Our Lady of Porta Vaga

Our Lady of Solitude of Porta Vaga (Spanish: Nuestra Señora de la Soledad de Porta Vaga, Filipino: Mahal na Birhen ng Soledad ng Porta Vaga) also known as the Virgin of a Thousand Miracles, is a Roman Catholic Marian title of Mary, mother of Jesus, based on the Marian apparitions reported in 1667 by a Spanish soldier during a night storm when he watched over the gates of Porta Vaga. Later on the next day, the icon was discovered in the seashore of Cañacao Bay. The Virgin of Soledad is a venerated Marian icon associated to the Our Lady of Solitude. The province of Cavite and the city of Cavite consider her as its patroness.
The oldest dated Marian painting in the Philippines is permanently enshrined at the Diocesan Shrine of Our Lady of Solitude of Porta Vaga, Church of San Roque.
The image was ceremoniously crowned on 17 November 1978, though having been long disputed as illegitimate due to lack of official decree from Rome. On 27 September 2017, the image was designated as a National Cultural Treasure of the Philippines. On 19 March 2018, new documents were submitted to the Holy Office, and the image was granted an official decree of canonical coronation by Pope Francis.
The image is known in its province as the "Queen of the City and Province of Cavite" and "Exalted Patroness and the Celestial Guardian and Protectress of the Province of Cavite and its Port" (Spanish: Reina de la Ciudad y Provincia de Cavite and La Excelsa Patrona y La Celestial Guardiana y Protectora de la Provincia de Cavite y su Puerto). The icon was used to bless departing trade galleons plying the route between Cavite and Acapulco, Mexico, earning her the title "Patroness of the Galleons", while claims of miracles associated the icon as "The Virgin of a Thousand Miracles". According to historical records, the image is sometimes called "Mother of Candles" ("Ynang Magkakandila") due to her prayerful iconography of two candles, hundreds of bottles of candles was offered in front of the image in the weeks of her festival in Cavite. Accordingly, a separate feast was celebrated supported and funded by candle makers in gratitude for their income from the recent days feast. The youth also calls the image affectionally as "Nay Choleng" (Mother Choleng) using the name "Choleng" a pseudonym of "Soledad".
The Blessed Virgin Mary is depicted as garbed in black and white, kneeling before the instruments of Passion of Jesus Christ. The icon is painted on canvas and framed in carved wood. The painting itself is set in gold and silver accoutrements of precious gemstones donated as ex votos from devotees.
A Spanish inscription on the reverse of the icon reads:
the 350th Anniversary of the Arrival of the Original icon in the shores of Cavite.
According to local legend, a Spanish carabinero Soldier on sentry duty on the Rosario isthmus one stormy night saw a halo of bright light amongst storm clouds above Canacao Bay. Thinking the light to be coming from Islamic pirates intent on sacking Cavite, the sentry shouted a challenge to the lights as they approached him. When the light did not stop, he again called out. A calm and soothing voice replied from the light:
The soldier, struck with awe and confusion, replied:
The morning followed the stormy night. The early risers, mostly fishermen and workers at the Cavite Royal Arsenal usually passed through the Porta Vaga gate in entering the puerto. Along the beach of Cañacao Bay, they found a framed image of the Virgen de la Soledad lying on the sandy shore. It was close to the spot where the Virgin appeared the previous night. Others claimed it came with the debris of a Spanish galleon that sank during the fierce typhoon. They brought the image to the parish priest, who temporarily installed it in the parish church. Later, a small chapel was built near the Porta Vaga walls and for three centuries it became the shrine of the Virgen de la Soledad.
An inscription was found at the back of the painting, "A doze de Abril 1692 años Juan de Oliba puso esta Stsma. Ymagen Haqui." This inscription says that "this sacred image was placed here on April 12, 1692 by Juan Oliva" but it does not clearly tells us the exact date of the Virgin's arrival. It is possible that it is the date when the Virgin was enthroned at the altar of the Ermita de Porta Vaga in the 17th century. Devotees of the Virgen de la Soledad were not satisfied in placing her in one of the seven churches of Cavite Puerto. They decided to build for her the Ermita de Porta Vaga, a small chapel near the gate of the Porta Vaga, the fortlet guarding the entrance to the Puerto de Cavite. For three centuries, it became the shrine of the Virgin.
Philippine writer Genoveva Edroza Matute claims that the grandiose celebration of the fiesta of San Diego in Rizal's Noli Me Tangere was based on the fiesta celebration of Cavite. Thus, the Virgen de la Soledad was called the "Queen and Patroness" of province of Cavite.
The Marian image is celebrated every second and third Sunday of November in Cavite. An annual Lenten rites and the All Saints-All Souls Day observances where she is alluded to in Tagalog as "Ináng Mágkakandila" (Mother Candlemaker).
The Fiesta of the Soledad lasts for almost two and a half weeks.
The Soleda festival is a less popular but a more traditional celebration of residents from Sta. Margarita and Barangay Matobato in Calbayog Samar about merry dancing at the shores bearing the image of Nuestra Senora de Porta Vaga, more popularly known as "Soleda". This festival is specially pursued and initiated by the descendants of the early settlers in the community called "Tagalugan" referring to Tagalog speaking migrants from Cavite City during the Spanish era. The celebration is prominently highlighted by the presence of "kubol" or sea-shanties made up of bamboo and coconut palm leaves. The devotees dance their way from the local Chapel as they bring out the image and pass by the different "kubols" until reaching the main "kubol" where a simple ceremony is conducted. The date of celebration though is not very prominent because of the confusion of the actual festival day which falls every second Sunday of November.
As one final salvo to the celebrations of Good Friday, devotees of the Virgen de la Soledad come out after the traditional Santo Sepulcro Procession for a time of profound penance and prayer for the Procession del Silencio de la Virgen de la Soledad. Devotees, mostly clad in black, barefoot and silently praying with their candles in hand, accompany the age-old icon of the Virgen de la Soledad on a short route to symbolize the Virgin's lonely walk back home after bringing Christ's body to the Holy Sepulchre. This procession brings out the grief believers have in giving consolation to our Lady in Her time of bereavement. As devotees remember, the icon of the Virgen de la Soledad is a depiction of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the night of the first Good Friday, where She spent time alone in solitude, in quiet prayer and meditation, pondering over the great sufferings that Her Son has endured, thus the evening procession is to them a reminder of Her fervent presence in the hearts of the faithful.
The origin of the novena claim that some of its prayers may have been taken from a 1742 religious booklet titled "Soledad patrocinante de Maria. Oracion evangelica de Nuestra Señora de la Soledad, appelida de la Puerta Vaga" (English: Under the patronage of the Mary of Solitude, with the prayers of propagation of Our Lady of Solitude, under the name of the Open Gate); preached in 1741 by the Dominican priest Juan de la Cruz, a Christian missionary in China.
In the 19th century, a Tagalog translation of this Novena was made by Juan Dilag, a chaplain of the Ermita. On 31 August 1861, the chancellor of the Archdiocese of Manila, Don Candido Ureta de Manzares approved the Tagalog translation with the following decree:
The current silver frame used on special occasions such as processions, is made of wood covered in pure silver, with the back made of bronze. The silver came from old coins donated by devotees, and Mexican silver given by Antonio José Sr, owner of a metal trading business. The original frame was destroyed during the Japanese Occupation.
A wooden frame made of kamagóng (Diospyros discolor) with brass appliqué and silver rays was donated by the Roxas family matriarch. The frame is the icon's throne and used to hold the original image on her altar. Today it holds the "Viajera" or official replica on ordinary days. During the fiesta or on special occasions, it is used for the original icon.
A crown made of gold fashioned from the pectoral cross of the former Archbishop of Manila, Cardinal Rufino Santos, was donated as an ex voto during the 17 November 1978 coronation.
The crown made of pure gold was donated by Don Arturo Mañalac and the auspice maria inlaid with precious gemstones funded from donations of devotees residing abroad. This crown was used for the 17 November 1978 coronation, and is used during the first fiesta on the second week of November.
A crown made of gold and precious gems funded by various devotees mostly from its lay confraternity for the 2018 Canonical Coronation. The crown was manufactured by the jeweler "Fedesto" of Fort Bonifacio and YUG Jewelers in Kowloon, Hong Kong.
The original gold dove went missing in the late 1990s, and a new dove was made from ivory with rays of gold vermeil studded with cubic zirconia. The dove, which symbolizes the Holy Ghost, was given by a devotee for the 2018 Canonical Coronation.
Medallions were made in 2018 to commemorate various civil honours to Our Lady of Solitude of Porta Vaga. The pins were made of silver dipped in gold, and bear the various seals of the state and government institutions.
Various Ex Votos of the image, most notably:
In 1991, in preparation for the celebration of the Tricentennial of the Enthronement of Our Lady of Port Vaga, the National Artist Lucio San Pedro made a four-voice arrangement of the hymn
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