Monday, March 17, 2008 The weeping statue of Mama Mary By Nelia G. Neri
LINDOGON in Simala, Sibonga, was a barren place with nothing going for it. Seemingly at the end of nowhere, the hilly terrain had no water nor electricity, and had minimal vegetation.
However, it was where the Marian Monks of the Eucharistic Adoration established themselves when they came to Cebu to answer the need for an “interior life.” Against all odds, the group of male contemplatives found their refuge there with the statue of Our Lady of Fatima as its centerpiece. The statue came all the way from Pampanga where the community of monks, founded by Frater Martin, had its beginnings. It was donated by a woman they hardly knew.
The monks led an uneventful existence until a drought and a dengue epidemic came to pass in 1998 and the impoverished people around the area suffered all the more. Remembering the tradition in olden times of holding processions for supplication, Frater Martin then asked permission from the parish priest to initiate a nine-day penitential rosary walk to ask for Our Lady’s intercession.
Mama Mary did not disappoint them. It wasn’t long before the people smelled the fragrance of flowers in the air although there were no flowers in the barren terrain! Then Mama Mary’s statue shed tears and the sick began to get well. Indeed something wonderful was happening in that desolate little hill of Lindogon.
Sept. 8 of the same year, during Mama Mary’s birthday celebration, hundreds of devotees saw the image of Our Lady shed tears and once again there was that wondrous fragrance in the air.
Then a white, lighted candle at her altar showed blood-red drippings, which were not at all hot to touch. Soon, a red and white butterfly hovered near the image. and then image seemed to float.
It was then that the old people of Lindogon remembered the prediction of an pious, old resident, Ingko Niyong (Ireneo Villamor, father of Msgr. Tomas Villamor): that a time will come when their place will become holy because of a lady dressed in white. Since he was advanced in age, the people thought that in his senility he was talking about enkantadas. (fairies).
A year later, on her birthday, Sept. 8, 1999, Our Lady again shed tears and then the statue underwent a change in color. It was amazing! Her crown sparkled and blazed, lighting up the whole shrine. As before, the sweet smell of flowers filled the air.
News of this phenomenon has spread far and wide. Testimonies of those who have witnessed the extraordinary happenings are a-plenty. Many have experienced healing.
Though there is no official word from the Church regarding these unusual manifestations, believers and devotees from all walks of life continue to troop to the shrine in Lindogon. The crowd is thickest every 13th of the month because Our Lady of Fatima’s special day is the 13th.
