Our Lady of Manaoag Shrine, Pangasinan

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Part 2 of a series
DAY 2

The National Shrine of Our Lady of Manaoag is an hour, more or less, from Tarlac City. From Tarlac, we just drove straight to Urdaneta City and found a big sign that led us directly to the shrine. (If you have a laptop/notebook, bring it with you. Google Earth could be quite helpful in tracking prominent landmarks). Here are some of the sites you should expect to pass by before reaching the shrine:

- SM City Rosales in Carmen-Rosales, Pangasinan

8:40am. The town of Villasis, Pangasinan

8:52am. CB Mall in Urdaneta City, Pangasinan*

*the above photo was taken 2 years ago. The mall is already operational.

At a major intersection a few kilometers away from CB Mall, you will encounter a big sign that will lead you to Manaoag. In general, Manaoag is to the northeast of Urdaneta City.

By 9:12am, we finally reached the town of Manaoag!

Manaoag Town Hall

Looking for a parking space is easy. Within the church vicinity, the friendly locals would usually knock on your windshield and ask if you’re headed to the church/shrine then they would lead you to a parking space.

Vendors.

Just like many other churches in the Philippines, Manaoag is full of vendors selling candles, rosaries, novena booklets and other religious paraphernalia as well as fruits and other local delicacies. Each of them would then narrate their own sad stories to lure you into buying their products. My tip would be for you not to buy from any of them. If you do buy from one of them, then you have to buy from all of them as they would crowd you and surround you. The only way to get away from them is to run to the church. If you’re looking to buy some religious items though, don’t worry as there are some parish-operated shops within the church grounds.

The Church.

The church is Spanish-Romanesque sprinkled with a little touch of German and Italian Renaissance architectural composition.

A big octagonal dome surmounts at the point where the nave and the transepts converge forming a cruciform contour.

The Main Features of the facade of the church, on each pilaster at the lower section are topped by the statues of St. Vincent Ferrer, St. Margaret of Hungary, St. Catherine of Sienna and St. Dominic of Guzman. The doors of the main entrance are decorated with an engraved Dominican insignia. Set between the church and the convent, the bell tower measures approximately 32 feet in height whose summit is cappped by a white cross.

At the center of the church stands the elevated majestic wooden Altar of Our Lady. Atop the tabernacle of the Most Blessed Sacrament are; the center of which enthrones the miraculous image of Our Lady flanked to its right by the statue of St. Francis of Assisi; to its left by the statue of St. Dominic of Guzman.

Most pilgrims in Manaoag commonly observe lighting a candle, when they visit the shrine. With their increasing number, the Candle Gallery was renovated. At present, it has a bigger space, and has more rows of candle stands

(…to be continued)

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3 Comments

1. 

   Micamyx

   October 20, 2010 at 1:57 pm

   I’m glad you were able to go there Sinj

   Reply