Third Saturday in May

Virgen de los Remedios, San Fernando, Pampanga, Philippines

To counter the communist insurgency in his diocese, Cesare Marie Guerrero, first Bishop of San Fernando, started a movable ministry called in Tagalog the Cruzada ning Pamanisi at Lugud, Crusade of Penance and Charity. Using an old statue of the Virgin of Remedies from a church in the city's Baliti district (right), the Crusade toured the area, uniting believers in prayer and processions. The statue remained in each parish for a month. Popular and successful, the Cruzada has continued to the present. But in 1954, after the first round of visitations, the people of Baliti decided they did not want to give up their beloved image again, so Bishop Guerrero commissioned a replacement from local sculptor Victoriano Siongco. At 31", it is slightly taller than the Baliti Virgin. Crowned by Vatican authority on September 8, 1956, that image resides in the San Fernando chancery. An annual coronation reenactment on September 8 alternates between San Fernando and Angeles City ten miles north. Two other replicas commissioned around 1980 by Oscar Cruz, second Archbishop of San Fernando, now accompany the Crusade through north and south Pampanga. The shrine of the Virgin of Remedies in Baliti celebrates fiestas on November 26 and the third Saturday in May.   

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