Fiesta de La Naval

During the Spanish times, Manila (then Intramuros) celebrated two great fiestas – the Funcion Votiva de San Andres and La Naval de Manila. The Funcion Votiva was the Feast of Manila’s patron saint San Andres. The irony is that on St. Andrew’s Day of 1610, the most violent earthquake that ever hit Luzon totally destroyed Intramuros. Then, again, on the very feast day of its patron saint in the year 1645, Manila was again hit by an earthquake. So Manila was totally ravaged by earthquakes twice on the occasion of St. Andrew’s Day. This explains why St. Andrew ceased to be honored as Manila’s patron saint. The only two surviving memories of St. Andrew as the patron saint of Manila are the street and district called San Andres.

In the center of Intramuros was the Manila Cathedral and whenever earthquakes hit the city, the Church would always be destroyed. This explains why its construction was not completely finished until 1706. However, the church still kept on collapsing because of the lack of proper maintenance until a real architect was finally commissioned to take charge of the construction until it was finally completed in 1760. Two more earthquakes destroyed the church in 1852 and 1863, which turned the Cathedral into a giant rubble, and buried many worshippers in the debris. It took 56 days just to clear the rubble and six years to restore the building. Thank God, we have no feasts to commemorate these series of tragedies.

The feast day that survives from old Intramuros today is Fiesta de la Naval. Nick Joaquin described La Naval as Manila’s "procession of processions." In 1941, her shrine in the old Sto. Domingo Church in Manila was bombed. Its new home is the Sto. Domingo Church in Quezon City, the sixth church, described as the "roomiest house of worship among local churches," being the biggest church. This Shrine was declared by the Philippine bishops as the national shrine of the Queen of the Holy Rosary of the Philippines.

The street where it is located, along Quezon Boulevard, is definitely not an ideal street for holding any procession because it is a street with permanent heavy traffic. Not all motorists and pedestrians who witness the annual procession have no idea as to its significance. In a five-day battle in 1646, the Spanish-Filipino naval forces defeated the superior Dutch fleet whose quest was to obtain the rich resources of the archipelago and replace Catholicism with Dutch Protestant Calvinism. Before the battles, the intercession of our Lady, called Nuestra Señora del Santissimo Rosario, or Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary, and commonly known as La Naval, was fervently sought. Every second Sunday of October, the month of the Holy Rosary, the victorious La Naval battle more than three centuries ago is celebrated in Quezon City.

Most devotees pray for the intercession of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary to win their inner battles and struggles against poverty, injustice and strife. The Lady elicits fervent prayers to the Lord from the faithful.