I had presumed as both Our Lady Penafrancia churches.

Our first stop was at Immaculate Concepcion Parish. By the name of it, obviously it wasn't  a Penafrancia church. It had an unassuming facade but inside was a beautiful surprise.

No, not the altar which looked like those of ordinary parish churches.







The ceiling ! A dome of the 12 Apostles of Christ.













Inspired by St. Peter's Chapel in Vatican Rome, it bears portraits of the 12 apostles from Sir Peter Paul Rubens ( 17th cetury painter) prints.




The dome changes hue according to the calendar of the church.

The sophisticated dome is said to be constructed within P1 million budget. Extravagant or cheap? I'm clueless!!!

The Church of Lucban Quezon

At the center of the Pahiyas Festival was one of the homes of San Isidro Labrador _ the parish church of Lucban Quezon.

Old and beautiful , it continued to adhere me toward the altar.

Just like the rest of the town, the church was also loaded by devotees and guests of the town fiesta. After some prayerful moments inside the church, we took a side exit.

We noticed a long queue of people at this side. Curious as always, we checked what was it all about.




We found out that people were throwing coins in this pond similar to what we do in a wishing well , only with a little bit of a twist.

Myka, just having fun

Che, eyes closed in full concentration before aiming the hole of love

Here, you got to aim the bamboo hole of your wish. They were labeled as the following : love, health, wealth, and peace ( to complete a Ms. Universe question and answer portion , hahaha!). Anyway, I confess _ I'm not a great believer of this thingy. But my cousin Che was and is congenitally follower of all ceremonies that tackle the word hope and wish ! May it be a Chinese, Muslim or whatever, she likes to try it ! She would try it !



And when Che failed to shoot the love hole, she then turned to another ceremony. The boat of hope.

She then bought a candle in a floating holder.

Went back to the wishing pond, ofcourse - made a wish and launched the candle in the pond.



Well, if you believe it would happen. The power of faith is so strong, I had proven it many times in my lifetime . We do believe in many different ways , it doesn't matter how, but it counts to have the power of faith within us.