According to legend, Bonifacio, Jacinto, and other comrades were sleeping in Melchora Aquino's home in Balintawak. One of the Katipunan soldiers had a dream in which a beautiful mother dressed in the manner of the farmers of Balintawak (balintawak dress) was holding a pretty child by the hand and crying for freedom while wearing short red pants and shouted Kalayaan! (freedom!) The stunning lady approached the dreamer and warned him, Mag-iingat kayo (be careful).
When the dreamer awoke, he described his experience to his companions, stating that the mother and child were dressed like Filipinos but had the faces of Europeans and he narrated the message from the Blessed Virgin Mary which they took as a serious warning. They cancelled their plan to return to Manila and decided to stay put in Balintawak. Shortly, the group learned that Spanish soldiers had raided the Diario de Manila and found incriminating evidence that led to the discovery of the Katipunan.[3] The novena later implies that the mother and child are Mary and Jesus.
According to Aglipay in regards to the Mother of Balintawak, "the voice of the people will constantly resound from our pulpits, reminding you of the great teachings of Rizal, Mabini, Bonifacio, and other Filipinos. These teachings of our greatest compatriots will form the special seal of our National Church." Additionally according to Aglipay, "she is the sacred image of our Country," and she "reminds you constantly of your sacred and inescapable duty to make every effort possible to obtain our longed-for independence."
A copy of the book titled Virgin of Balintawak written by historian Ambeth Ocampo.
Obispo Máximo Gregorio Aglipay said in another passage of the novena: "The Mother of Balintawak symbolizes our Country, and the Katipunan child expresses the Filipino people, the emerging generation that longs for independence, and both figures consistently remind us of the tremendous sacrifices of the liberators of our Country and of our sacred history".[4]
Once more, Aglipay stated: "We reflect all of our innate desire for national freedom in this image of the Motherland. The only mother that can genuinely be referred to as virgin since she is free of any lust is the country, who is also known as the virgin-mother. Rizal, Mabini, Bonifacio, and other great Filipino professors, whose contemporary sapient teachings will make up the best nationalGospel, serve as the People's spokesmen, prophets, and evangelists in the Katipunero movement".
Because they are a part of Philippine history and a reflection of the past, historians Reynaldo Ileto and Francis Gealogo have written essays on the Virgin of Balintawak and Infant Jesus wielding a bolo arguing that the image should be more well recognized and Filipinized until it becomes unmistakably, like the Roman Catholic version of Our Lady of Barangay.[5]
Veneration and the Marian image
A depiction of the apparition of the Virgin of Balintawak.
The Our Lady of Balintawak is the first original image owned by the native Filipino church and one of the two endemic and unique Marian icons of the church, the other one being the Our Lady of Maulawin, and is very popular among the Aglipayan faithfuls throughout the country. They have no counterpart with the Roman Catholic Marian images or icons. The image was venerated in the church and is enshrined in the Maria Clara Parish Church in Manila. The feast day is celebrated every year on 26 August.
