The Novena to the Virgin of the Rosary begins with an enumeration of
the Fifteen Promises of the Virgin to the devotees of the Rosary. In
the first she promises to grant whatever special grace is asked of
her. He who prays the rosary will be converted if he is a sinner,
and in any event will be admitted to life eternal. "All that is asked
of her will be secured quickly" (p. 4).
The list of miracles performed by the image of the Virgin of the
Rosary is endless and occupies all the pages from 37 to 90 of the
Novena. Not only does the image perform miracles but her skirt as
well as the oil that burns in her lamp, and the water where her hands
are washed, or any rosary or object touched by her skirt or her image
also accomplish miracles (p. 9).
In the Novena of Saint Joseph (Manila, 1910), after reminding
him of his relation with God, it is affirmed that "there is no
protection more efficacious for securing all that is asked than his"
(p. 7). "Necessitating everything from the divine favor it is sure that
none shall fail who confident will seek the protection of Saint Joseph"
(p. 29). "Saint Joseph assists the needy, gives health to the sick,
consoles the afflicted, sends rains, freezes ice, multiplies fruits,
favors in storms, on the roads, and among the drowning * * *. Finally
there shall be none who trusting in the same will not receive that
which is asked."
To the Holy Child of Cebu, an image which was left in that city by
the companions of Magellan, went the Cebuanos before their conversion
to Catholicism to ask rain "carrying him in a procession to the
seashore and submerging it in the water and thus secure the rain that
they needed so much." (Novena al Santisimo Nombre, Malabon, 1895,
p. 5). Nevertheless, the immersion in the sea water is a recourse
which may be said to be resorted to only in extreme cases because a
verse in that novena says:
Si acaso no conseguian
las aguas porque os rogaban,
al mar, Oh Nino, os llevaban,
y en las aguas os metian;
y asi el agua que pedian,
otorgaba vuestro amor" (p. 29).
If they failed to get the waters they prayed for, to the
sea, Oh Child, they carried thee and put thee in the water,
so that thy love conceded the water they asked.
The better known miracles by the Holy Child took place from 1618
to 1675. Since then nothing in the Novena that is memorable is
registered. Nevertheless, the novena confirms that "the Holy Child
performs continually" miracles (p. 15), and to "him go all the citizens
of Cebu, Bohol, Leyte, Samar, and Mindanao to kiss his sacred feet and
venerate him and commend to him their necessities and misfortunes,
asking relief in their sickness, assistance in their voyages, and
protections in all the events of life" (pp. 15-16).
The certainty of finding what is sought in the novenas is assured
in reference to Saint Roque. "The exercise of this novena," it is
said (p. 3, Novena, Manila, 1910), "offers us a means of compelling
(obligar) this glorious saint to secure of God what we ask." To
be rid of epidemics--which has its origin in the corruption of
the air--we must have recourse to San Roque with fervent prayers"
(p. 3). By the side of the corpse of the saint a letter was found
which was supposed to have been written by God, which reads: "Those
afflicted with plague who implore the favor of Roque will find health"
(p. 5). The intervention of Saint Roque is exclusively in favor of
the Catholics. Who so makes his novena says the following:
"I implore thee that by the merits of this glorious Saint, thou freest
us all who assist to this cult and to all the Catholics of the Kingdom
of Spain and of these Islands of all pestilential diseases which might
take away our lives" (p. 13). Since the Catholics of the United States
are not included here, the Bureau of Health ought to remember that
such citizens together with those who are not Catholics who inhabit
the Philippines do not enjoy the anti-pestilential protection of
Saint Roque.