The Ina: Our Lady of Peñafrancia

The highest Marian concentration in Asia · Naga, Philippines · since 1712

From Mount Salamanca to the river of Naga

The devotion to Our Lady of Peñafrancia was born in the mountains of Salamanca (Spain) in the 15th century, when Simon Vela, guided by an inner voice, dug up in 1434 an image of the Virgin buried under a rock on the hill of Peña of France. That same devotion crossed the Atlantic and Pacific three centuries after the hand of a sick seminarian.

In 1712, Miguel Robles de Covarrubias, son of a Spanish official from Peña de France, studied Theology at the University of St. Thomas of Manila. He fell seriously ill. He took a picture of the Virgin of Peñafrancia and applied it to the parts of his body that hurt him most, promising that if he healed he would raise a sanctuary in his honor. Sanó. He fulfilled his word: he built a small hermitage of Nipa and bamboo by the Naga River, in the region of Bicol, where he entered a locally carved image of the Virgin.

The first native priest of Naga and the first miracles

Covarrubias was ordained a priest - the first diocesan priest ordained in Naga - and dedicated his ministry to spreading devotion. In 1712 he wrote a letter to the Dominicans of Salamanca describing the numerous miracles attributed to the intercession of the Lady. The fame of the sanctuary grew rapidly and the small image was soon replaced by a more solemn one that received the loving bicolano name of Mother - "Mother" - title that the people of Bicol have preserved until today.

The River Transfer: a procession that moves millions

In 1864, Bishop Francisco Gainza formally instituted the Transfer: each year, the Friday before the feast of the Nativity of Mary (8 September), the image is carried in solemn procession from the sanctuary to the cathedral, where it remains a week of the novena. The next Saturday he returns by the river - the Transfer by the river o River procession - on a gilded boat, escorted by thousands of devotees in boats and canoes that are thrown into the water to touch the boat of the Virgin.

In the 2025 edition, Naga City authorities recorded 1.8 million pilgrims gathered on the banks of the Bicol River. It is the largest Marian concentration in Asia and one of the largest river processions in the world.

Ina, Mother of Bicol,
You who crossed oceans into a sick soul and came home in a river,
Take us to a good port, too.
Amen.