Nuestra Señora Del Pilar De Imus

Our Lady of the Pillar of Imus (Spanish: ''Nuestra Señora del Pilar de Imus'') is a Roman Catholic Marian title of the Blessed Virgin Mary and venerated Marian image of the Madonna and Child atop of a pillar. The City of Imus in the province of Cavite and the Diocese of Imus, considers her as its patroness.

The image was granted a canonical coronation by Pope Benedict XVI via a pontifical decree in 2011. The coronation was executed on 3 December 2012 in celebration of the golden jubilee of the Diocese of Imus as decreed by Pope John XXIII via his papal bull ''"Chisti Fidelis"''.

History

Imus was once part of the ''Hacienda de Imus'' owned by the Recollect friars in 1686. These also included the ''Encomienda de Binakayan'' ( Binakayan, Kawit) and Pérez Dasmariñas (Dasmariñas), a former ''barrio'' of Imus.

Like Cavite City (originally ''Cavite La Punta'') and Noveleta, Cavite (''La Tierra Alta''), the Hacienda de Imus was a ''barrio'' of ''Cavite el Viejo'' (now Kawit, Cavite), whose parish church was built by the Jesuits under Miguel García Serrano, O.S.A., Archbishop of Manila, from 1618 to 1629. For over 150 years, the people of Imus had to endure walking or traveling 4.5 kilometers of dirt road to attend religious services and conduct official business in Cavite el Viejo. The difficulty of communication between Imus and Kawit was long-standing problem until the Order of Augustinian Recollects, as a consequence of the British occupation of Manila in 1762, established a parish church in Imus, in what now Bayanluma.

However, the church was far from the estate house acquired by the Recollects, and when the church was destroyed by a strong typhoon in September 1779, the friars transferred it to Barrio Toclong and then finally to Sitio de Balangon, the present site of the church.

In 1769, tenants of the hacienda together with the '' cabezas de barangay'' completed the relocation of their houses into a '' reducción''. This forced resettlement was common in the Spanish Empire, with people placed “''bajo de las campanas''” (“under the bells”, i.e., within hearing distance of church bells) to facilitate both evangelisation and the enforcement of Spanish authority. Those who resisted living within ''reducción'' settlements were locally called “''taong labás''” (“people outside”), a term which often held connotations of lawlessness.

With the establishment of the Recollect church, the people of Imus gained religious emancipation from the Jesuit-run parish of Cavite el Viejo. The Recollects, however, would not be content: in 1774, Recollect friar Pedro San Buenaventura, petitioned the government to "separate the ''inquilinos'' of Imus from the political jurisdiction of the government of Cavite el Viejo." After a considerable wait, the petition was granted, and Imus became an independent municipality on 3 October 1795, exactly nine days before the Feast of Our Lady of the Pillar.

Canonical coronation

Pope Benedict XVI in 2011 acknowledged the petition and miraculous claims of devotees, authorizing the coronation of the image via a papal bull. The canonical coronation was carried out on 3 December 2012 in Imus Cathedral by Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, coinciding with celebrations of the diocese’s golden jubilee.

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Our Lady Of the Pillar Of Imus
Shrines to the Virgin Mary
Titles of Mary, mother of Jesus
Catholic Church in the Philippines
Religion in Cavite
Imus
Statues of the Madonna and Child