5 Shrines in the Garden, Living with Nature Center

5 Shrines in the Garden

Living with Nature Center

San Vicente Ilocos Sur 

 Heritage Zone of the North (RA 11645)

Dr Abe V Rotor

1 - Rizal in Exile Shrine at the Living with Nature Center

 

 

The restored icon is now enshrined at the San Vicente Botanical Garden

 (Living with Nature Center) San Vicente, Ilocos Sur. 

 

Bust of Philippine national hero Dr Jose P Rizal gets a thorough cleaning from the author. The icon is a masterpiece of the late Francisco "Boy" Peralta, a local sculptor of San Vicente. 

Rizal was exiled to the remote town of Dapitan in Mindanao. Throughout his 4-year exile, Rizal practiced ophthalmology and general medicine at no charge to the townspeople. He became a farmer and proved that farming is a good profession. He demonstrated it on an abandoned farm he bought in Talisay, a barrio near Dapitan. This farm had an area of sixteen hectares and was rather rocky. 

Not only as a doctor and farmer he pursued scientific studies, continued his artistic and literary works, widened his knowledge of languages and established a school for boys.  

2 - A broken icon found refuge in a garden

One sunset a broken bust glows alive

     Under the trees in my garden;

Smashed on the chin and across the face, 

     This figure is sadly spoken.

If heroes were immortals by their deeds,

     Mount Olympus won’t be forgotten;

Legends live in the hands of the artist,

     Even those who’ve sought in vain.

Concrete bust probably that of General Emilio Aguinaldo, president of the First Republic of the Philippines, who fought the Americans after nearly four centuries of Spanish colonization of the islands, but lost. The country became Commonwealth of the Philippines for 50 years under the US. The bust was discovered and acquired by the author in a lumberyard in San Vicente, Ilocos Sur in 2018.  The sculptor  remains unknown to this day. 

 

Restored bust image of General Emilio Aguinaldo 
 
Emilio Aguinaldo Shrine Emilio Aguinaldo fought for a free and independent Philippines, first against Spain and then against the United States. When the Philippines declared itself an independent republic in 1898 and Aguinaldo became its president, a significant milestone was reached in the struggle against colonial rule in Asia.

3 - Apo Baket - Keeper of Time-Honored Tradition and Values 

"She sits calmly in a garden,

full of thoughts and memories, 

while our troubled world grinds; 

would you like to hear her stories?"

                     - AV Rotor

 

Views and details of the concrete icon with local artist Bhoy Adora at work 2021.

The icon, symbol of the old folk generation, keeper of time-honored tradition and values, was made by the late Francisco Boy Peralta in the seventies, and restored recently by Bhoy Adora.  Both sculptors are natives of San Vicente, Ilocos Sur.  The icon can be viewed at the San Vicente Botanical garden.

 

Apo Baket' Shrine

Holder of time-honored tradition and values passed on

from generation to generation.

4 - The Unknown Nanny in the Garden

A Tribute to Ignacia Repulleza (1900-1984) et al

   

Concrete icon of The Unknown Nanny, counterpart of The Unknown Soldier in honor of the unknown hero in the battlefield. For all we know, the role of the nanny carries a great responsibility of taking care of children, particularly those orphaned or abandoned for whatever circumstances, for which nannies are regarded guardians to these unfortunate children. 

This icon stands in the San Vicente Botanical Garden, a tribute to Basang Asiang (Ignacia Repulleza), nanny of the author, then an infant when his mother died at the outbreak of the Second World War.  Basang Asiang also served as nanny to two siblings of the author, and stayed as member of the household until she died at the age of 84. 

The word Basang (Ilk) is a respectable title befitting a new kind of hero or martyr in our troubled society today.  The icon is an interpretation by the late Francisco "Boy" Peralta a local sculptor of San Vicente Ilocos Sur. His other works are the bust of our national hero, Jose Rizal, life-size Apo Baket (an old woman regarded as keeper of time-honored tradition), and The Apparition of the Blessed  Mother before the child Bernadette at Lourdes.  The three masterpieces of the local artist grace the garden, a tourist attraction and landmark of the historical town.  

5 - Apparition of Mary before Bernadette at Lourdes

  

Our Lady appeared to 14-year-old Bernadette Soubirous in Lourdes, France, 18 times from February through July, 1858. During the apparitions she told Bernadette to dig a hole which later in the day produced a stream of water, bringing about thousands of spiritual and physical cures even to this day. Replica of the grotto dedicated to the 1917 Marian Apparition that took place in Fatima, Portugal, in loving memory of the author's sister, Sr Venie V Rotor, ofs. ~