Returning to my car which was parked at an empty lot across the street, we proceeded up along M.M. Agoncillo St. and turned left to a street leading to Taal Coliseum.   Further down the road and fronted by an ugly and inappropriate basketball court is the small and beautiful coral-hewn Chapel of the Virgin of Caysasay. Located in Brgy. Caysasay (better known as Labac), it is home of the 272-mm. high pinewood image of the Blessed Virgin of Casaysay.

According to the awe-inspiring folklore of this deeply religious community, the carved wooden image was found in 1603 by Juan Maningkad, an honest fisherman and town chief, caught in a fishnet near the mouth of the Pansipit River.  Some claim its appearance as miraculous and a token of divine favor.  Others say that it was brought by some Spanish soldiers and given to some natives or that it was just lost from a passing or shipwrecked Spanish or Portuguese ship.

It was brought to Fr. Juan Bautista de Montoya, Taal’s prior, and was given a grand religious celebration.  The priest then entrusted the image to Maria Espiritu, widow of a judge, who enthroned it in a precious urn and guarded it zealously.  In spite of her zeal, the image mysteriously and continually disappeared from her niche and reappeared later on.

Informed of these strange excursions, Fr. de Montoya later placed it in a special niche above the main altar of the town’s church.   All the while, the image kept disappearing from the church and reappearing a few days later.  Later, it completely disappeared from the church.  A meticulous search proved fruitless and it was given up for lost.

Several days later, two women, Maria Baguhin and Maria Talain, gathering firewood in the forest, drew water at a water well 7 kms. from Lumang Taal, and discovered the image on a branch of a sampaga tree, surrounded by lighted candles on each side and guarded by a kingfisher (locally called a casaycasay).

It was brought back to the church but again regularly disappeared, reappearing at its chosen haven near the well.  Henceforth, the image was called the Virgin of Caysasay and a provisional chapel was erected in 1611 near the spot.

The present 50 m. long and 10 m. wide reef-stone chapel, located on a deep ravine by the right bank of the Pansipit River, was started in 1639 under the direction of its then parish priest, Fr. Alonso Rodriguez. Its roof was partially destroyed by ash and boulders during Taal Volcano’s 1754 eruption and the walls and the towers fell during the December 24, 1852 earthquake.

The church was later reconstructed in 1856 but was again damaged during the 1867 earthquake.  Fr. Marcos Anton repaired it, clothed the image of the Virgin with pure gold, installed a new altar and built an iron balustrade around the main altar.  The Italian artist Cesar Alberoni decorated its beautiful interior.   An organ was bought in 1880 from the famous organist, Don Doroteo Otorel (they previously installed the organs at Manila Cathedral and at Oslob’s church), in Palencia (Spain).

The chapel has a central cross vault and a beautifully painted dome embellished with small windows.  Behind the main altar is the sacristy housing the niche of Blessed Virgin of Casaysay.  It is reached by a small staircase. Adjacent to the chapel is the hewn stone orphanage managed by the Oblate Sisters of the Holy Spirit. Formerly the convent, it was allegedly built in the mid-19th century by a Chinese maestro de obra.

The image is transferred from its special niche in the Basilica of St. Martin of Tours to the chapel every Thursday and returned on Saturday afternoon, a continuous tradition since 1857 interrupted only in 1952 when then Bishop (and later Cardinal) Rufino Santos ordered the image’s permanent enshrinement at the sanctuary.  This controversial decree caused great apprehension and was resolved only when, upon the request of many of Taal’s fervent devotees, the tradition was revived.

On December 8, 1954, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, the image was canonically crowned by Spanish Cardinal Fernando Quiroga y Palacios, Archbishop of Santiago de Compostela and official representative of Pope Pius XII.  Since then her feast is celebrated on that day and is highlighted by the Taal river festival.

Chapel of the Virgin of Caysasay: Brgy. Tatlong Maria, Taal, Batangas.

On a hilltop overlooking the park, accessed by a broad flight of stairs and unobstructed by any edifice, is the majestic  Basilica of St. Martin of Tours.  Measuring 88.6 m. long, 48 m. wide and 95 m. high, it is the biggest in the country and is reputed to be the biggest in the whole of East Asia.  The first church on the half-hectare site was built by Fr. Martin Aguirre in 1755 but was destroyed during the 1849 earthquake.

Basilica of St. Martin of Tours

The famed Spanish architect Luciano Oliver was commissioned by parish priest Fr.  Marcos Anton to design the present big church.  He arrived in Taal in 1857 and managed its construction from 1858 until its official inauguration (although unfinished) in 1865.  Adobe quarried and cut from riverbanks in Barrio Cawit were used as building blocks for its thick walls.  The church was finally completed by Fr. Agapito Aparicio in 1878. It was made into a basilica on December 8, 1954 and was restored in 1972 by the Taal Quadricentennial Council, in time for the 400th anniversary of the town’s founding.   The church was declared a National Shrine on January 16, 1974 by virtue of Presidential Decree No. 375.

Basilica interior

The elegant 28-m. high, two-storey “Baroque” facade is unconventional yet exudes a character of stability and permanence.  It has two levels of 12 columns each, the lower, standing on pedestals, is Doric while the upper and shorter level, supporting the cornice of the entablature on top, is Corinthian.   In between every pair of columns at the lower level are five doors of different sizes and type of arches with the largest at the center.  Above it are semi-circular arched windows.  In between the paired columns at the upper level are semi-circular arched windows with depressed or triangular-shaped segmental canopies above it.   At the edge of the entablature are three pediments: triangular at both sides and half moon at the center.   From my point of view, this Palladian-style structure has a look of a Roman villa, manor or a government office building rather than that of a church.

Pulpit

The 24 m. high and 10 m. wide main altar has a badalchin on top supported by 6 columns.  At the center is a huge, ornate silver tabernacle with ornamental sunburst on top.   Attached to the high ceiling are five huge chandeliers with the biggest, hanging on the 44.5 m. high cupola above the altar, installed during the town’s 1972 quadricentennial.  Behind the facade’s walls is a truncated mass of stones, former site of the short bell tower destroyed in the 1942 earthquake.  The present truncated and massive, stone and lime bell tower is accessed by an 18-inch wide winding stairway and has a spectacular view of the town, Taal Lake, the narrow but scenic Pansipit River, tranquil Balayan Bay and the surrounding countryside.  To the right of the basilica is the adjacent school run by Benedictine Sisters since 1945.  Formerly the convent, it was built together with the present church and its tiled roof, as well as that of the church, was replaced by galvanized roofing sheets in 1946.  The facade was restored by Fr. Eliseo Dimaculangan, after typhoon damage in 1970.