Paete in 1676. The stone church and the convent were built by Fr. Fernando Haro beginning in 1732 until it was ultimately finished in 1767. Twenty-one years later, the Virgin of Turumba was enshrined in the church.
The imposing structure of the church dominates the highly-colonial set-up of the town – right across the church is the town plaza, and it is surrounded by several small government offices. The moment you set foot on the stone steps that lead to the church, you will get approached by solicitous vendors of candles, and from where you are standing, you will see the small stalls across the church where there are little vials of what they call the langis ng birhen or the blessed oil of the Nuestra Senora de los Dolores de Turumba, and the dripping wax of the candles lighted by devotees.
On the side of the church is the “Pahalikan sa Birhen” – a gazebo-like shrine of the Virgin of Turumba, where the devotees offer flowers and their prayers to the Virgin. Few feet farther is a spacious garden where stone depictions of the seven sorrows of Mary can be found. The walls of the church are made of alternating layers of stone and tiles, and it said that it took one whole year in order to construct each layer of those walls. The awe-inspiring retablos contain the icons of 14 of the popular saints of the Franciscan Order, each in its own elaborately carved niche.
The main thing that draws people from all over the country to the Church of San Pedro de Alcantara is the devotion to the Nuestra Senora de los Dolores de Turumba. As mentioned in the beginning of the article, the image of the Virgin was enshrined in the church in 1788. According to the story, in 1778, the framed image of the Virgin (which measures 9” by 11”) was floating on the waters of Laguna Lake, drifting towards the shores of Pakil. It is said that a missionary was carrying the image with him on a casco or a small boat when he got caught in a storm on Laguna Lake. The image got caught in the nets of a local fisherman, and the man left it on a rock by the shore. The women of the town tried lifting it, but the small framed image was said to have been too heavy. The parish priest of the church happened to pass by and tried lifting the image. He succeeded, and the people rejoiced.
In 1851, there was a fire in the convent where the image was kept. Miraculously, only the edges of it got burnt. After the incident, the image was sent to different towns all over the country, which started the people’s devotion to the Nuestra Senora de los Dolores de Turumba. In relation to this devotion, not far from the church is the “Turumba pool,” where, according to the story, the Virgin was once seen walking across the water on a moonlight night. At present, devotees take baths in the pool seven times, in commemoration of the seven sorrows of Mary.
According to Bro. Inigo Vito, a familiar figure to the parishioners and a lay minister who has been serving the church for the most part of his long, blessed life, turumba is a Spanish word which refers to the instance when one is in a state of utmost joy that one seems to forget oneself. He also noted on the irony in the connection of the words dolores and turumba, as one appears to be the opposite of the other. However, this can be simply explained by saying that the people celebrate and pay homage to the long-suffering Virgin Mother of Christ.
The seven sorrows of Mary are said to be the seven wounds that pierced her heart. The first of these is the presentation at the temple, where St. Simon foretold that her son, Jesus, will suffer a great deal. The second is usually referred to as the Ninos Inocentes, or the flight to Egypt because King Herod ordered the death of all infants. The third is the finding at the temple, when, after days of searching for her son, Mary finally found him at the temple, teaching the words of God. Then the twelve-year-old Jesus told her that she shouldn’t have looked for him, for he had to be in his father’s house. The fourth is the carrying of the cross. The fifth is the crucifixion and death of Christ. The sixth is when Christ was brought down from the cross, or the pieta, which means, the utmost obedience to the will of the Father, until the death on the cross. The seventh and the last is the burial of Christ.
The people of Pakil celebrate the seven sorrows of Mary through the Turumba Festival. It is the longest religious festival in the Philippines, lasting seven days in commemoration of the seven wounds that pierced the heart of Mary. The first day of the feast is celebrated the Friday before Palm Sunday. In Pakil, the feast is also referred to as the “Pitong Lupi,” meaning the “Seven Folds” because after each day of novena, prayer and mass, the people “fold” or pack-up until the next day of the festival.
At present, the church endeavors to become a diocese. They are going through the process of having the Church of San Pedro de Alcantara formally recognized as the Shrine of Our Lady of Sorrows. The criteria for such recognition are the present conditions of the main structure of the church and the extent of devotion to the Our Lady of Sorrows. Given the shape the church is in now, and the highly extensive devotion that the Virgin of Turumba gets from all over the country, it would only be a matter of time before the church gets its rightful place on the list of Shrines in the Philippines.
