January 29
Our Lady of Lourdes, Quezon City, Philippines
In the 1800s, a statue of Our Lady of Lourdes, sculpted by a Filipino artist, occupied a side altar of a little Capuchin chapel in the old Intramuros district of Manila. It attracted so many worshipers that the friars built a bigger church, dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes in 1898, with the statue above the main altar. The shrine remained very popular, for both devotions and weddings, until its destruction in World War II. The beloved statue was saved, though, and after the war the Capuchins gave it a new home nearby in Quezon City. The cornerstone was placed on January 29, 1950, and the Archbishop of Manila dedicated the new Lourdes Church in 1951. In 1997 it was designated the Philippine National Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes. By order of Pope Francis in 2019, the statue was crowned on August 22, 2020. Invoking "Mary, Health of the Sick, Queen of Lourdes," the presiding bishop prayed for "deliverance from COVID 19." The shrines celebrates its feast day on February 11, anniversary of the first apparition to St. Bernadette in France in 1858. (Information from www.radiomaria.ph; picture taken Sept. 23, 2007, by X@ND3R, from flickr.com.)
Also commemorated this date:
 | Nossa Senhora dos Impossíveis, Serra do Lima, Patú, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. Statue arrived, 1755; feast November 21. |