St. Therese pilgrim relics visits Ilocos Norte anew

The Laoag City government welcomes the pilgrim relics of St. Therese from Lisieux, France. The visit is part of the St. Therese’s four-month visit to the Philippines. (Doms dela Cruz)

By Leilanie G. Adriano

Staff reporter

LAOAG CITY—Hundreds of devotees swarm the pilgrim relics of St. Therese as they offered prayers and roses to venerate the saint.

Touching down at the Laoag airport on January 15, 2018 via military plane, a crowd of local government, school, church and religious leaders welcomed the relics on its fourth visit to the Philippines.

Enclosed in a golden reliquary some bone fragments of St. Therese, personnel of the Ilocos Norte Police Provincial Office carried the relics while members of the Knights of Columbus helped in crowd control.

From the airport, organizers conducted a motorcade all the way to the St. William Cathedral in downtown Laoag.

On the same day, Monsignor Leo Ruiz led the concelebrated welcome mass, attended by hundreds of Catholics, mostly from Laoag and its neighboring towns.

The pilgrim relics also made stops in front of the Laoag City Hall, Ilocos Norte Provincial Jail, and at the Provincial Hospital.

Record shows that she is one of the most popular Catholic saints. As a doctor of the church, she is the subject of much theological comment and study, and as an appealing young woman, whose message has touched the lives of millions, she remains the focus of much-popular devotion up to this day, said in a primer of the pilgrim relic’s visit.

For Rosita Macalipis of San Nicolas, Ilocos Norte, she said the life of St. Therese as a nun when she was still alive inspired her “to live simply with great devotion to God amidst all trials.”

From Metro Manila, the pilgrim relics will be in the Diocese of Laoag until January 18 and to over 40 dioceses from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao until May 31.

After an overnight stay and veneration at the Carmelite Monastery on the evening of January 15, 2018, Father Rey Magus Respicio reported the pilgrim relics’ transfer to the Mary Cause of Our Joy College Seminary in neighboring Bacarra, Ilocos Norte on January 16, 2018 for an overnight vigil with the seminarians and then at the Capuchin Monastery before moving it to Baguio City.

The pilgrim relics of St. Therese have visited the country in 2000, 2008 and 2013.

Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, also called Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, was born on January 2, 1873, in Alençon, France. She died at the age of 24.

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