They entered silently, slowly, majestically, caparisoned in white, the women on the left and the men on the right. The capacity crowd last Thursday night at the great San Agustin Church in Intramuros, Manila, watched almost in awe.
Sunday is the grand fiesta of Nuestra Señora de Guia, patroness of Ermita, thus commemorating the finding of the image on May 19, 1571, by a Spanish soldier when Adelantado Miguel de Legazpi landed in Manila.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) has warned that San Agustin Church and three other Baroque churches around the Philippines may be delisted from the prestigious World Heritage List as a result of the construction of the controversial Binondo-Intramuros Bridge across the Pasig River in Manila.
The Confradia de la Inmaculate Concepcion will hold the 35th Grand Marian Procession on Dec. 7, 4 p.m., from Manila Cathedral to the streets in Intramuros.
Instituto Cervantes, the Spanish cultural center, will inaugurate on May 8 Instituto Cervantes Intramuros, located at Casa Azul, Plaza San Luis Complex, next to San Agustin Church.
When the feast of Sta. Rita de Cascia comes every May 22, expect fashion designer Oskar Peralta to be there at San Agustin Church, attending to the carroza of the saint, decorating it with red roses for the procession after the 5:30 p.m. Mass. Oskar has been doing this for the past 40 years, since his client Providad Herrera told him about the devotion to Sta. Rita de Cascia in 1972. Oskar didn’t know the devotion would change his life.
We didn’t have the slightest idea that riding a bike around the cobbled streets of Intramuros would be a pain in the ass—literally.
MICHEL and Amparito Lhuillier have just celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in Cebu. It was a two-day observance that was as well planned as it was attended by a throng of family and friends.
The Filipino’s devotion to the Sto. Niño or the Holy Child knows no bounds. Since Juan Camus, a Spanish soldier belonging to the troop of Miguel Adelantado de Legazpi, discovered the image on April 28, 1565 in a rundown house (where the Basilica de Sto. Niño now stands), the devotion has only grown and is still growing after 450 years.
Unknown to the public, the series of medium-size earthquakes that shook Batangas and neighboring provinces in April, and damaged a number of structures including the centuries-old churches of Batangas City and Taal, also affected the Unesco World Heritage Church of San Agustin in Intramuros, Manila.
