Devotees from different parts of the country will celebrate on Sunday, July 2, the feast day of the miraculous Our Lady of Guibang, which is enshrined at the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Visitation of Guibang in Barangay Guibang in Gamu, Isabela.
Our Lady of Guibang (Facebook)
Novena masses will be offered from June 23 to July 1 at 4:30 p.m.
On Saturday, July 1, on the eve of the feast (Visperas), holy masses in her honor will be celebrated at 7:30 a.m., 9 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 4:30 p.m., and at 6:30 p.m.
On July 2, Sunday, twelve fiesta masses will be offered with the first mass at 3 a.m. and the last mass to be held at 7:30 p.m.
The well-venerated image of Our Lady of Guibang was canonically crowned by then Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines Carmine Rocco on May 26, 1973.
In January 1986, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) elevated her church in Guibang into a national shrine.
According to accounts, a young man brought the image of Our Lady to the hut of a poor couple named Francisco Noe and Maria Noble in 1905. He asked them to pray the Holy Rosary and offer works of mercy in honor of the Blessed Mother. The couple lit a candle in front of the image and prayed the whole night. At dawn, the couple noticed an unusually sweet fragrance in their hut. They later discovered that the fragrance, which lasted for several days, was emanating from the image of the Blessed Mother.
News of the event spread throughout the village of Guibang and soon, people came in droves to the poor couple’s hut and prayed and sang hymns to Our Lady.
A chapel was then built and later, a church, to accommodate the growing number of devotees who came daily.