Filipino devotees of the La Virgen Milagrosa de Badoc in Rome marked the anniversary of the arrival of a replica of the image in the city on May 23.
The small replica was brought in May 2019 by Bishop Renato Mayugba of Laoag to the Filipinos in Rome during the Filipino bishops’ “Ad Limina” visit.
Hundreds of Filipinos gathered at the Basilica of Santa Pudenziana in Rome’s Via Urbana in Rome to thank the La Virgen Milagrosa de Badoc for her “intercession and protection,” especially during the pandemic.
During last year’s lockdown in Italy, devotees of the revered image started an online prayer brigade asking the intercession and protection of Our Lady.
Father Alex de Leon who celebrated the Mass with the faithful on Sunday cited the Blessed Virgin Mary’s “maternal role” in the history of redemption.
Father De León is the parish priest of Rome’s Church of Sts. Elizabeth and Zechariah and is a native of Ilocos Norte where the revered image of La Virgen Milagrosa de Badoc is enshrined.
The commemoration was organized by the Commission on Worship of the “Sentro Pilipino” Chaplaincy of the Diocese of Rome.
Flordeliza Villa, one of the promoters of the devotion, expressed her gratitude to all who participated in the celebration.
On May 25, a Thanksgiving Mass was also offered in the Badoc Basilica for the second anniversary of the enthronement of another replica of La Virgen Milagrosa in Obereisesheim in Germany.
