Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage

Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage or the Virgin of Antipolo is a seventeenth century Roman Catholic wooden image of the Blessed Virgin Mary as venerated in the Philippines. This Black Madonna is enshrined in Antipolo Cathedral in the Sierra Madre mountains east of Metro Manila.

The image was brought to the country by Governor-General Juan Niño de Tabora from Mexico via the galleon El Almirante in 1626. His safe voyage across the Pacific Ocean was attributed to the image, which was then given the title "Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage." It was substantiated later by six other successful voyages of the Manila-Acapulco Galleons witb the image aboard as its patroness.

Pope Pius XI issued a Pontifical decree to crown the image in 1925. The statue is one of the most celebrated Marian images in the Philippines, having mentioned by national martyr Jose Rizal in his writings. From May to July each year, the image attracts millions of pilgrims from all over the country and abroad.

The first missionaries in Antipolo were Franciscans, who arrived in the vicinity in 1578. The Jesuits then followed and administered the church from 1591 until May 1768, when the decree expelling the Jesuits from Spanish lands have reached the shores of Manila.

The church was greatly damaged during the Chinese uprising of 1639, the 1645 Luzon earthquake, and the earthquakes of 1824 and 1883. Notable Filipino historians such as Pedro Chirino and Pedro Murillo Velarde (also a prominent cartographer) ministered at the church.

The Diocese of Antipolo was created on January 24, 1983 and was canonically erected on June 25, 1983 at the Diocese's new see (cathedral), which bears the formal title of "National Shrine of Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage - Immaculate Conception Parish."

In 2022, the Virgin of Antipolo's shrine was declared by the Vatican as the first ever international shrine in the Philippines. It is the third such shrine in Asia, and 11th in the world. It is also the first Marian international shrine in Asia, and the very first shrine bearing such stature in ASEAN.

In 2024, prior to the Concelebrated Mass for the shrine's solemn declaration, the symbolical coronation of the Virgin by the Bishop of Antipolo Ruperto Santos beside Archbishop Charles Brown, the Papal Nuncio to the Philippines, was held, symbolizing the cathedral's "new journey as an international shrine."

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This post is sponsored by Louis Vuitton.

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