by: Mike Baños

August 20, 2006  (Happy Birthday, Mike!)

I've often wondered why our Filipino tour operators for whom pilgrimage tourism is big business doesn't do the same for our local pilgrimage industry. Could it be because the bulk of Filipinos going on local pilgrimages are from the lower strata of society and don't deserve a second look from those used to charging as much as US$ 4,000 for a Pilgrimage Tour of Europe or the Holy Land?

Of course, my interest here is purely parochial: why don't Rick San Juan and the DOT push Pilgrimage Tourism for Nuestra Sra. Virgen del Pillar more? To give you a clearer picture of the pilgrimage tourism industry, let's take a look at what it really is and its potential as an industry for Zamboanga City.

Both Wikipedia and Answers.com returned to me basically the same entry when asked to define Pilgrimage Tourism: pilgrimages to ancient holy places (e.g. Rome and Santiago de Compostela for Catholics) or religious sites such as mosques, shrines, etc.

I attempted to get a profile of the Pilgrimage Industry from the Net but the nearest one I got was this quick look at the burgeoning pilgrimage industry in India courtesy of the Financial Express of New Delhi:

"Fired up by low-cost airlines and the religious nature of Indians themselves, Cox & Kings executive director Arup Sen. recently observed that pilgrimage tourism is growing at a rate of 20% annually in the organized sector.

SOTC senior vice-president, Frederick Divecha notes the entry of more low-cost carriers and the tourism ministry's Incredible India campaign helped in the growth of pilgrimage tourism.

Travelport's chief operating officer, Heena J Akhtar says, "50% of the NRIs visiting India have religious destinations on their itinerary, up from 35% earlier. This growth is in sync with the total number of NRIs visiting India."

NRIs are non-resident Indians (NRIs) or the Indian equivalent of our Balikbayans, Filipinos who have made it good abroad and visit their native land heavy with dollar earnings from abroad.

While NRIs are the fastest growing sector in the Indian tourism industry, foreign tourists on pilgrimage tours are also catching up. Foreign tourists from Japan and Sri Lanka are making a beeline for the Buddhist circle, particularly Bodh Gaya. Sri Lankan Airlines even operates a direct flight twice a week between Colombo and Bodh Gaya from October to February.

Apna Bharat Pravas, a travel agency that specializes only in pilgrimage packages, is also upbeat about the rising number of pilgrim tourists since NRIs prefer Char Dham, says agency owner Mukesh Pandit. While domestic tourists comprise the largest number of pilgrims opting for such packages, NRIs follow a close second, followed by foreigners, adds Mr. Pandit.

Sri Lankan Airlines manager (western and central India) Lal Talgaswatte says, "The passenger load factor is as high as 80% with the aircraft having a seat capacity of 146 seats." (Financial Express, New Delhi, 16.9.2005)

But to go back to the potential for a Marian Pilgrimage to Zamboanga. For research, I browsed the leaflets of a tour operator friend of mine and found that Marian Pilgrimages are rather commonplace to Europe and the Holy Land.

Favored Marian destinations include Our Lady of Fatima (Portugal), Our Lady of Lourdes (France), Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal (France), Medjugorje (Yugoslavia, present day Serbia and Montenegro), The Black Madonna of Czstochowa (Poland) which, according to legend, was painted by St. Luke the Evangelist on a cypress table top from the house of the Holy Family.

Other Marian destinations include the house of the Virgin Mary, about 7 km from Selçuk, in Ephesus (Turkey) is said by the Roman Catholic Church to have been the last home of the Virgin Mary and is a popular place of pilgrimage; The Virgin of the Poor (Belgium), Our Lady of Walsingham and Our Lady of Mount Carmel (both in Protestant England, no less); Our Lady of Knock (Ireland); Our Lady of the Rosary (Prouille, France) and not to forget Our Lady of Guadalupe (Mexico City) also know as 'Patroness of the Americas.'

I also found out that Our Lady appeared in Asia as recently as 30 June 1985 in Naju, South Korea where tears flowed from a statue of the Blessed Mother owned by Sister Julia Kim. In later years, Sister Kim received the Eucharistic Miracle during various occasions when the host turned to flesh and blood in her mouth during communion.  Healings have reportedly occurred in the place where the apparition took place and in the chapel where the weeping statue is housed.

Much earlier, our Lady also appeared in the forests of  Lavang, Vietnam in 1798 to persecuted Catholics where the late Pope John Paul II canonized 117 Vietnamese martyrs in 1988 and issued plans to have another church built on the site.

And believe it or not, there are quite a number of Marian shrines in the People's Republic of China! These include the shrine of Our Lady of Bliss in the hills north of Guiyang, the capital of Guizhou province in southwestern China; The Rosary Villa in Fuzhou, opened on 30 April 1993 on top of the hill in Longtian village near Fuzhou city, Fujian province where the majority of Chinoys come from, and dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary, the famous Marian shrine adjacent to the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes in Qingyang township in Nanjing diocese, Jiangsu province, reopened on 1 May 1994 after having been closed for some 55 years; and two shrines that stand out in a very special way: the Marian shrines in Donglu and Sheshan.

So if the tourist industry and the Catholic Church in agnostic China, South Korea, Vietnam and predominantly Buddhist Japan have already organized pilgrimage tours to their Marian Shrines, how come there's none celebrating Our Lady's appearances and miracles in the Philippines.

Since we're in the middle of all these mainly because of what we perceive as a lack of respect and veneration for La Nuestra Sra. Virgen del Pillar, I believe half the battle won would be knowing just how special a place Our Lady of the Pillar holds in the history of Christianity.

The shrine in La Cuidad de Zaragoza, en el provincial de Aragon in España, is one of the earliest, if not the first Marian shrine that's directly links Our Lady with an apostle of Jesus Christ.

Not long after Christ died around 40 AD, James (the Greater) found himself in praying in then small town of Zaragoza, distraught over his failure in recruiting converts to Christianity.

Legend tells he was deep in prayer when La Nuestra Sra appeared and gave him a small wooden statue of her and a piece of jasper wood with instructions to build a church in her honor. She is reported to have told James:

"This place is to be my house, and this image and column shall be the title and altar of the temple that you shall build."

About a year later a small chapel was built on the site, the very first of many to be built over centuries that were dedicated to Mary. When James was martyred in Jerusalem, his body was miraculously translated to Iria Flavia in the northwest of Spain, and later to Compostela, which became one of the famous places of pilgrimage in the world during the Middle Ages. The vow of making a pilgrimage to Compostela to honor the sepulcher of St. James is still reserved to the pope, who alone of his own or ordinary right can dispense from it.

About 800 years later, a hermit was digging through the fields and stumbled upon the grave of James. It was surrounded by some kind of formation of stars and has since been dubbed Compostela (starry fields). To this day, it remains a popular site for pilgrims and tourists alike.

So is its counterpart in the Far East, in the only Catholic Nation in Asia, La Nuestra Sra. Virgen del Pillar in La Bella Ciudad de Zamboanga.

Emigdio Alvarez Enriquez, one of Zamboanga's finest writers, wrote in "Of Fiestas and Their Wherefores" ( Zamboanga Hermosa, 1984) of the sort of devotion La Virgen inspires in her pilgrims:

"No fiesta in the past was ever more fervidly celebrated in Zamboanga than that of La Virgen del Pillar, the town's first patron saint. Legendarily miraculous, the Lady won devotees even among people who were not of the faith. Protestants and Muslims alike were known to have lighted candles before Her image on the wall of the abandoned, weather-beaten fort facing a village that stood on stilts across nipa and saguing-saguing swamps at the mouth of what used to be the Rio Hondo.

Her image, a garishly painted basso rilievo high up on the parapet of the moss-covered muralla, was, on the 12th of October of each year, the object of the biggest pilgrimage in all Mindanao. People came in carts and sledges from the remotest mountain barrios, or crossed the seas in lanchas (motor launches) and kumpits (large vintas) from the farthest seaport towns only to light a candle to Her on Her feast day.

Even when portents of juramentados (amoks) reached the town, the pilgrimage to the fort was never put off, for the people felt secure in the belief that the Virgin loved Zamboanga so well that she would protect Her devotees from any harm or misfortune.

In the same publication, the late former tourism commissioner of Zamboanga, Adolfo "Cabonegro" Navarro, tells of La Nuestra Virgen's miracles in "Miracle at the Fort" (Zamboanga Hermosa, 1984):

ACCOUNTS of the Virgin's miracles are told and retold, generation after generation. foremost among them is the story of the sentry and the Lady.

One night, according to the story, a Spanish sentry fell asleep at his post on the south seaside rampart of the fort. Suddenly, he was awakened by a gentle touch on the shoulder and a soft whisper:

"Despierta, hay moros en la costa!"(Wake up, Moros are coming by the sea!")

As the sentry opened his eyes, he saw a lovely lady clad in a flowing gown of shimmering white. Her hair was as black as the dark of the sky, glowing in an incandescence of white. Her feet were bare and pink against the cold bleak floor. The sentry stood up, raised his rifle, and shouted:

"Alto, quien vive?" ("Halt! Who goes there?") to which the lady responded:

"Sentinela en tu cuarto,

No ves el alba del dia

No conoces a Maria

A quien mandas ser alto?"

("Sentry in your post,

Don't you see the dawn of day,

Don't you recognize Mary

Whom you order to halt?")

At that the sentry answered:

"Perdoname, Señora mia,

Madre de mi corazon.

Soy un pobre sentinela

Y solo cumplo mi obligacion."

("Forgive me, my Lady,

Mother of my heart.

I am but a humble sentry

Who merely does his duty.")

The figure disappeared and the soldier momentarily saw the invading horde preparing to scale the wall with bamboo ladders while some were still landing at the beach. He gave the alarm and soon the fort was alive with activity. Cannons roared and gunfire rent the air. The Moros fought fiercely but many of them were slain in the ensuing skirmishes.

The next morning, the sentry narrated to his commanding officer, in the presence of other officers and men, his experience of the previous evening. To find out whether or not he was telling the truth, the sentry was subjected to the ordeal of having a finger of his right hand burned for about an hour. To the surprise of everyone, the finger was unscathed. However, a few days later, he fell seriously ill and died.

Another story concerns the Lady's intercession during the earthquake that hit Zamboanga and the Sulu area on September 21, 1897.

It was the most violent of the five earthquakes that hit the areas of Zamboanga, Basilan and Sulu during the 19th century. The tremors were registered in different parts of the world and the tidal waves that followed them were as destructive as those that hit Chile, Lisbon, and other areas during the eruption of Krakatoa in Java.

The quake hit Zamboanga at 1:17 in the afternoon with such intensity as to open fissures in the ground and send wave after wave of water towards the town, sweeping everything that was twenty feet above sea level two hours after the first tremor. Those who managed to escape the tidal wave took to the hills for safety. There they knelt in prayer and supplication to the Lady of the Pillar.

Just as suddenly, the quakes stopped and the waves of the sea calmed. Old timers to this day swear that they saw a woman dressed in white standing over the waters of Basilan Strait, her right hand raised high as if ordering the onrushing waters to stop.

And so on September 21 of each year, Catholic churches of Zamboanga, Basilan, and Sulu celebrate masses of thanksgiving in the hope that the Almighty, through the intercession of Our Lady of the Pillar, will spare their communities from another great tragedy like that of 1897."

(Navarro, 1984)

Thus, in addition to her Feast Day on October 12^th, Catholics in Zamboanga did have another "Marian Thanksgiving Day" every September 21, when they commemorate La Nuestra Virgen's intercession which saved them from the Tsunamis of 1897.

I believe these two dates alone could already serve as starting points for the Catholic Church in Zamboanga, with the leadership of course of the Archdiocese, to organize annual pilgrimages to Fort Pillar in honor of Our Lady.

Migs Enriquez contention on the hordes of Marian pilgrims that visit her each Fiesta Pillar is backed by figures from the Catholic Directory of the Philippines which show that 463, or over a quarter of all parishes in the Philippines, have the Virgin Mary as their patron. And that's not counting the legions of capillas in the barangays, religious oratories, or private shrines dedicated to her. (See an almost complete list in The Sentinel (Nov. 29, 1954), pp. 13-14; or La Virgen Mar¡a Venerada en ins Imágenes Filipinas (LVM). Manila: Imp. de Santos y Bernal, 1904; or the Catholic Directory of the Philippines. 1974. Manila: Catholic Trade School. There is no record available of the number of barrio chapels whose patron saint is Mary, but judging by the number of parishes under her patronage the presumption is that there are many.)

Over 100 of the parishes honor the Immaculate Conception, over 60 are dedicated to Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, while others carry various titles like the Assumption, Our Lady of Carmel, Mother of Perpetual Help, Our Lady of Lourdes, etc.^{( 4)}

Some of the shrines dedicated to Mary have won nation-wide popularity either as focal points of national pilgrimages or as well-known centers of devotion. To mention just a few among the better-known, we find Our Lady of Charity and Our Lady of Badoc in Ilocos;  Our Lady of Piat in Cagayan Valley; Our Lady of Manaoag in Pangasinan; Our Lady of Salambao in Obando, Bulacan;  Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage in Antipolo, Rizal;  the Purification of Our Lady (or La Candelaria) in Mabitac, Laguna; Our Lady of Casaysay in Taal, Batangas; Our Lady of Peñafrancia in Naga City; Nuestra Señora Virgen de Regla in Lapulapu City; and of course, Our Lady of the Pillar in Zamboanga.

This widespread devotion to the Blessed Mother goes back to the origins of Christianity in the Philippines. As early as 1571 we find ancient statues of Mary, like Nuestra Señora de Guia, now venerated in the Ermita Church and whose origins are somehow lost in the folkloric details of legend, and Our Lady of the Rosary in Manila whose origin dates back to 1578. (Although originally the image of Nuestra Señors de Gui. was in the Ermita Church , from about 1600 however it was venerated in the Manila Cathedral. From there it was brought back to Ermita around 1800. Other examples: Our Lady of La Candelaria in Mabitac, Laguna (1599-1600), Our Lady of Manaoag (1605-1608), Our Lady of Casaysay (1611), Our Lady of Carmel of San Sebastian, Manila (1617), Our Lady of Antipolo (1622), Our Lady of Piat (1623), Our Lady of Peñafrancia (1798), etc. (The Marian Library, International Marian Research Institute, 2004)

Other examples of paraliturgical devotions in her honor, include novenas to the Blessed Mother in preparation for the patronal feast, including the special weekly novena to Our Lady of Perpetual Help, now very popular in the Philippines; the Block Rosary, a good example of a devotion that is connected with the visit of images or statues of Mary from house to house and from one family to another, where special veneration is given to Mary during the term of the image's stay, the "family alta." where the image most commonly venerated is the image of the Virgin Mary under one of her familiar invocations. This fact, more than any other, constitutes a proof of how deeply rooted the veneration to Mary is in the socio-religious structure of the Filipino Christian family.

The various manifestations of popular piety towards the Mother of God appear not only in the number of churches, chapels, or shrines consecrated to her, but in many other forms, ranging from the liturgical celebration of her feasts throughout the year to religious calendars with the holy picture of Mary – not always of the most artistic nature, it must be acknowledged – in the most humble nipa huts or in the slums of the cities, to her picture in public vehicles, buses or jeepneys. Grottoes dedicated to the Immaculate Conception under the invocation of Lourdes are found in private gardens or in various public places, along the roads or in corners of modest dwellings.

The endless symphony of Marian names in the baptismal records of our parishes constitutes by itself a tribute to the devotion of our people to the Mother of God. It may be safely said that of the names of saintly women imposed in baptism, none is more frequently found than the name of Mary either, expressly or in one of her many titles. (The Marian Library, International Marian Research Institute, 2004)

URL : http://www.udayton.edu/mary/resources/documents/MaryinPhilippineLife.html

With the numbers of shrines dedicated to Our Lady all over the country, would pilgrimage tourism still make sense in this context? I believe it does, both from a spiritual and tourism development standpoint. As already recognized by the International Marian Research Institute, there are many ways that people can show their devotion her, like the childless who trek to Obando to petition her for children, and to other shrines for more specific requests as well as thanksgiving.

Local governments in coordination with the respective parishes in their vicinity, especially those hosting shrines to the Blessed Mother, can coordinate their calendar so various pilgrimages for various purposes (which I believe the tourism industry calls tour packages) can be orderly organized, and serve the specific needs of Marian pilgrims.