Sunday, January 20, 2008

Boso-Boso: A 17th Century Jesuit Phillipino Legacy

The Jesuit Church In Boso-Boso, Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage
Franciscan missionaries arrived in Antipolo in 1578 and built a church in Boso-Boso. In 1591 they were replaced by the Jesuits who organized the village into a parish. They built a chapel at Sitio Sta. Cruz. By 1601 there are about 3,000 Christians residing in Antipolo. At about the same period, the Negrito population dwindled, as they moved deeper into the mountains.

Altar of the Old Antipolo Church
On March 25, 1626 Governor-General Juan Niño de Tabora brought from Acapulco, Mexico the image of the Virgin Mary. Before he died, he bequeathed the image to the Jesuits for the Antipolo Church. Tradition has it that the image was installed in Sitio Sta. Cruz and have been lost several times and each time it was found on a Tipolo tree. Because of these unusual incidents, it was decided in 1632 to erect the church at the site.
In 1639, the Chinese revolt reached Antipolo and burned the church to the ground; however, the image was unharmed. The Virgin was taken to Sitio Ginapao and then brought to Cavite upon orders of the Governor-General. It stayed in Cavite for 14 years. Ten years after the incident the image was renamed "Nuestra Señora de la Paz y Buen Viaje" (Tagalog: "Ang Mahal na Birhen ng Kapayapaan at Mabuting Paglalayag"; "Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage") and traveled five more times to Acapulco, Mexico before it rested permanently in the town. A replica of the image of the Birhen ng Antipolo is now enshrined in the U.S. for all the immigrant Filipinos. The Oratory of Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage, is located at the northeast corner of the Crypt Church of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. A gift of the Filipino Catholic Community in the United States and around the world, this oratory honors a Marian devotion dating from the 1600s.
The village of Antipolo was made into a town in 1650 as part of the Province of Tondo. When the Tondo was divided into the Province of Manila and the District of Los Montes de San Mateo in 1853, it became part of the latter. The district was later known as the District of Morong.
The Recollects took over Antipolo in 1864. It was during these years that the Virgin of Antipolo gained thousands of devotees. Devotees from Manila and nearby towns and provinces flock to Antipolo on foot along mountain trails and springs.
Link (here)

Blogs that post about Boso-Boso (here) , (here) , (here) and (here)

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