Miracles

By Jocelyn R. Uy

Aside from the miraculous healing among sick devotees and the protection the Holy Child had offered to Pandacan during the revolution, the Sto. Niño was also believed to have performed other wonders in the town.

 

When a massive fire struck near Pandacan in 1911, a priest placed the image on a church window facing the sea of flames. Suddenly, the wind changed its course, saving the town from what could have been a tragedy.

The image is also known to have averted an explosion after troops of the United States Armed Forces in the Far East (Usaffe) supposedly ignited oil tanks in Pandacan before retreating to Bataan on Dec. 18, 1941. It also reportedly healed a boy named Mark of a threatened blindness in April 2002.

This old photo is reminiscent of a  legend of a store ownder who turned down a little boy buying puto seco asking for credit.  The puto seco factory at Calle Labores is a stone's throw from the church.  It closed sometime after the liberation of Manila from the Japanese occupation.  It became a billiard hall operated by Mr. Lozano and later became a sign painting shop and eventually demollished.  The legend  has been preserved in the nursery rhyme Sitsiritsit as follows:  “Santo Niño sa pandacan, Puto seco sa tindahan, Kung ayaw mong magpautang, Uubusin ka ng langgam.”

“[But] most often, the Sto. Niño comes to us as He is, a child in His way—unobtrusive, ordinary, simple, hidden in the guise of a little boy,” said Abaco.

He said residents often spot a curly-haired and dark-skinned boy, his plump face smeared with dirt, roaming the streets of Pandacan—recalling the wooden image caked in mud when it was found among the pandan reeds 300 years ago.

The boy, who frequents the church patio, is seen mingling with people and talks to them as if he knew what was going on in their lives. “Residents believe that this little child is their beloved patron, the Sto. Niño,” said Abaco.

Healing Water

The original stone chapel was destroyed by powerful earthquakes in the 1800s. The renovated structure and the well, which existed until the early years following World War II, had to be demolished because of the expansion of Jesus Street into a major road.

It was revived sometime between 1951 and 1971 when Msgr. Guillermo Mendoza was the parish priest.

Though parishioners continue to believe that the well is a source of healing water, the parish has advised them not to drink it after the water tested positive for impurities.

To avoid further contamination, Abaco had a replica of the well constructed in the inner part of the church property near the Blessed Sacrament Chapel, redirecting the flow of the water from the original spring.

The wooden image of the Sto. Niño remained enshrined in the stone chapel even after the church that took nearly 30 years to build was finished in 1760.

It was only transferred permanently to the church in 1906 when the church compound and the convent, taken over by revolutionary priests of the Iglesia Filipino Independiente (the Philippine Independent Church, more commonly known as the Aglipayan Church) in 1902, were legally reclaimed by the Archdiocese of Manila.

Plausible Explanation

According to Abaco, there could only be one plausible explanation for how the image ended up there: it may have been part of the cargo carried by a ship plying the galleon trade between Manila and Acapulco, Mexico, during the Spanish colonial period.

A storm that often disturbs the Pacific Ocean may have sunk or destroyed the galleon, and the currents may have swept the image into the Pasig River leading to one of its arteries in Pandacan, which was then part of the parish of Sampaloc.

“The discovery of the little statue of Sto. Niño was only the start in the train of miraculous happenings,” Abaco wrote.

Over the years, some elders of Sampaloc attempted to transfer the image to their parish church following the discovery. But strangely, the image always found its way back, reappearing at the very site where it was discovered.

After this peculiar reappearance, residents began to revere the site, building a nipa hut to enshrine the miraculous image.  The water hole frequented by carabaos was eventually turned into a well, where a natural spring thrives to this day.

Eventually, the Franciscan friars and the townsfolk had a stone chapel built on the hallowed spot, also incorporating the well. This was finished in time for the formal creation of the parish of Pandacan in 1712, when the district was ecclesiastically separated from the Loreto Church of Sampaloc.

From ‘Little Italy’

By Jocelyn R. Uy

According to Abaco, the grand occasion will bring to mind how Pandacan—previously depicted as “Little Italy” for its many estuaries leading into the Pasig River—became a “Little Nazareth” to a centuries-old wooden image of the Holy Child that was found among clumps of vegetation by a muddy pool where carabaos wallowed.

As the story is told, sometime in the 17th century a group of children playing in the sleepy barrio suddenly spotted a mahogany image of the Sto. Niño among some pandan reeds that thrived near a waterhole.

In his book, “The Child of the Pandan Reeds: The Spiritual Journey of the Santo Niño de Pandacan Parish,” Abaco quoted a passage from a narrative by historian Ricardo Mendoza:

“The children were startled and [they] stopped playing, then admiringly gazed at the small and beautiful image. In a moment, they all felt terrified, and some knelt and prayed because it crossed their mind that this may be the image of the Holy Child.”

‘Hidden’ Sto. Niño for 300 years to rise

By Jocelyn R. Uy

More than the flamboyant dancing and merrymaking that every year engulf the streets of Pandacan in honor of the Sto. Niño, this tiny, ancient district in eastern Manila has all the trappings of what its parish priest calls a “Little Nazareth.”

While it is known that its patron saved the town from being crushed by Spanish colonial troops in the 1890s, Pandacan’s story has been overshadowed by the more spectacular tales of the miracles wrought by the Holy Child in other parts of the country, including another old Manila district to the north, Tondo.

But parish priest Fr. Lazaro Abaco believes that after being unknown and “hidden” for hundreds of years, the Sto. Niño de Pandacan will rise and begin to “do its public ministry” come Nov. 23, its 300th anniversary.

“If you look at it with a spiritual eye, it’s just right because if you look at the Nazareth experience, Jesus was hidden for 30 years. In our case, it is 300 years of hidden life of Jesus in Pandacan,” Abaco said in an interview.

A Buling-Buling (vernacular for “polished” or “well-prepared”) dance festival and a solemn High Mass officiated by the new Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle were held Saturday to kick off Sunday’s Feast of the Sto. Niño, usually marked by far more extravagant parades in other regions of the country.

Sunday’s festivities were part of a string of activities that the parish has prepared in the run-up to its tercentennial anniversary celebrations in November.

Buling Buling

We recall Manila’s rich cultural history every year when Pandacan observes the traditional "Buling Buling" Dance Festival. The name comes from the Tagalog verb “buli” which means: to buff; to polish and make shiny.  Colloquially, its derivative “buling-buli” was an adjective that refers to a “well buffed pair of shoes” as well as to a person who is well dressed.

Old timers in the district of Pandacan claim that the festival started in the 1800s when Pandacan was home to many a luminary in art and culture, among them Francisco Baltazar (aka Balagtas), Ladilao Bonus (Father of the Filipino Opera), Lope K.Santos (Filipino Language Theorist), Bonifacio Abdon (Father of Modern Kundiman), playrights Miguel Mansilungan and Pantaleon Lopez.  It was dubbed the “Little Italy of the Philippines” and in the 1890s an all women “Orkestrang Babae” directed by Raymundo Fermin was immortalized by painter Simon Flores. 

While the celebration of Buling Buling subsided at the turn of the 19^th century, it was revived in the late 20^th century.  To date, local associations, schools and businesses in Pandacan continue to support the festivity.  Buling Buling can be a major attraction to tourism, if only it had the support of the national government such as the Deprtment of Tourism and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts.

Year of the Water Dragon

As the new year comes, we are pleased to have a record occupancy of 60 percent. Hopefully, we are looking to break the 70 percent mark with the coming of the Chinese New Year.  In 2012 the Yang Water Dragon Year starts January 23, 2012 and ends February 9, 2013. The energetic high point of the year is the dragon moon, which is from May 20 to June 18 (new moon is May 20, full moon is June 4 and dragon moon is over June 18. June 19 begins the snake moon, which will set up the energy for the following year, 2013, year of the yin water snake.)

Emy de Long who is the mainstay of Anselma House has left us to join her Auntie who came back from the United States. For a while, her aunt was planning to bring Emy to the states.  Perhaps the economic situation in the US  affected that decision.  We will miss that girl.

And Ivy is back.  We have opened Room 6 late last year and Ivy is staying there.  Maida was planning some Christmas get together but that didn't push thru.