Roman Catholics will observe Wednesday, Aug. 31, the feast day of San Ramon Nonato (Saint Raymond Nonnatus), who is popularly regarded in many countries including the Philippines, as a miraculous healer and powerful intercessor.
A fiesta mass in honor of the great preacher and missionary will be offered at 5:30 p.m. at the Shrine of San Ramon Nonato (Tagas Church) in Tagas, Daraga, Albay. Fr. Levie Euprepes C. Quitazol, vicar forane of the Vicariate of San Raphael the Archangel will preside over the concelebrated mass at 9 a.m.
A procession will also be held Wednesday at 7 p.m. Novena masses were held from Aug. 22 to 30. This year’s feast coincides with the 23rd parish fiesta.
Commemorative masses will also be held in the towns of Guinlajon and Buenavista in Sorsogon.
Often invoked for safe childbirth, San Ramon, whose name is included in the Roman Martyrology, is also known as the protector of the unborn and the wrongly accused.
San Ramon was born in 1204 in Portella, Catalonia in Spain. Ordained priest in the year 1222, he joined the Orden de la Merced (Mercedarian Order) later serving as its master-general, which helped raise funds to pay the ransom for Christians jailed in North Africa. He was later tortured for standing by his faith.
San Ramon died on Aug. 31, 1240, and was canonized in 1657 by Pope Alexander VII. He remains as one of Spain’s most popular saints to this day.