The Wonders made by Our San Antonio Statue

Aug. 19, 2007

The Wonders made by our San Antonio Statue
(DEA – May 2007)

During my teenage years, the makeshift altar where the statue of our San Antonio de Padua was placed, now and then became my alternative source of instant cash for my expenses in my daily adventures. The altar was placed besides our main door and was made from an old wooden table and was covered with synthetic fabric. Young and still reliant from my parents, I often made naughty acts in the house to satisfy my financial expenditures in my daily escapades outside with my close friends. Pocketing of the loose coins placed voluntarily by devotees at the altar where the statue of our old San Antonio was placed was one of the several silly acts that I have carried out. The money that was placed in the altar in recognition to the saint’s pious deeds, has not escaped from my unforgiving mischievous character.

But just as it happened in every average earning family, drought in cash money was customary in the family, as it was in my main source of instant cash. Probably, feeling greatly manipulated on some occasions by my daily trips to his pant pockets, my Tatay would deliberately hold his pocket empty of loose coins during some occasions. However, since I’m not willing to give up immediately and leave empty handed, I often go secretly to his wallet, which he normally placed in his bamboo basket that was always hanged in our wooden house column. Similarly, I occasionally stumbled upon the same empty feat.

Desperate to have instant cash always in my hands, I often look at my other alternative mine quarry, which is my Nanay’s tin can, where she placed the collections of the “Baranggay and the Minagsuon biray”. But sometimes good fortune is not at hand all of the times and the windfall that I get used, on some occasions is dried up, just as the Sahara desert of Egypt. When despondent, I go and obliged to take my last alternative, which are the few loose coins placed in a small water glass at the foot of the “San Antonio de Padua” statue that is placed in our makeshift altar. Several other statues are placed by my mother on this altar, but it was distinct that loose coins are only found at the foot of the old statue of San Antonio, besides some candles that are lighted and stick. These few loose coins placed in the altar help resolved my cash necessities. Though these are few and loose coins only, for me it was better than having none at all. But, with my numerous trips to the altar before, I never have in the distant picture of my mind the thoughts, why this glass has always had these coins most of the time. I never entertained the thoughts then of why devotees have placed money, and why it was placed specifically only at the statue of San Antonio. In my young mind then, what was important is I have something in my pocket that can cover the expenses in my daily escapades.

During my last visit to our residential house, only just recently, I noticed that the altar was moved by my elder sister “Uday Larrie” to a new position inside the house that attracted my immediate attention. Now with a matured outlook, I tried to make a quick look in the water glass where the coins are placed before. Memories in the past went back in my mind, and a comparable aspiration flashes in my brain that instantly enabled me to make a silent grin as I look in the burgeoning coins that overflow the now larger glass. I came to realize that there is no more brother “Aple” in the house, and it was very long ago since I have last visited this old residential house, an obvious reason why the coins flourished now. Probably, Ite Dave also was so saintly and does not dig on small time money.

Late in the afternoon, after I woke up from my long slumber, and while still trying to regain the strength I lost caused by my long journey from my home in the capital city, I witnessed an elderly woman praying intently, kneeling down in front of the statue of San Antonio. I noticed she was praying solemnly and seriously that attracted my inquisitive brain to comprehend what inspired her to pay a visit and meditate in our private altar. I figured out she was coming from the neighboring Baranggay, for I could not fully recognized her personality in “Lutao”, She probably have serious problem for she looks somber. Though I have already relocated from “Lutao” almost three decade ago; I could still recognized most of the residents in the Baranggay, especially the elder individual.

After my long nap, I sat in our wooden sofa placed in the porch trying to shake off the hangover. Since working in a private company, I never have the opportunity again to take a long sleep in the afternoon. With my keen interest now about what is the secret behind the congregations of the numerous residents that asked assistance to the San Antonio statue in our house, I failed to notice that the woman was already standing in front of me. I was stunned when she suddenly called my name and asked what time did I arrive from the capital city. Embarrassed for I could not immediately keep her in my memory, I immediately asked her of what drove her to visit and light candles in front of our old San Antonio statue. In a very poignant voice she answered to me that their domesticated “carabao” they regularly used in their farm, could not be found for two days already. She recalled a couple of years ago; she asked intercessions also from the same miraculous statue in our altar regarding their domesticated cow that could not be located for a couple of days. She asked assistance and she lighted a candle, and the light of the candle in our altar pointed to a specific direction of where her lost animal was located. She told that the statue was very popular for it helps a lot of residents in the neighborhood solved some odd personal and family problems.

Now, I am regretful for not being able to gather information of the numerous miraculous events before that were answered after some of our neighbors had asked assistance to the statue of San Antonio. Tatay and Nanay who have witnessed these miraculous interventions made by our statue in the lives of several devotees, could no longer tell tales of their experiences. The authenticity of the miraculous powers that the statue has granted to our neighbors will now rest silently in the crypt of my parents. What were left in my brain to recall, are just the memories of those candles burning in the late afternoon sun, every time I smelled anew the scent from the smokes of candles burning.

I was still in a trance when another woman went inside and went silently straight to our makeshift altar. She kneels down in front of the statue of San Antonio; afterwards I heard her faint voice muttering some words. She was there for a couple of minutes that the scent of the candles that she has lighted has enveloped already in the whole living room of our ancestral house. I was surprised by her unusual acts, but not of her presence in the house for she was considered a regular member and fixture of the family, before she got married.

A couple of minutes after her meditations she approached me, and we started our customary conversation. Later, she narrated the reason that gave her great suffering in her mind that compelled her to ask our San Antonio’s miraculous intercessions. Her husband; she recounted, came to work recently in the capital city, but later on, his daily remittance of money for the family became scarce and far in between. It is not much with the financial dole outs that she was worried about, what she was deeply worried was about the news that spread in the neighborhood that her husband has lived with a young and gorgeous woman in the city. She weeps for she cannot accept her husband would be commandeered by another woman. She loved her husband very much, and her life would be a mess if he happens to leave her, and lived with another woman.

“Dodong I prayed for our San Antonio’s intercession”, she narrated. “My husband is leaving tomorrow back in the capital city after a week of vacationing here.” “I prayed hard that he would change his mind and abandon his plan to go back and work again in the city.” She said; “I am ready to sacrifice and put my body to extreme hard works for a living, as long as he is always by my side and safe from temptations.” A couple of minutes have passed, before she bade us goodbye. She left our home already dark at night, but not without some tears in her eyes rolling down in her cheeks.

Two days later, I met coincidentally the woman whose carabao could not be located while I was in the market. She happily narrated to me; “Dodong, we’ve found the animal in the area where the direction of the candle lights has pointed out.” I was pleased by the simple and valuable good deeds that our statue has granted. As I prepare my luggage that evening for my return trip back home to my permanent home in the metropolis, the second woman drop by in our house to extend recognition to our San Antonio statue. With renewed enthusiasm, she happily relates to us that on the night after he made her prayers, her husband got drunk as he made farewell rounds of drinks to his close friends in the neighborhood. On his way home, having drunk one too many of his customary consumptions, he inadvertently lost his money that is intended for his transportation fare and for his allowance. With no more other recourse, he decided to forego his trip back to the capital city until he could raise again an equivalent amount.

What a remarkable turn of events that has happened to these two women, but it would not just have happened if not by the intercessions of our beloved statue of San Antonio. As I was about to leave back to my home place in Antipolo, another woman who looks very pale and piteous with her very old and worn out dress arrived and politely asked permissions to enter and make use of our altar. With tears in her eyes rolling down already in her pale cheeks, she narrated that her youngest son was dying from a sickness that started from just an ordinary sickness. Due to extreme poverty the boy’s conditions was getting serious from various complications for their gross negligence and with no proper medications being applied. Her family could not afford to bring her only son to the hospital. So, she looks for any reasonable measures until she was informed by her friend neighbor about the miraculous powers of our statue that restored also to health her neighbor’s child a couple of years ago. “Dodong, there is no other way I have in my mind, except to pray and ask favor to the statue of your San Antonio, to restore my only son’s good health.”

The woman was still in our altar praying devotedly when I boarded the passenger bus that would carry me to Tagbilaran, and back to my home place in Antipolo. After I found a seat in the bus, I started to pray that our San Antonio would help restored to health her little boy. I pictured out the sad manifestation that was indicated in the woman’s face, the same sad looks that my beloved mother have experienced, every time any one of us in the family got sick. The sad looks ripped my heart with extreme sympathy every time it surfaced in my thoughts as I trekked back home.

At home, I waited eagerly for the news updates from my beloved Uday Larrie regarding the conditions of the little boy; however, days had passed without having information received. I presumed Uday Larrie’s silence denotes that our San Antonio has bestowed once more his phenomenal healing powers, adding numbers of devotees that have received wonders from our old San Antonio statue. Thoughts in my mind came up now after I fully realized its wonders, where this old statue originated? Nobody from among members of the family could tell exactly about the origin of our old San Antonio statue; probably, only Tatay and Nanay can tell its origin. However; what was important, is it continue to give soothing remedies to countless people in our neighborhood.

The end.