Baclaran Church

The National Shrine of Our Lady of Perpetual Help at Baclaran is one of the largest and busiest churches in the Philippines, run by the Redemptorists and built in a modern Romanesque style in the 1950s to hold the crowds its Wednesday novena had already outgrown. The devotion began here in the 1940s and became a national habit: every Wednesday the shrine runs Masses and novena services from before dawn until late at night, and the congregation over the day runs into the tens of thousands, spilling out of the doors and filling the surrounding streets. The icon above the altar is a copy of the Byzantine-style image venerated in Rome. For visitors the interest is less architectural than social - it is one of the clearest places to see what popular Catholic devotion looks like in practice in this country, alongside Quiapo and Antipolo. The market that has grown up around the church, selling everything cheaply, is a destination in its own right.

History

The Redemptorists came to the Philippines in 1906, settled in Manila in 1913 and moved to Baclaran by 1932. The novena itself began at their church in Iloilo on 6 May 1946, and the first Baclaran novena, with 70 people, was held on Wednesday 23 June 1948; the present church by César Concio, paid for largely by small weekly donations, was begun on 11 January 1953 and consecrated on 1 December 1958 (Wikipedia, Baclaran Church).

The main sights

• The novena crowds - Wednesday congregations filling the shrine.
• The icon - the image of Our Lady of Perpetual Help above the altar.
• The wide nave - the 1950s hall built for large numbers.
• The Baclaran market - the trading streets outside.

When to go

Any day for a quiet look; Wednesday to see the novena, which runs from early morning to night and is the point of the place. Expect heavy crowds and traffic then.

Things to know

Wednesdays are extremely crowded, inside and out. Traffic on Roxas Boulevard and around the market is difficult. Watch belongings in the crowds. This is a devotional site, not a sightseeing one.

Nearby

The Manila Bay boulevard and the airport terminals are close; Las Piñas and its bamboo organ are south.

Key facts