The Antipolo Diocesan Shrine of Our Lady of Light in Cainta town was granted a special bond of spiritual affinity with the Papal Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome.


The shrine announced the new spiritual grant after Mass on Monday evening after receiving the decrees from the Apostolic Penitentiary and the Papal Basilica.


Along with the decree was a letter from Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko, the basilica’s archpriest.


The Mass was in commemoration of the 300th year of the Apparition of the Madre Santissima del Lume in Palermo, Sicily on November 21, 1722.


It was also led by Auxiliary Bishop Nolly Buco of Antipolo, Cainta Shrine Rector Fr. Aly Barcinal and members of the clergy.

According to the shrine, the grant was given by the Vatican’s Apostolic Penitentiary on September 28 and by the Papal Basilica on October 4 this year. 

It added that besides the 300th anniversary of the apparition, it was also “the 295th anniversary  of the introduction of the devotion to Our Lady of Light by the Jesuits in Cainta in 1727, as well as the 10th  anniversary of the Episcopal Coronation of Our Lady of Light in 2012”. 


The venerated icon of Our Lady of Light in Cainta was previously granted a pontifical coronation on December 1, 2018 by then Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippine, Archbishop Gabrielle Caccia, during the tenure of Bishop Buco as Rector and parish priest.


The Cainta Church is the first Marian shrine in the Antipolo diocese to be granted spiritual affinity. This grants the shrine the privilege of dispensing the same plenary indulgences as the papal basilica to devotees who come to the shrine for pilgrimage.


It is also the country’s 13th Marian church to receive this affiliation from the Roman basilica. The others are the Basilica of Our Lady of Manaoag (Pangasinan), Shrine of Our Lady of Caysasay (Batangas), Basilica of Our Lady of Orani (Bataan), Shrine of Our Lady of Turumba (Laguna), Minor Basilica of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel (Quezon City), Shrine of Nuestra Señora de Caridad (Ilocos Sur), Shrine of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de Extremadura (Bohol), Shrine of Nuestra Señora de la Merced (Quezon City), Shrine of Nuestra Señora de Asunción (Bohol), Nuestra Señora de la Luz Parish (Bohol), the Shrine of Nuestra Señora de la Merced (Tarlac), and the Shrine of Our Lady of the Abandoned (Muntinlupa City).

The rites for this spiritual grant are yet to be scheduled.