Queen Virgin Mary & King Child Jesus of the Holy Family

1. In Study of Mariology & Catholicism:
ANALYSIS OF REPORTED MARIAN APPARITIONS IN THE PHILIPPINES
(for the Marian Filipino Catholic Church)
INTRODUCTION
"Did Mama Mary appear in the Philippines?" a question that many Filipino Marian
devotees would sometimes wonder given that we are known as the "Pueblo Amante de
Maria" for our love for the Mother of God is so intense that it is clearly evident in our
history as a nation.
Yet, we can't help but wonder on why we do not have a Marian apparition like those in
France, Portugal, Spain and other Catholic countries who are privileged to be visited by
the Virgin in an extraordinary manner.
At times, this lingering question seems to be simple yet as we discuss on this matter,
we would discover that this question is not that really easy to answer for numerous
factors are at play to come up with a definite answer to this centuries old nagging
question.
Now, for this blogpost, this blogger will attempt to provide an answer to this nagging
question based from the reported Marian apparitions that took place in the Philippines
from the Spanish colonial era up to the present and to discover these reported events
on how it shaped the the way we think about these supernatural events and to at least
have a thought on why this question is still left unanswered, or otherwise.
WHAT IS A MARIAN APPARITION
In order for us to understand this topic, let us define what a Marian apparition is. A
Marian apparition is a reported supernatural appearance of the Blessed Virgin Mary or a
series of related such appearances over a period of time.
In order to be classified as a Marian apparition, the person or persons who claim to see
Mary (known as the "visionary" or "seer") must claim that they see her visually located in
their environment as a three dimensional person.
If the person claims to hear Mary but not see her, this is known as an interior locution,
not an apparition.
Also excluded from the category of apparitions are dreams, visions experienced in the
imagination, the claimed perception of Mary in ordinarily-explainable natural
phenomena, and miracles associated with Marian artwork, such as weeping statues.
The faithful consider such apparitions to be real and objective interventions of divine
power, rather than subjective experiences generated by the perceiving individuals, even

2. in cases where the apparition is reportedly seen by only some, not all, of the people
present at the event's location.
Marian apparitions are considered expressions of the Virgin's ongoing motherly care for
the Church.
The understood purpose of each apparition is to draw attention to some aspect of the
Christian message, given the needs of a particular time and place.
Apparitions are often accompanied by other alleged supernatural phenomena, such as
medical cures. However, such miraculous events are not considered the purpose of
Marian apparitions, but exist primarily to validate and draw attention to the message.
Apparitions are classified as Private revelations and do not belong, however, to the
deposit of faith. It is not their role to improve or complete Christ’s definitive Revelation
(known as Public revelation), but to help live more fully by it in a certain period of
history.
Guided by the Magisterium of the Church, the sensus fidelium knows how to discern
and welcome in these revelations whatever constitutes an authentic call of Christ or his
saints to the Church.
The faith cannot accept ‘revelations’ that claim to surpass or correct the Revelation of
which Christ is the fulfillment. Public revelation ceased in the apostolic age and the
writing of the Bible.
STAND OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
The earliest known apparition claim was from St. James the Greater who saw the Virgin
Mary while he was in preaching on the banks of the Ebro River in Saragossa, Spain in
40 A.D. Today, apparition reports occur more frequently.
Some scholars estimate the total number of apparition claims throughout history to be
approximately 2,500 (with about 500 of those coming in the 20th century alone).
Throughout history 308 apparitions are attributed to Saints or Blesseds or associated to
a venerated images of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
They are generally unofficially recognized by Church authorities (or at least the orders
and congregations that they have founded or belonged to).
Only 7 Popes throughout history have witnessed Marian apparitions. It was only during
the Council of Trent (1545-63) that the manner of investigation and approval of
apparitions became systematic.

3. The Catholic Church has been very cautious to approve purported miraculous events. In
fact, in the 20th Century, of the hundreds of public claims, there have been only 12 with
episcopal approval (4 of those with Vatican recognition) and a handful of others that
have not received official approval but have been approved for faith expression at the
site
ON INVESTIGATION AND APPROVAL OF THE APPARITION & ITS CULTUS:
The Bishops are the ones who evaluate evidence of an apparition in their local diocese
according to these guidelines:
1) The facts in the case are free of error.
2) The person(s) receiving the messages is/are psychologically balanced, honest,
moral, sincere and respectful of church authority.
3) Doctrinal errors are not attributed to God, Our Lady or to a saint.
4) Theological and spiritual doctrines presented are free of error.
5) Moneymaking is not a motive involved in the events.
6) Healthy religious devotion and spiritual fruits result, with no evidence of collective
hysteria.
Judgment can find that an apparition shows all signs of being an authentic or a truly
miraculous intervention from heaven, that it is clearly not miraculous or there are not
sufficient signs manifesting it to be so, or that it's not evident whether or not the alleged
apparition is authentic.
Pope Benedict XVI commented on private revelation in his 2010 apostolic exhortation
Verbum Domini (“The Word of the Lord”). “Ecclesiastical approval of a private revelation
essentially means that its message contains nothing contrary to faith and morals.
It is licit to make it public and the faithful are authorized to give to it their prudent
adhesion.
A private revelation can introduce new emphases, give rise to new forms of piety, or
deepen older ones,” Pope Benedict continued. “It can have a certain prophetic
character and can be a valuable aid for better understanding and living the Gospel at a
certain time; consequently it should not be treated lightly. It is a help which is proffered,
but its use is not obligatory.”
As the bishops are entrusted with the responsibilities of discerning and ruling on
apparitions as stemming from the nature of their office, so there are fundamental
responsibilities on the part of the members of the diocese.
First, they are to obey their bishops when the latter act as Christ's representatives
(canon 212), that is, when they teach formally or establish binding discipline as pastors
of a particular church.

4. This obedience owed to the bishops in their capacity as leaders of particular churches is
intended to promote the common good.
Canon 753 also speaks of the "religious assent" owed to the bishops' teaching authority,
which means a special quality of respect and gratitude, along with critical awareness
and good will.
Hence, there should be intelligent obedience to ecclesiastical authority in the matter of
alleged apparitions.
Official Church statements regarding the authenticity of apparition claims are placed into
three categories:
1) Not Worthy of Belief - The statements to declare a private revelation false are
given according to the Latin phrase: "Constat de non supernaturalitate" (It is
established that there is nothing supernatural here) . It has been determined that
there are no characteristics that show it to be from God thereby attributing it to
fraud or another spirit.
2) Nothing Contrary to the Faith - When locally it is decided or suggested that the
reported apparition might or might not be of supernatural origin, the apparition is
assigned to the category of "Non constat de supernaturalitate" ( It is not
established that something supernatural is here). Apparitions in this category do
not enjoy approval of their supernatural character but are determined to contain
nothing that is contrary to faith and morals.
3) Approved - The supernatural chracter of the apparition is declared worthy of
belief ("Constat de supernaturalitate") and contains nothing that is contrary to
faith and morals. But belief in the apparition (even the true one) is not necessary
for salvation.
As established in the Council of Trent (1545-63), the local bishop is the first and main
authority in the judgement of the authenticity of apparition claims. Vatican approval is
not required for an apparition to be considered authentic.
After an episcopal approval, the Vatican may do nothing but it may release an official
statement or after some time give non-written forms of approval such as a papal visit
with the crowning of the associated icon or a gift such as a golden rose, the approval of
the construction of (or elevation of an existing shrine to) a basilica, the establishment of
a feast day, or the canonization of the associated visionary.
Positive judgments by the local bishop (but not yet by the Vatican) theoretically are able
to be reversed by a subsequent bishop - but this has never happened in the history of
the Church.

5. Negative judgments (Constat de non supernaturalitate) and rulings of no evidence of
supernaturality (Non constat de supernaturalitate) have later been changed to positive
judgments on a few rare occasions with the ruling of a subsequent bishop.
If a Marian apparition is recognized by the bishop, it means that the message is not
contrary to faith and morals, that Mary can be venerated in a special way at the site and
that the faithful can believe with confidence in the supernaturality of the event.
But, because belief in a private revelation is not required by the church, Catholics are at
liberty to decide how much personal spiritual emphasis (if any) to place on apparitions
and the messages they deliver.
A RUNDOWN OF REPORTED APPARITIONS IN THE PHILIPPINES
The love affair of the Filipinos with the Blessed Virgin Mary began with arrival of the
Spaniards in 1521 when Ferdinand Magellan discovered the country on his quest for the
Spice Islands.
He gifted three images to the Hara Humamay, later baptized as Reina Juana, three
religious images, that of Señor Santo Niño de Cebu, El Ecce Homo and the now
missing (or lost) Virgen de los Remedios.
Yet it was in 1565 when a soldier of Miguel Lopez de Legazpi found the image of
Nuestra Señora de Guia worshiped as a pagan idol by the natives that formally started
the spread of the Marian cult in the Philippines.
For those who are following this blog for years, one may notice in the history of the
devotion to some venerated Marian images in the Philippines, especially those from the
Spanish colonization period that part of their narratives are the reported appearances of
the Virgin that further triggered the devotional fervor of the people to a certain image of
the Virgin.
It wasn't until the Postwar period up to the present that we hear or read reported
apparitions that are becoming similar to the character or format of the apparitions of the
18th to the 19th century like those in La Salette, Lourdes, Fatima, Beauraing,
Banneaux, Kibeho among others.
So without further ado, there are reported Marian apparitions in the Philippines based
from the records and reports gathered from the Spanish regime up to the present time.
Some of the reported events presented here have no definitive decision on these events
and the blogger does not in a way anticipate the official judgement of the Church
whether the events are accepted as miraculous or otherwise unless the Church
declares such in accordance to the ruling of Pope Urban VIII regarding reported
apparitions and other supernatural phenomena.

6. ANALYSIS
We can see in the presentations that there is a certain trend in these reported Marian
apparitions in the country since the dawn of Christianity in the Philippines. We can see
here that the Virgin manifest herself in way that she is best be received.
Taking on this statement, we see her that these reported visits, approved or otherwise,
the characteristics of these visits adapted the tides, culture and social atmosphere of a
certain time period.
At first, we noticed that in almost every reported Marian apparition in the country, the
seers came from the middle and lower class society's which is pretty distinct to those
famed reported apparitions in Europe.
Now, if we look on the events reported and duly recorded during the Spanish era, these
reported Marian apparitions are mostly associated to certain venerated images in the
country like those in Morong, Bataan; Manaoag, Pangasinan; Taal, Batangas, Cagayan
de Oro, Cavite Puerto, Pagsanjan, Laguna among others either as a starting point for
development of a cultus or a miracle that was performed in certain situations and its
cultus was sanctioned and endorsed by the Church hierarchy at that time and often than
not, these images would later receive the honor of Canonical or Episcopal Coronation
and its apparition site would be elevated to shrinehood or as a Minor Basilica - in the
case of Our Lady of Manaoag.
On the events from the Pre-War up to the Post War period, we see a shift on thse
reported events like those in Bacacay, San Narciso, and Lipa where it took the elements
of those famed apparitions of the "Age of Marian Apparitions" like those in Lourdes and
Fatima and the Church also noted that it was during this time period that the reported
apparitions multiplied.
It is also during this time that the Church, most especially during the Post War period,
resorted to clamp down on these events became the norm, like in the case of Lipa, to
prevent the tendency of illuminism - the illusions of subjectivity in order to protect the
Doctrines of the Church in the name of prevention of heresies.
Interestingly, with the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, the Church have changed
its attitude on reported Marian apparitions with the abolition of canon law that prevents
publications on future supernatural phenomena which showed the Church's openess on
these events.
Cannon Rene Laurentin states that such attitude came to being because "we cannot put
the action of God in a square, but to see where God is doing something and it is also
the Church's way."
This became evident in the cases of Cabra, EDSA, Aringay and the rest of the reported
Marian apparitions of the 20th - 21st centuries, sans the infamous Agoo apparitions,

7. where although no official judgement was given, the cultus surrounding it were tolerated
by the Church by giving imprimatur of the messages and devotions related to these
events.
It is also interesting to note that the reported appearance during the 1980's up to the
present are taking a more extreme approach with numerous supposed public
manifestations became more dramatic from escarchas, lachrymation of images,
photographic "miracles" and other phenomena which somehow gives an impression
that reality of the divine is still relevant in the face of modernity and developments in
science and society.
Given with these accounts, circumstances of their time periods, it seems that there is a
void in the collective Filipino consciousness regarding these supernatural events,
approved or otherwise, that leads us to the question "Did Mama Mary appeared in the
Philippines?".
Again, as I stated in my introduction, the question might look simple yet the answer is
pretty complex considering the situation on each time period these reported events took
place.
It can be this reason that most of us overlooked these events, especially the early ones
maybe because of our society's so called "historical amnesia" or simply we expect
something grand
The aforementioned circumstances have left us a subconscious longing to have at least
a grand supernatural event, in this case, Marian apparitions, that we can call our own,
which is lenient to the so-called "Pinoy Pride" (we see how this mentality led to the
waning popularity of the cultus of the two Filipino saints that I expounded on a previous
blog entry).
I have seen this kind of attitude in the followers of numerous reported appearances of
the Virgin from the Post-War period up to the present.
Our saints however cautioned us on this tendency, most specifically St. Teresa of Avila
and St. John of the Cross.
In the writings of the two Doctors of the Church, they forewarned the faithful to don't ask
for any supernatural gifts for it shows as sense of pride that can harm the soul.
If there is indeed such gift given to a chosen soul, we should accept it with genuine
humility and always seek guidance to a competent priest regarding such matters.
It is also important to exercise prudence if one will come in contact with information
regarding these events and to ask for God's help to discern if a supernatural
phenomenon was from him or from the adversary.

8. Lastly, it is also important to be obedient to the official ruling of the Church regarding to
these matters because the Church as a Mother cares for her children and one of its acts
is to make sure that the faithful guided to the faith and sound teaching of Our Lord since
messages from Marian apparitions should be treated as an aid to understand his life
saving teachings.
CONCLUSION
So now we arrived in our conclusion to the question: "Did Mama Mary appear in the
Philippines?"
The answer to this is Yes - but not in a way that most people would expect citing the
reported accounts that are associated to some venerated images during the Spanish
regime.
Although this answer can be contested with future studies on this matter, we cannot
deny the records that presented these facts and how it affected, or in this case,
contributed to the strength of Marian devotion in the Philippines.
Let us once again keep in mind that the Virgin manifests herself in way that she is best
be received and with this, we should not put the acts of the Divine in a square based on
our standards because the action and will of the Divine is always in contrary to our frail
human nature.
We cannot deny the fact that belief in the supernatural is one of the best known
distinction to us Filipinos, but if we exercise prudence and caution, this would help us
understand what Our Lord and Our Lady truly wants for us for the salvation of our souls.
(2021; researched; Source: Pintakasi)
Website: https://pintakasi1521.blogspot.com/2020/09/did-mama-mary-appear-in-
philippines.html)