400 years after arriving from Portuguese Macau into the Philippines.

September 8 is a Catholic celebration of the birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary and beautiful timing it was that a coffee table book about the Miraculous Brown Madonna of Cagayan River Valley was launched at the Waterfront Hotel on that same date. The coffee table book relates the Madonna and Child’s history and describes the miracles attributed to the statue also known as the Lady of Piat. The occasion would mark 400 years of its arrival from Portuguese Macau into the Philippines. A replica was given to a devotee in Cebu with hope of starting devotion here. Pilar Cusi, Cebu City’s most prominent resident from Cagayan explained that Piat is a town located 30 km. from the capital town of Tuguegarao. The Lady of Piat is venerated in a shrine within a Cathedral. After a mass celebrated by Monsignor Samuel Baculi, Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Tuguegarao, Roberto Caballero, the author of Yena Tam Ngamin, (Mother to us All), talked about the Brown Madonna and Child which arrived as a gift from Macau to the Philippines in 1604. Mr. Caballero described the Madonna as brown skinned and made of paper mache, so the Spanish ecclesiastics did not give it much importance. More so that at that time there was an existing rivalry for colonial conquests between Spain and Portugal. The statue was relegated to an obscure parish up northeastern Luzon, in the province of Cagayan where the Madonna’s brown complexion endeared her to the natives. Today, despite its 400 years of age and paper material, the statue is still intact and has not shown any sign of deterioration. Which is a miracle in itself. At last!