Monica Parish, Consolacion (Pob.), Agoo, 2504 La Union
An Affiliate of the Papal Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome, Italy The veneration to Our Lady of Charity dates back from time immemorial. It was brought to Agoo by one of the Augustinian priests who served in Bantay, Ilocos Sur, where our Lady of Charity was first enthroned and venerated. Benito Sison, former rector of the Basilica of Ou
r Lady of Charity, believed that the devotion to Our Lady under the title of Our Lady of Charity was derived from an older devotion to the same statue that flourished in Bantay, Ilocos Sur. Sison, the statue of Our Lady of Charity dates back to the seventeenth century, but that particular statue was desecrated and the Agoo's statue, therefore, may be the oldest image of Our Lady of Charity in the country. It was the late Bishop Victorino Ligot, DD, the first bishop of the Diocese of San Fernando de La Union, who petitioned Rome for the canonical coronation of the statue, and this coronation was officiated by Archbishop Carmine Rocco, Papal Nuncio to the Philippines, on May 1, 1971, through the leadership of Congressman Jose D. The rose-stained window in the dome of the Basilica above the main altar is the testimony of that consecration. The year 1975 earmarked a change: the original Church transformed into a magnificent structure would become a shrine dedicated to Our Lady of Charity. Over and above the honor extended to her, she lately received another distinctive place in the basilica, a side-aisle "sanctuary" with a fitting throne. This was erected for the purpose of accessibility to Marian devotees for the veneration of the Blessed Mother under her title Our Lady of Charity.
