OUR LADY OF PEACE AND GOOD VOYAGE
INTERNATIONAL SANCTUARY OF ANTIPOLO
PHILIPPINES
The extraordinary history of this church, and of the sacred image that it was built to preserve, can explain the origin of its title and epytomizes the indomitable faith of the Philippine people and their relentless love for the Mother of God.
The wooden statue of a black Madonna, representing the Immaculate Conception, was originally brought to Antipolo from Acapulco (Mexico) in 1626, and its church was completed in 1632, in the precise spot where the image miraculously positioned itself on a tipolo tree. Shortly thereafter ̶ due to bloody political unrests (1639) and an earthquake that damaged the church (1645) ̶ started the statue’s saga of travel and travail, which meant crossing the ocean six more times in the next one hundred years, and moving elsewhere in the country during subsequent earthquakes; and the Japanese occupation; and the destruction of the church by bombardment in WWII.
Then began the glorious era of the church, rebuilt in 1954, which became Cathedral and seat of the Antipolo Bishop in 1983; and finally the first International Marian Sanctuary of Asia in 2022. At the same time, popular devotion to the enshrined image of “Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage” ̶ officially coronated by decree of Pius XI and gifted the Golden Rose by Pope Francis ̶ has given birth to a “Pilgrimage Season” beginning on the first Tuesday of May, that attracts millions, with continuos processions, novenas, vigils, Mass and Rosary, over the course of nine weeks.
The intensity of Marian piety of the parishoners of the Antipolo Cathedral clearly emerges from the video of the World Rosary Day celebration, also effectively anticipating a very specific call by Pope Francis: «During the Jubilee Year, may shrines be sacred places of welcome and privileged spaces for the rebirth of hope ̶ especially the Marian shrines, where pilgrims: will come to know the closeness of Mary, the most affectionate of mothers, who never abandons her children» *
*Papal Bulla: Spes non confundit; 9 May 2024.
Yours faithfully
Umberto Angeloni (WRD Team)
