Hundreds of years ago when the Spaniards set foot in the shores of Iloilo, legend has it that, some fisherman caught a hard object in Iloilo river. The hard object was a statue of a Blessed Virgin, about a foot tall.
The fishermen attempted to carry the statue but it was so heavy. They planned on bringing the statue to a nearby church but to no avail – they just couldn’t carry it as if telling them it did not want to be carried elsewhere. Soon, news spread of a statue that could neither be carried nor moved and people frequented and crowded the area. Alas! Someone thought of bringing the statue to the Cathedral of Jaro. To the townsfolks’ surprise, the then very heavy statue can now be easily carried. In fact, only one fisherman held it on the way to the cathedral!
After the statue found a home in the cathedral, a number of unexplainable things started happening.
In the olden days, people would say that the image has a habit of disappearing early in the morning. The townsfolk attested to seeing an extraordinarily beautiful lady with long flowing hair bathing her son in an artesian well found in the middle of the plaza. Whenever this happens, a mist would cover her niche in the cathedral.
As a mother, she always wanted to be closer to the reach of her children. This is why even her placement in the Cathedral is very specific. In 1870, she refused to be placed in her niche in the newly constructed Cathedral. Legend has it that it rained for the whole week but when she was moved to another location the typhoon ebbed and soon sunny weather came.
Miracles also took place few years before the war and some incidents were witnessed by many people. At one point the area where the Blessed Virgin’s statue was situated\, got so dark for some reason – but after a few days, a sudden and unknown source of brightness emanated from the image filling the room with light. This statue allegedly also used to be just a foot long but for some reason it has now gone taller and bigger that they needed to place her outside, and where she was placed, grew lush vines that are believed to possess miraculous cure to any illness.
La Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria is the patroness of Jaro and the entire Western Visayas region. On her feast day, which is celebrated every 2nd day of February, beeswax candles are blessed, becoming “Perdon Candles”.
Checkout our Candelaria Candle!