A curious closet, the country’s first carinderia, and other stories surrounding the Antipolo Cathedral
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Instead of skeletons in the closet, The Antipolo Cathedral has perfumes in a cabinet. Lots of it. Think a seven-story cabinet groaning under the weight of sundry perfume bottles from every corner of the world.
“Lahat ng mga pabango na ito bigay ito ng mga kababayan na OFWs, mga nag-migrate sa ibang bansa, nag-trabaho sa ibang bansa. Pagbalik nila bilang pasasalamat sa Mahal na Birhen, inuuwian nila ng pabango,” Antipolo Shrine Rector Fr. Reynante Tolentino told The Taktak Times in an interview.
It’s a closet that aptly captures, for one, the belief animating the storied devotion of an untold many to the Cathedral’s Marian image widely believed to accord safe voyage, as well as, on the other hand, the attendant Filipino migrant experience. This is where tradition and aspiration share the same space.
“Antipolo is a good example of the human impulse to give the mysteries of faith ‘a local habitation and a name’,” wrote National Artist for Literature Nick Joaquin in Monina Mercado’s book “Antipolo, A Shrine to Our Lady.”
“Mankind has ever sought to give heaven an earthly address: Mount Olympus, for the Greeks; the Temple in Jerusalem, for the Jews; Mecca, for Islam. Every shrine is for its worshippers a Bethel: the house of God. Faith craves for its deity a habitation that is local and a name that is familiar,” Joaquin added.
A ‘momentous occasion’
The 17th-century wooden image of the Blessed Virgin Mary is called Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage or in Spanish Nuestra Señora de la Paz y Buen Viaje. The Black Madonna statue set out on March 25, 1626 from Acapulco, Mexico aboard a galleon trading ship after being brought by the newly appointed governor-general of the Philippines Don Juan Niño de Tabora en route to Manila. After facing stormy seas and fire aboard the ship, Tabora credited the image of the Blessed Virgin for having safely arrived in Manila on July 18 of the same year.
Last March 25, on the anniversary of the image’s departure from Mexico almost four centuries ago, the Antipolo Cathedral was elevated to become an “international shrine,” which is the highest possible station for a Catholic shrine.
“This is a momentous occasion for our community and is a testament to the faith of our devotees,” Bishop Francisco de Leon of the Archdiocese of Antipolo said during the March 25 mass announcing to the church the effectivity of the papal decree.
The Antipolo Cathedral submitted in 2021 its application to the Vatican to become an international shrine after securing the approval of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines that same year. In May 2022, the Vatican sent word approving the application. But it took a year for the papal decree to be effective, as Pope Francis’ reorganization of the Roman Curia in 2022 took precedence over the affairs of the church.
Now, the Antipolo Cathedral is said to be the first international shrine in Asia and the 11th in the world. It now belongs to a rarefied class of shrines that have deep historical significance for the Catholic Church. But beyond its elevated standing in the Catholic Church, the development is also expected to profoundly impact Antipolo City as a whole.
A shared identity
Antipolo is that locality where church and city have inextricably developed a shared history and identity that it is now difficult, if not impossible, to imagine one without the other.
“A small country town, Antipolo is only on the map because of Our Lady,” Mercado wrote in her book.
For one, part of the original pedestal where the image is enshrined was made from the tipolo tree, which was once abundant in the city and so gave the place its name. The church is also located in an area where a proud tipolo tree once stood, and where the image was said to mysteriously be found after vanishing from the church when it was being constructed in the 1630s.
But apart from its shared history, the magnetic allure of the Blessed Virgin also provides the city a good source of livelihood as the “Pilgrimage Capital of the Philippines.” In 2022, the city was deemed the Top 1 tourist destination in Rizal by the Department of Tourism, and the third most competitive city in the Philippines by the Trade department.
Up to the 1900s before train travel and cars, the only transportation for a time up the footpath along the mountain slopes to Antipolo were either horses or hammocks slung around the shoulders of carriers or hamoqueros. In fact, it was the regular uphill trek of Marian pilgrims going to Antipolo church that gave birth to one of the country’s distinctly culinary touchstones—the now ubiquitous carinderia.
The birth of the carinderia
In her book “The Governor-General’s Kitchen,” culinary historian Felice Prudente Sta. Maria said carinderias came about after the British invasion of Manila from 1762-1764 when East Indians, or Sepoys, choose to stay in Taytay and Cainta, where they married Filipinas. These were the towns where Marian devotees would disembark from bancas along the Pasig River and begin the ascent to Antipolo either via horses for able-bodied men, or hammock for women.
These areas were where the trekking began, and where weary travelers would usually refuel before the challenging uphill climb toward Antipolo. Populated with abundant foot traffic, the area was soon filled with bamboo stalls eager to fill hungry stomachs with a mixed menu that included the East Indian staple curry, or kari in Tagalog.
In the 1920s, the Spaniard Wenceslao Retana traced the etymology of carinderia to curry or kari (which then gave birth to kare-kare). One could think of the carinderia as the country’s first café, where weary pilgrims on the way to Antipolo could stop, take a breather, and have a bite, before they resume their taxing mountainous ascent.
A new chapter
Today, instead of hammocks and horses, an array of new cars and motorcycles are a common sight in front of the church, its owners asking for the blessing and protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Perhaps, one of these days, an enterprising economist could make the case for an “Antipolo index” as a barometer for the health of the automotive sector in particular and the economy in general.
“Ang sabi nga, kung gusto mo makakita ng mga bagong modelo ng sasakyan ngayon, sumilip ka lang sa harap ng simbahan ng Antipolo,” Antipolo Tourism head Mar Bacani said.
Now, the church and city with a shared history and identity turn a new chapter in its shared story after the Cathedral recently became an “international shrine.”
“We should be thankful and celebrate this. This is both a privilege and a responsibility for the church and for the city,” Tolentino said.
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Bim has been a journalist for television, radio, print, and online for many years covering business and news beats. He believes in the power of a good story.
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