THE SHRINE OF OUR LADY OF CAYSASAY AND THE WELL OF STA. LUCIA
Local
children of ages 10 to 12 followed us all throughout as soon as we descended
from the 125-granite steps of San Lorenzo Ruiz, which leads to the church of Our
Lady of Caysasay. They were seated on
the benches at the front yard of the church as we gaze the yellow-painted
façade of the church.
Candles
were their main merchandise. In a sudden
shift of trade, they became instant storytellers. All recited in Filipino, without too much blink of an eye, the legend of Our Lady
of Caysasay was told. As if memorized
from a book, the storytelling was flawless and continuous. Every detail uttered by these children were
confirmed on my succeeding research.
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| THE BELFRY |
The
story goes.
In a small barangay of Taal, a fisherman
named Juan Maningcad went out fishing. Instead of casting his net to the sea,
he threw it into the nearby Pansipit River.
When he drew his net, he caught a small, wooden image of the Blessed
Virgin Mary less than a foot high. Dona Maria Espiritu, the widow of the town’s
judge, was assigned as the image’s caretaker.
She ordered an “urna”, a wooden, canopied shrine to be made for the
image and kept it in her home. Every
evening, she noticed that the image went missing but then in the morning it
would be back on its usual place. Worried,
the widow told the incident to the priest, who accompanied her back to her
house and saw that the urna was empty.
The urna suddenly opened and the image appeared before them. The priest decided to gather volunteers to
keep vigil beside the image, and during the night they did see the urna open by
itself, and the image leaving and coming back again.
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| THE STORY AS TOLD ON THE CHURCH CEILING |
One day, it disappeared and was nowhere to be
found. Years later, two girls named
Maria Bagohin and Maria Talain were gathering firewood, and saw the image
reflected in the waters of a spring near where Juan Maningcad had found
it. They looked up and saw the image of
the Lady of Caysasay on top of a tall sampaguita bush, flanked by two lit
candles and guarded by several “casay casay” (silvery kingfisher) that abounded
in the hillside area, thus called Caysasay by the Spaniards.
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| THE EXQUISITE INTERIORS |
A
general cleaning was ongoing as we scrutinize every detail of the church. The Shrine of our Lady of Caysasay has quite
an interesting interior of domes painted to reflect the history of the coral
stone church. There is likewise a wall painting
in one corner with the fisherman who discovered the image as the subject.
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| THE DOME ARTS |
Though
not as grand as the Taal Basilica, this church holds a vital role in the town’s
history. On a concrete steps at the side
of the church, we were lead to a room where devotees could venerate and this is
behind the main altar.
In a
few steps after the church visit, the children served as our guide while we
pass by their humble abode that seems like an abandoned heritage house. We were directed to the miraculous Well of
Sta. Lucia. The spot where the well is
located is believed to be the site where the two women saw the reflection of
the Virgin of Caysasay. The landmark is
a coral stone arch with a bas-relief image of the Virgin carved on its façade.
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| THE STORYTELLERS |
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| THE HUMBLE ABODE OF THE STORYTELLERS |
The
children shared that one fat female (with emphasis of being fat) student fell
on the well and good that she managed to swim and was taken out immediately by
the locals. She was goofing around with
friends in front of the camera when accidentally she was pushed and landed on
the well. The well is of quite a high
elevation and the two openings have varied depths. The fat girl incident was the lone accident
at the well according to one child.
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| THE SACRED WELL OF STA. LUCIA |
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| THE IMAGE OF VIRGIN OF CAYSASAY CARVED ON THE FACADE |
A
narrow walkway within a residential community served as our gateway to leave Barrio Caysasay towards the town
proper. The silhouette of the church’s
dome blanketed by the orange hues of the skies is the final scene of the day as
the sun sets.
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| THE SUNSET |
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