Our Lady of La Naval de Manila

Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary – La Naval de Manila (Spanish: Nuestra Señora del Santísimo Rosario – La Naval de Manila; Tagalog: Mahal na Ina ng Santo Rosaryo ng La Naval de Manila) is a venerated title of the Blessed Virgin Mary associated with the same image in the Philippines. Pious believers believe that the Virgin's intercession under this title helped to defeat the invading forces of the Protestant Dutch Republic during the Battles of La Naval de Manila in 1646.
The Philippine government in 2012 designated the icon and its shrine as a National Cultural Treasure, making it one of the country's Cultural Properties.
Measuring approximately four feet and eight inches high, the body is made of hardwood in the cage or Bastidor style. The face and hands, as well as the entire Child Jesus, are made of solid ivory. Since its creation, the statue – considered the oldest dated ivory carving in the Philippines – has always been decorated with elaborate garments and a crown.
Some 310,000 individuals led by professors of the University of Santo Tomas, donated their heirloom jewels, gemstones, gold and silver to the image for its canonical coronation in October 1907. These now form part of the icon's vast collection of elaborate regalia, with some pieces dating to the 18th century.
In 1593, the new Spanish governor-general, Don Luis Pérez Dasmariñas, commissioned a statue of Our Lady of the Rosary for public veneration in memory of his recently deceased father. Under the direction of Captain Hernando de los Rios Coronel, the sculpture was made by an anonymous Chinese immigrant, who later converted to Christianity; this is the commonly cited reason for the statue's Asian features. The statue was later given to the Dominican friars, who installed it at the Santo Domingo Church.
In 1646, naval forces of the Dutch Republic made several repeated attempts to conquer the Philippines in a bid to control trade in Asia. The combined Spanish and Filipino forces who fought were said to have requested the intercession of the Virgin through the statue prior to battle. They were urged to place themselves under the protection of Our Lady of the Rosary and to pray the rosary repeatedly. They went on to rebuff the continued attacks by the superior Dutch fleet, engaging in five major battles at sea and losing only fifteen members of the Spanish Navy. After the Dutch retreat, in fulfillment of their vow, the survivors walked barefoot to the shrine in gratitude to the Virgin.
Later, on 9 April 1662, the cathedral chapter of the Archdiocese of Manila declared the naval victory a miraculous event owed to the intercession of the Virgin Mary, declaring:
Pope Pius X authorized granting the statue a canonical crown in 1906, which was bestowed by the apostolic delegate to the Philippines, The Most Rev. Ambrose Agius, O.S.B. During the Japanese bombardment in 1942, fearing that the statue would be destroyed, church authorities hid the statue at the University of Santo Tomas until 1946, the 300th anniversary of the battles.
The image was transferred in October 1954 to a new shrine built to house it inside the new Santo Domingo Church in Quezon City–the sixth Santo Domingo Church since its erection in the late sixteenth century in Intramuros. For this journey, devotees constructed a boat-shaped carriage (Spanish: Carroza Triunfal) to carry the image to its new home, which was declared her National Shrine by the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines. In October 1973, La Naval was formally declared the patroness of Quezon City, at that time the national capital. Filipino Archbishop Mariano Gaviola declared her patroness of the Philippine Navy in 1975, a patronage invoked until this day.
During the People Power Revolution of February 1986, a replica of the statue was brought in procession to the Malacañan Palace by the Dominican friars, in a peaceful protest of the state of martial law instituted by President Ferdinand Marcos. The replica was also brought to the eastern gate of Camp Crame, the police headquarters where the rebel forces headed by Juan Ponce Enrile and Fidel V. Ramos were confined during the uprising. Many Filipino Catholics attribute the revolution's peaceful victory to the miraculous intervention of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Filipino historian Nick Joaquín attributed one of the red jewels in one of the statue's crowns to an old legend of a giant serpent found in the Pasig River; the local folktale is more likely a metaphor of the triumph of Christianity over paganism. The other crown was supposedly inscribed and donated by King Norodom of Cambodia in 1872, one having disappeared after a burglary in 1930 while another one was simply two pearls adorning the orbs of the statue.
In December 2011, the Eternal Word Television Network featured the image as the "Grandest Marian Icon in the Philippines" on an episode of the programme Mary: Mother of the Philippines.
The image, its church and convent, along with the other objects stored in the complex were declared a "National Cultural Treasure" by the National Museum of the Philippines on 4 October 2012. This declaration is in accordance with Republic Act 10066 ("National Cultural Heritage Act of 2009") announced officially by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines and by the National Museum.
The statue has merited several papal honours, namely the following:
The feast of Our Lady of La Naval de Manila is on the second Sunday of October, having been celebrated on that date since 1646. Since 2023, the feast day of the image has been observed as a proper solemnity in Quezon City.
The Shrine's Rector Rev. Fr. Roger C. Quirao, OP assisted by Fr. Rolando de la Rosa led the Patronal feast celebrations with the enthronement of the image at the main altar of Santo Domingo Church on Thursday, October 3, before the October 4 to 12 novena.
On Friday, October 11, the “Recorrido” starts with the dispatch of the procession image from the Archdiocesan Shrine and Parish of Saint Joseph Quezon City to Amoranto Sports Complex and back to Santo Domingo Church. Blessing and welcome stations are located at the Nativity of the Lord Parish Church, Districts 3, Barangay E. Rodriquez, Sr.
On Saturday, October 12, "Misa del Recorrido de la Virgen" (Mass of the Virgin's Journey) is held in all Diocese of Cubao parishes. As part of the Journey, devotees wave flags as the La Naval motorcade of the patroness' replica passes across EDSA from Kamias to Kamuning road from the Archdiocesan Shrine and Parish of Saint Joseph Quezon City, Project 3 along Aurora Boulevard to Amoranto Stadium and return to Santo Domingo Church.
On Sunday, October 13, the Misa Mayor of the Solemnity of Our Lady of La Naval culminates with the main highlight, the grand street procession attracting thousands of devotees. The original image of Our Lady of La Naval on a silver vessel-shaped silver carozza triunfal is escorted by images of 27 Dominican saints of Our Lady of the Rosary. In 2024, Bishop Emeritus Honesto Ongtioco led La Naval's 51st anniversary with the assistance of Prior Rev. Fr. Roger C. Quirao, OP and Parish Priest Fr. Simon Peter D.L. Ramos, O.P. The first procession was held in October 1646 in Intramuros to commemorate the Spanish victory in the Battles of La Naval de Manila.
While some of the images are made sometime in the 20th century, some are made in the 18th century and are part of the original Intramuros procession, these are the ivory images of Saints Vincent Ferrer, Catherine of Ricci, Rose of Lima, Agnes of Montepulciano, Pius V, and Catherine of Siena. Some of the 11 original images that used to join the Intramuros procession didn't survive the war, and those are the images of Dominic de Guzman, Antoninus of Florence, Peter of Verona, Thomas Aquinas, and Saint Joseph. In the Marian procession, three ceriales carrying two religious banners lead the carrozas, with that of Saint Lorenzo Ruiz as the first, Hyacinth of Poland, Raymond of Penyafort, Pedro Bautista, Margaret of Hungary, Albertus Magnus, Margaret of Castello, Louis Bertrand, John of Cologne, Martin de Porres, Magdalene of Nagasaki, Vicente Liem de la Paz, Francis Ferdinand de Capillas, Thomas Khuong Tuc Ngo and Joan of Aza. The last carroza of Saint Joseph with the Child Jesus precedes the Our Lady of Naval.
The procession in Old Intramuros is once known as the "Procession of All Processions", and is known to be the grandest feast of Old Manila.
In 2020 and 2021, the image's procession was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines. Instead, the image was enshrined outside the shrine for devotees to venerate.
In 2023, city-wide celebrations were held in Quezon City to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the declaration of the Marian title as patroness of the city.