PURELY PERSONAL Our Lady of Piat basilica is now a pilgrimage site

IT was a dream that would not go away. It was a dream shared

by Archbishop Diosdado Talamayan with the people of

Cagayan. It was a dream conceived more than 10 years ago and

that is to make the small church dedicated to Our Lady of Piat

into a shrine and imposing basilica.

Carmen Carag was telling me when I was there for the formal

blessing and inauguration of the Basilica Minore of Piat on June

22 that the archbishop, her husband Antonio Carag and some

other well-known parishioners of Tuguegarao like Concepcion

Cannu-Caballero and Dr. Carolina Prada were talking about the

possibility of building a bigger church as early as the late '80s.

It took much faith and perseverance to make this dream come

true, but the glorious day finally happened on June 22. It was

truly an imposing church that could accommodate more than a

thousand people. A hundred priests and more than 20 bishops

came from all over the Philippines to witness a miracle as

Antonio Maria Javierre Cardinal Ortas representing the Holy

Father and the Papal Nuncio Antonio Franco blessed the

church.

The Lord was glorified on that day when people sang and

prayed in four dialects such as Ilocano, Itawes, Ibanag and

Balaueg. It was the greatest Marian event in 45 years; the first

one being the canonical coronation of Our Lady of Piat on June

20, 1954 by then Papal Nuncio Vagnozzi. This time it was the

Apostolic Nuncio Antonio Franco who reenacted the

coronation by placing a beautiful crown on the Virgin's head,

assisted by First Lady Loi Ejercito and her son Jude.

Hearts overflowing with joy

People from all walks of life, rich and poor, young and old who

drove up to Piat or took the plane from Manila came to witness

this miraculous event. Archbishop Talamayan thanked those

who helped, but he could not name them all as there were many

of them.

Cristina Ponce Enrile before she left to live in San Francisco

helped tremendously in the fund-raising. So did former First

Lady Imelda Marcos. Then, there's Antonio Cabangon-Chua

and Pilar Pobre-Cusi, to name a few.

Everybody who cared did their share. Carmen Carag had the

vestments of the Cardinal and the clergy made by Tito Santos.

Dr. Carolina Prada asked Aureo Alonzo to make the new

vestments for Our Lady.

Carol Ricerra-Javier and Aurora Zingapan-Lazo made it possible

for Ali Garcia and myself to be in Piat for the blessing. Ms Lazo

also donated the flowers for the altar.

Fr. Gerry Perez, parish priest and Rector of the shrine, will not be

surprised if more and more pilgrims travel to Piat to visit the

Virgin. The church is bigger now to accommodate more people.

The imposing church on a plateau that overlooks the town is

the perfect place for prayer and meditation.

With hearts overflowing with joy, we who were there looked up

at the altar and prayed to Our Lady of Piat and told her our

innermost thoughts.

The miraculous Virgin of the Itawes

The image of Our Lady, which was then called Our Lady of the

Holy Rosary, was brought to the Itawes region from its church

in Lal-lo, then the seat of the Diocese of Nueva Segovia, in 1620

to settle the conflict between the Christians and the Itawes tribe.

Her coming brought peace and in no time at all, her small chapel

in Piat, where the present church now stands, became a place of

worship for both Catholics and the Itawes.

When famine threatened to strike the Cagayan Valley around

1628, the Dominican clergy urged the people to pray a nine-day

novena to the Virgin, asking the men and women to go to

Confession.

No rain had come for two years, drying up the fields. But on the

last day of the novena, rain poured in torrents and the fields

were filled again. The people thanked the Virgin whom they

have called their own Lady of Piat.

Special Mass in Sto. Domingo Church

A REPLICA image of Our Lady of Piat will be brought to Sto.

Domingo Church in Quezon City on July 3 for a Mass at 7 a.m.

The public is invited. Cagayan Valley celebrates her feast day

on July 2.