The Virgen of the Barangay Picture

INTRODUCTION

The image of Our Lady of the Barangay depicts a Virgen with distinctly Filipino features and attire. According to Antonio Gaston, “this is the only picture of Our Lady with the Infant Child holding and offering the beautiful devotion of His mother.”

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Our Savior Jesus Christ came down from heaven in the most humble circumstances at Bethlehem. So, too, in the Philippines, our own Virgen of the Barangay came down through the hands of the poor leper. The angel Gabriel announced the Holy Infant’s birth to the unknown shepherds on the fields. The Virgen sang Barangay came calling on the little nobodies in the nipa huts in the barrios of our country. It seems she desires that the least or humblest brethren in the far countryside be made to feel that she or he is as loved and wanted as any of her children.

In this picture, the Lady with all the tender love and solicitude of a mother glowing in her face is telling us, “My children, if you would not listen to me, at least listen to your Savior.” And with such stern finality, our Infant Savior tells us, “I have sent my mother many times in many places in the world to tell what you should do, but you did not heed her. Here is her Rosary to start your way back to me. Better listen to her now or else.”

As far as we know, this is the only picture of our Lady with the Infant Child holding and offering the beautiful devotion of His mother. For us in the barangay, this is a clear affirmation of the message of Fatima. For many men, the easy road back to God is through Mary. So one of the mottos constantly used in the barangay, Ad Jesum per Mariam (to Jesus through Mary), has never been more eloquently illustrated as this.

The picture shows a typical seaside scene of a sitio of 15 families or houses ideally organized into a rosary unit of the Barangay Sang Virgen. The unit banner is leaning beside one of the houses, announcing that the rosary prayer meeting will be held there that night so that the little community can join together and pray as a family and as a community of the people of God. It is about “Angelus” tome or sunset. The fishermen may be coming from the shore for the rosary or just setting out to sea after the rosary.

You can see three points of interest for your meditation or reflection: the mother’s face, the Holy Infant, and the Cross. Each can command your attention, and the whole can carry you to heights of inspiration.

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