Religious brotherhood to host Augustinian exhibit in November

SANTA RITA -- The Confradia ning Cintas will host the exhibit of various images of saints in November.

The activity will be capped by a grand procession on November 13.

The event will bring together religious icons and hundreds of devotees in honoring the feast day of all the saints of the Augustinian Order.

Confradia Ning Cintas, based in Santa Rita town, said the event is in honor of the Augustinian Order, which helped shape the history of Pampanga.

The group also aims to highlight all the saints under the Augustinian tradition, regardless of order, for purpose of veneration and as role models for Catholics.

The confraternity hosts processions of processions of saints from different Augustinian orders as well those affiliated with the Augustinian tradition.

While a fairly recent organization, the Confradia ning Cintas is inspired by a religious confraternity during the Spanish era that promoted the novena to the Blessed Virgin Mary under the Augustinian title of Our Lady of Consolation.

Pampanga was the first province organized under the Spanish rule and was effectively organized through the Augustinian missionaries who served in its various parishes and built the historic churches in the province that still exist today.

Confradia Ning Cintas said the event is presented to bring public awareness on the values and lessons from the life and works of St. Augustine.

St. Augustine of Hippo was "as an early Christian theologian whose writings are considered very influential in the development of Western Christianity and Western philosophy."

The event also aims to honor the list of Augustinian saints, martyrs and blessed persons. She said participants in the procession will exhibit their images of various Augustinian saints a week before the grand procession at the Sta. Rita Parish Church.

The group said people can learn valuable life lessons and values on faith through the lives of the featured Augustinian saints.

The event also aims to promote the devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary through her title of Our Lady of Consolation (Nuestra Señora de Consolación y Correa).