Our Lady of the Pillar, Sta Cruz, Manila

MANILA, Philippines — “Our Blessed Mother as Our Lady of Pillar is our support and our strength. She will see to it that our earthly life is always safe and secured. She is always with us, giving us graces and shielding us against dangers in our pilgrimage of life,” said Balanga Bishop Ruperto C. Santos.

Wednesday is the feast of Our Lady of Pillar, highly venerated in many parts of the country and across the world. At the Sta. Cruz Church in Manila, special masses will be celebrated in honor of its patroness. A solemn procession will be held at 7:15 p.m. after the mass. On Sunday, October 16, Manila Archbishop Gaudencio B. Cardinal Rosales will celebrate a high mass in her honor at 4:45 p.m., to be followed by a grand procession. (Christina Hermoso)

http://www.mb.com.ph/node/337408/our-lady-pillar-fea

A replica of the 250-year old statue of Our Lady of the Pillar on top of her carroza before the grand procession, at the back is the "original" statue which since 2010  has been taken down from her niche to carry on the traditional  that has been put on hold for several years. 

The original statue on the right side of the main altar,  Sta Cruz church in Manila

Since the early nineteenth-century, there have been fierce rivalries among parish churches in Manila as to who could stage the more ostentatious and lavish grand procession of their respective patron saint. It was also an annual opportunity quickly seized by certain important citizens to display their wealth and social standing.

The Sta. Cruz Church prides itself of its annual celebration in October of its Our Lady of the Pillar whose ivory face and hands were made in Spain and brought to the Philippines by the Jesuits before their expulsion in 1768

In the olden days, the feast of the Virgen del Pilar de Manila is one of the three great fiestas held in October. The long festive month began in Intramuros with a novena to the Santo Rosario. As the festivities drew to a close with the Procesion de la Naval de Manila, the novena of the Virgen del Pilar started in Sta. Cruz Church. And as this novena in turn ended, the wealthy creoles of the San Nicolas District and the nouveau riche Chinese of Binondo made the grand finale for the month’s fiesta with their gala procession of the Santo Rosario de Binondo.