It was Good Friday, April 4, 2026, and thousands of Roman Catholic devotees gathered at the entrance of the route leading to the Guadalupe Shrine in Igbalayan Hills, Barangay Balubal, Cagayan de Oro. The entrance was manned by police, local government employees of the city and private volunteers who were ready to assist the devotees on their journey. For the devotees, their activity is termed “pana-ad” or doing act of penance on Good Friday.
Right
through the entrance is the Agusan River (not to be confused with the Agusan
River of Butuan City and the Caraga Region). Over the water are two ropes, one
for the shrine-bound devotees, and the other for those who returned from the
shrine. Those ropes are intended for people who have difficulty crossing the
river without something to hold old on as they wade through the river. There
were devotees though who could easily cross the river alone without anything
for support. Crossing the river carries some risks especially to some
individuals such as the elderly because of the large stones in the water. A
fall to the water with the head hitting a stone could be dangerous.
Going to their destination, the devotees walked along the course of Agusan River that winds into a long stretch of valley. Farther ahead, they passed by a gorge with cliffs on either side of the valley. In most cases the floor of the valley is stony. Along the way are bamboo grooves and trees which provide shelter to the devotees from the hot summer sun.
The
distance of the route from the entrance to the shrine is estimated to be 4 to
4.5 kilometers, so that a two-way trek to the shrine will be about 8 to 9
kilometers. Walking on the ground under the heat of the sun was not a difficult
thing to do considering the vegetation there is in the valley, and that there is not much higher ground to negotiate because the slope of most of the ground
in the valley’s floor is not steep. The difficulty lay in crossing a river with
a winding route full of large stones in the water. Although the river is
fordable, there are portions of it with a waist-high depth and currents that
are strong. Elderly devotees were sometimes assisted by younger people to help
them make it to the other banks of the river. Because of the winding course of
the river, devotees must cross the river nine times to reach the shrine. In
other words, they must make a total of 18 river crossings throughout their trek.
As they proceeded to their journey, devotees made stopovers at the Stations of the Cross which were positioned along the way to their destination, which was the shrine. There, they lit candles and prayed before proceeding to the next stations. Devotees could not be short of food and water because there were vendors who catered to their needs all along the way.
The ninth
crossing of the river was the pinnacle of the devotees’ trek. Beyond the river
is the sight of the Chapel of the Virgin of Guadalupe. The chapel is perched on
a hill and is accessible from the ground through stairs. The top of the hill is
also the location of the 14th and last Station of the cross which is
just outside the front of the chapel. Again, before the cross, the devotees lit
candles and prayed. They completed their penance with an entry into the chapel to
pay homage to the Virgin of Guadalupe and make their vow and supplication to
God during one of the most religiously significant days of the year.
