Folk Devotion in the Waterscape of the Pasig River: The 1653 and 1748 Fluvial Processions of the Nuestra Señora de la Paz y Buen Viaje

The Nuestra Señora de la Paz y Buen Viaje or Our Lady of Antipolo is oneof the most prolific Marian sites or devotions in the Philippines. Theimage of Our Lady of Antipolo also served as the patroness of somegalleon ships during the 17th and 18th century. The return of the imageto its shrine in Antipolo would be occasions for a fluvial procession alongthe Pasig River. This paper analyzes the 1653 and 1748 fluvialprocessions of the Nuestra Señora de la Paz y Buen Viaje along the PasigRiver as documented by Pedro Murillo Velarde S.J., which werereprinted in 1887 as the Historia de la Nuestra Señora de la Paz y BuenViaje. The detailed descriptions from this account captures thewaterscape of the Pasig River during the procession, which Velardecompares to a theater because of the great number of people inattendance. The account also details the performance of folk devotionparticularly from the Tagalog towns participating in the procession. Byfocusing on the Pasig River, this study brings to the fore the value of theriver as a cultural-religious space unifying the Tagalog towns thatcomplete its waterscape. Lastly, the conclusions of this study highlightthe communal experience of the procession and the role of populardevotions in the articulation of folk culture and identity especially duringearly modern colonial Philippines.Keywords: Our Lady of Antipolo, Pasig river, fluvial processions, folkdevotion, waterscape