Dubbed as the “Mother of Novaliches” or InAwa (short for Ina ng Awa) by devotees, the image received the crown from Papal Nuncio Archbishop Charles Brown at the Diocesan Shrine of Our Lady of Mercy in Barangay Sta. Monica, Quezon City.
Four months after Pope Francis granted canonical coronation to the image of Quezon City’s Our Lady of Mercy, the statue was formally crowned canonically on Friday (September 24).
Dubbed as the “Mother of Novaliches” or InAwa (short for Ina ng Awa) by devotees, the image received the crown from Papal Nuncio Archbishop Charles Brown at the Diocesan Shrine of Our Lady of Mercy in Barangay Sta. Monica.
“Today we celebrate her exultation–her coronation–in heaven. God chooses the small and the lowly and He exalts them and brings them into glory,” Brown said in his homily.
The original image of the Our Lady of Mercy is said to have been brought by the Augustinians in 1856.
During the Philippine Revolution of 1896, the parokya was burned and the image was never found. Master sculptor Wilfredo Layug created a new rendition of Our Lady of Mercy in 2007.
According to the Catholic News Agency, a canonical coronation is a pious institutional act, where the pope designates a crown or stellar halo to be added to the Marian image under a specific devotional title in a particular area.
Bishop Roberto Gaa of Novaliches and retired bishops Antonio Tobias and Teodoro Bacani, who both previously served the diocese, were in attendance as co-celebrants.
The “Mother of Novaliches” received the official papal coronation in June of this year.
Bishop Gaa celebrated the news, remembering how the shrine was once the only parish in Novaliches.
“And from her sprung so many offsprings and rightly so, she is Ina,” he said. “She is a mother. The mother of many parishes and the Mother of Novaliches.”
The “daughters” of Our Lady of Mercy include the Holy Family Parish in Gulod, the Parokya ng Pagkabuhay in Bagbag, and Mary the Queen Parish along Belfast Avenue, Novaliches.
The celebration coincided with the Feast of Our Lady of Mercy and the 165th anniversary of the parish.
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