History
It was once a sacred sanctuary where people gather to show their deep devotion to our Lady of Lourdes here in Pampanga, Philippines.
On the bright summer morning of May 16, 1906, many people witnessed a very glorious event, the arrival of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Cabetican, the Immaculate Mother of God. She was taken out from the river of Cabetican on a big banca and borne on the shoulders of devoted persons of her sanctuary. The first church of Our Lady was made of bamboo and its roofing was made of nipa. After a few years, the chapel was constructed into semi-concrete through the united efforts of the people. The grotto was beautifully made of wood. And as the years went by, some of the faithful devotees of Bacolor donated a sum of money to have it constructed into a concrete one.
Then, in subsequent years, some layleaders of the barrio approached the Archbishop and asked to make Cabetican a parish. But Msgr. Oscar V. Cruz did not agree to the proposition because Cabetican had no other barrios to include as a parish. Instead, the Archbishop declared it a Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes for the whole archdiocese. The faithful devotees of Cabetican as well as those for the whole Pampanga joined together to construct the edifice for the Blessed Mother. This has been the place of many pilgrims especially during first Saturdays of the month.
In the year 1906, on one of the corners of Bacolor, there was a poor barrio. The livelihood of the people depended upon the toil of their small lots. With the blessings of the Good Lord, sometimes, they had good harvest at other times, they had poor ones. In this barrio where they lived, they derived the name of the barrio from the wilderness of the town of Betis, called Cabetisan.. in using it, they made an error and the word Cabetisan was not in the right form. So they replaced "s" with "c" and thus, the name became Cabetican.
So in this poor barrio where I considered the people industrious, they decided to have the image of Our Lady of Lourdes as the object of people's pilgrimage in Cabetican. Because of this, many people… rich and poor, intelligent and with leadership have promised to visit her. It was not a surprise therefore, that in this poor barrio, many have visited Our Lady in her sanctuary- persons who were blind, crippled and also those who were declared as hopeless cases by doctors. The Blessed Mother is the light of the dawn, the Virgin of virgins who is so dear to the Blessed Trinity is now in the Shrine of Cabetican. Before She was taken here, Mr. Macapinlac, in the midst of his sickness, had promised to donate the image of Our Lady in a peaceful barrio.
The image of Our Lady of Lourdes is very beautiful. She has an admirable expression. Any person with hopeless heart will be filled with awe upon seeing her. Aside from this, there were miracles shown by her and these miracles are attested to by the people visiting her.
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Side view of the heritage Church
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Altar
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Cross
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Interior submerged in water
Read more about this topic: Bacolor, Pampanga, Tourism, Archdiocesan Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes of Cabetican
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This book or that, come to this hallowed place
Where my friends’ portraits hang and look thereon;
Ireland’s history in their lineaments trace;
Think where man’s glory most begins and ends
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