Our Lady of Manaoag Feast Day Celebrations in Vienna

While May is traditionally dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, many

feast days or fiestas throughout the year are devoted to representations
of the Blessed Mother. Many cities and towns are dedicated to her
because of how she prefigured the establishment of these early
settlements.

For Catholics worldwide, the month of October is dedicated to Our Lady

of the Holy Rosary. It is one of the significant Marian feast days,
particularly for devotees of the Blessed Virgin Mary and believers of the
significance and powers of the Holy Rosary.

The feast day of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary of Manaoag is
consistently celebrated by Filipino migrants in Austria, particularly the
natives of Manaoag, Pangasinan, a town more than 100 miles north of
Manila.

The original image of Our Lady of Manaoag is currently enshrined at the

Heart of Jesus, Parish, Töllergasse, 1210 Vienna.

It is reported that the image of Our Lady has performed miracles based
on various testimonies inscribed in the said church’ murals and accounts
by people who have received tremendous help and favors granted.

The feast day began with the recitation of the Holy Rosary conducted on
the grounds of the Töllergasse Parish. A procession of the image of
„Apo Baket“ followed, ending in the church. It was a special celebration
as there were flower offerings made as part of the liturgy. The APA Choir
rendered the liturgical songs with the Marian songs.

In his sermon, the celebrating priest Mag. Jorge Francisco Curiel

Rojas, a Mexican priest, assigned at the St. John Capistran parish,
1200 Vienna, related God’s greatness that He gave us  Blessed Mary,
who is just like us, to be the Mother of Jesus, the Savior of the World.

It was a remarkable celebration because the church was jam-packed

with Filipino devotees.
The celebration of the Feast of our lady of Manaoag in the Sacred Heart
of Jesus parish may be considered the culminating activity for the feast
day of Our Lady of Manaoag in Vienna. The event was organized by
the Association of Pangasineneses in Austria, led by its President
Charito Mina.

Filipinos love the Blessed Mother that has brought them through the joys
and uncertainties in life. For them, her connection to Jesus, her son, is
what keeps their relationship to the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts
honest. They often credit the Blessed Mother and her apparitions for
maintaining the Philippines' Catholic faith.

Like any other gatherings, the feast day celebrations concluded with the
partaking of food donated by devotees.

Our Lady of Manaoag is a title of the Blessed Virgin Mary venerated in

Manaoag, a town in Pangasinan, the Philippines. Under this title, she is
invoked as patroness of the sick, helpless, and needy.
The devotion to Our Lady of Manaoag includes two feast days: the first in
the summer, on the third Wednesday after Easter, and then again on the
first Sunday in October. The summer feast commemorates the papal
coronation of the image of Our Lady of Manaoag in 1926, and the
October feast is connected to Mary’s title as Our Lady of the Rosary.
Our Lady of Manaoag is depicted in a 17th-century ivory and silver image
of the Virgin Mary with the Child Jesus. Brought to the Philippines from
Spain in the early 17th century by Father Juan de San Jacinto, the statue
is enshrined at the high altar of the Minor Basilica of Our Lady of the
Most Holy Rosary of Manaoag.
The church was built on the site of a Marian apparition in Manaoag.
Documents dating back to 1610 attest that a middle-aged farmer walking
home heard a mysterious female voice. He looked around and saw an
apparition of the Virgin Mary on a cloud-veiled treetop, holding a rosary
in her right hand and the Child Jesus in her left arm, all amid a heavenly
glow. Mary told the farmer where she wanted her church to be built, and
a chapel was built on the hilltop site of the apparition, forming the
nucleus of the present town.
Today, thousands of pilgrims flock to the shrine and basilica in Manaoag.

People come to Manaoag to offer devotions to the town’s patroness,

locally referred to as “Apo Baket.”
The Association of Pangasinenses in Austria organizes the annual
celebration of our lady of Manaoag.