This essay looks into the miracles of Nuestra Señora de Guía of Ermita, venerated in a shrine in the environs of Manila. It studies how these accounts of extraordinary events can also be used as sources in understanding the ordinary lives and realities of peoples and communities in seventeenth century Spanish Philippines. In this essay, the twenty-nine miracles reviewed by Juan de Paz in 1672 are grouped in the following categories: a) related to healing, childbirth, and death, b) related to the elements of nature, and c) lastly, the victory miracles, referring to miraculous interventions in the conflicts with the Dutch and some local uprisings in that century. The narratives of the extraordinary in the ordinary reveal not just the hierarchy of values and worldviews but also the vulnerabilities of the local population. The devotional practices mentioned in them also paint a vibrant century where the isolation of communities was bridged by the embodied practices of faith like the novena and the pilgrimage to the shrine of the Nuestra Señora de Guía.

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The Ordinary & Extraordinary in Seventeenth-century Manila: Miracles of the Nuestra Señora de Guía of Ermita

  • Mary Josefti C. Nito

摘要

This essay looks into the miracles of Nuestra Señora de Guía of Ermita, venerated in a shrine in the environs of Manila. It studies how these accounts of extraordinary events can also be used as sources in understanding the ordinary lives and realities of peoples and communities in seventeenth century Spanish Philippines. In this essay, the twenty-nine miracles reviewed by Juan de Paz in 1672 are grouped in the following categories: a) related to healing, childbirth, and death, b) related to the elements of nature, and c) lastly, the victory miracles, referring to miraculous interventions in the conflicts with the Dutch and some local uprisings in that century. The narratives of the extraordinary in the ordinary reveal not just the hierarchy of values and worldviews but also the vulnerabilities of the local population. The devotional practices mentioned in them also paint a vibrant century where the isolation of communities was bridged by the embodied practices of faith like the novena and the pilgrimage to the shrine of the Nuestra Señora de Guía.