Naga City

THIS September, all roads lead to Naga City for the feast of Our Lady of Peñafrancia. This year is particularly special as the Archdiocese of Nueva Caceres celebrates the centenary of the canonical coronation of the image, which took place on Sept. 20, 1924.

The devotion to Our Lady of Peñafrancia began in Salamanca, Spain in the early 1400s when Simon Vela, who came from a wealthy family, gave up his inheritance to become a Franciscan lay brother in Paris. He discovered the image of Our Lady of Peñafrancia buried under a rock on the mountain of Peña de Francia in Spain in 1434. When miraculous healings began to be reported, Vela built a chapel to house the

In the Philippines, a young seminarian named Miguel Robles de Covarrubias experienced relief from suffering when he placed a holy card of the image from Simon on his body. When he became a priest in Ciudad de Nueva Caceres (now Naga City), he had a local artisan carve the image of Our Lady of Peñafrancia in 1710 and built a church to house it. The devotion to the image spread, and on Sept. 1, 1864, the Traslacion Procession, where the image is brought to the Cathedral and then returned through a fluvial procession, began.

The feast of Our Lady of Peñafrancia soon became the largest Marian event in the country, and every September, thousands of pilgrims and tourists come to Naga City for the novena festivities and to enjoy the city's tourist attractions.

Peñafrancia Drive

Naga City is 380 kilometers from Manila, requiring between 7 to 8 hours of driving time. An alternative is to take an overnight bus from Manila or fly to Naga via Pili Airport. It is also possible to arrive in Naga using the PNR train from either Sipocot or Legazpi.

Parking is usually a problem during the Peñafrancia weekend, so it's best to leave your vehicle at your hotel and take public transportation to the event areas.

This year, the Traslacion Procession will take place on September 13 when the image of the patron is moved from the Basilica Minore of Our Lady of Peñafrancia to the Naga Metropolitan Cathedral, followed by nine days of novena and mass. On September 21, the image will be returned to the Basilica via a grand