Miracles
Our Lady of Manaoag has a 400-year history of renowned miraculous and pious events. Some of the earliest are replicated in the murals within the church. These include images of: the town miraculously spared from a wildfire, the origin of the basilica and the parish, and the original apparition. Devotees and foreign tourists visiting the shrine usually pray for good health or cure for diseases, among other intentions.
The magnanimously miraculous Our Lady of Manaoag has brought distinctive honor and fame to the eponymous town and to the province of Pangasinan.
In the early days of the Spanish colonization, animist mountain tribes burnt down newly-converted Christian villages. The town of Manaoag was among the settlements set afire. The thatch-roofed church was the locals' last refuge. The leader of the pillagers climbed over the compound's crude fence and shot flaming arrows into all parts of the church, but, miraculously, the building did not ignite.
The statue's miraculous powers became famous in the 1940s. During World War II, the Japanese dropped several bombs within the church's vicinity. The structure was only moderately damaged. Four bombs were released above the church, with three landing on the plaza and the façade, destroying both. The last bomb fell into the sanctuary, but it remained intact because, miraculously, it did not explode.
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Famous quotes containing the word miracles:
“If it could be proved today that not one of the miracles of Jesus actually occurred, that proof would not invalidate a single one of his didactic utterances; and conversely, if it could be proved that not only did the miracles actually occur, but that he had wrought a thousand other miracles a thousand times more wonderful, not a jot of weight would be added to his doctrine.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“Admiration is a very short-lived passion that immediately decays upon growing familiar with its object, unless it be still fed with fresh discoveries, and kept alive by a new perpetual succession of miracles rising up to its view.”
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719)
“I do not think our successes can compete with those of Lourdes. There are so many more people who believe in the miracles of the Blessed Virgin than in the existence of the unconscious.”
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)