SAN NICOLAS DE TOLENTINO

He is the equivalent of the winged saint San Vicente Ferrer of the Dominicans and the famous San Antonio de Padua of the Franciscans. San Nicolas de Tolentino, the first member of the Augustinian Order to be canonized. Known as the Patron of Holy Souls, was an Italian saint and mystic.

 

THE LEGEND of “Buwayang Bato”

 

Let us not forget the loveliest for being the truest, that of the miracle of San Nicolas. It seems that formerly, the [Pasig] river , like [Laguna de Bay], was infested with crocodiles, so huge and voracious that they attacked and overturned bancas with their tails. Our chronicles narrate that one day, an infidel China-man, who until then had refused to be converted, was passing by the church when all of a sudden the devil appeared to him as a crocodile, and overturned his banca to devour him and take him to hell. Inspired by God, the Chinese at that moment invoked San Nicolas:

 

"San Nicolasi, San Nicolasi, maging bato ka mangani!" According to the legend, the crocodile turned into a stone.

 

Out of gratitude, the Chinese man built the San Nicolas Tolentino chapel where the "Buwayang Bato" appeared, along the cliffs of the old Guadalupe looking towards Pasig.

 

According to the ancients, in their time the monster was easily recognizable in the scattered pieces that were left of the rock. Unfortunately, this river landmark is no more.

 

French traveler Jean Paul Gironiere described in his memoirs that pagodas (palaces of several stories high) were constructed on cascos in the Chinese district of Manila (Binondo) then towed up the Pasig to the shrine of San Nicholas during the spectacular fluvial festivities. Augustinian historian Joaquin Martinez de Zuñiga noted that more than a thousand kilos of candles were offered during these devotions.

 

The Chapel of San Nicolas de Tolentino in San Agustin Church in Intramuros is said to be one of the few chapels that has retained its original dedication unlike the other chapels. the baroque retablo was commissioned in 1750. The altar is said to be privileged : a soul is set free every time a mass is said there.

 

MIRACLES

 

There are many tales and legends that relate to Nicholas. One says that the devil once beat him with a stick, which was then displayed for years in his church.

 

In another, Nicholas, a vegetarian, was served a roasted fowl over which he made the sign of the cross, and it flew out a window. Nine passengers on a ship going down at sea once asked Nicholas' aid and he appeared in the sky, wearing the black Augustinian habit, radiating golden light, holding a lily in his left hand, and with his right hand he quelled the storm.

 

An apparition of the saint, it is said, once saved the burning palace of the Doge of Venice by throwing a piece of blessed bread on the flames. He was also reported to have resurrected over one hundred dead children, including several who had drowned together.

 

According to the Peruvian chronicler Antonio de la Calancha, it was St. Nicholas of Tolentino who made possible a permanent Spanish settlement in the rigorous, high-altitude climate of Potosi, Bolivia. He reported that all children born to Spanish colonists there died in childbirth or soon thereafter, until a father dedicated his unborn child to St. Nicholas of Tolentino (whose own parents, after all, had required saintly intervention to have a child). The colonist's son, born on Christmas Eve, 1598, survived to healthy adulthood, and many later parents followed the example of naming their sons Nicolás.

 

At his canonization, Nicholas was credited with three hundred miracles, including three resurrections.

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