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Revered Patroness of Ilocos Norte goes to Japan

By Leilanie Adriano

March 21, 2019, 9:13 pm

LAOAG CITY -- Following the pontifical coronation of La Virgen Milagrosa de Badoc with the infant Jesus in Badoc, Ilocos Norte, its small replica was brought to Japan through Bishop Renato Mayugba of the Diocese of Laoag.

Fr. Ericson Josue, a priest historian of the Diocese of Laoag, said the image of the miraculous Lady of Badoc is expected to be enthroned at the Japanese Archbishop’s cathedral, or on a museum dedicated to the hidden Japanese Christians in Nagasaki.

Replicas of “La Virgen Milagrosa de Badoc” are also expected to be enshrined at Christuskirche in Heilbronn, Germany on May 25, 2019; in Los Angeles, California in summer; and at the National Church of the Filipinos in Rome, the Basilica of Santa Pudenziana, later this year.

Josue said La Virgen Milagrosa de Badoc, together with the image of a crucified Christ, were found floating on the shores between the Ilocos towns of Badoc and Sinait sometime in 1620.

The priest historian added that Fray Pedro Vivar, OSA, chronicled the discovery in 1764 and the report is extant in the Augustinian archives in Valladolid, Spain.

Vivar documented that the images came from the possession of the persecuted Japanese Christians who jettisoned the religious images into the sea for the images to escape iconoclasm, or avoid being implicated as Christians.

The image of “La Virgen Milagrosa” was enshrined in the “Visita” of Badoc which will become the house of the Virgin in the next 400 years.

Thousands of Ilocanos and devotees all over the Philippines come to Badoc seeking the Lady’s intercession.

By the mandate of the Holy See, the image was pontifically crowned last May 31, 2018 by Cardinal Luís Antonio Tagle, Archbishop of Manila. Last February 5, the church of Badoc was solemnly declared as a Minor Basilica. (PNA)

 

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