Visiting Bulacan: Visita Iglesia, Philippine History & Stories from the past

Not really my first time in Bulacan, but it was my first time to join a Visita Iglesia bound for Bulacan.  I came with my mom and a tourist bus full of her acquaintance and friends and I am so happy that my friend Kat, also came to the trip.

The plan is to cover 7 churches with 14 stations. I love their churches:

I love taking photos of the altar inside the church: 

They have so many life-sized saint replicas and guardian angels: 

I also observed that there are at least 3 statues of the Pope in the 7 churches that we covered. Forgot to take the photo of the 3rd one that I saw.

I love the part when we went to Barasoain Church. I can only get to see it in an old 10 peso bill that's no longer made: 

This is what the Barasoain Church looks like:

I love the part that they have a museum. At first, my friend Kat and I were thinking why is Emilio Aguinaldo's carriage is in Bulacan when the declaration of independence is in Kawit, Cavite? 

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Turned out they transferred the government to Bulacan during the revolution to hide it from the Americans.

During the Lights and Sounds Show

But what struck me the most is when we went to the church in Bocaue. When I was in 3rd grade, there was a Bocaue Pagoda Tragedy. I googled some pictures and here are some of what I found out:

The last pic of the actual Pagoda, day before the tragedy.  The photographer of this picture died in the tradegy. Photo was taken July 1, 1993. Source

It was also made into a film:

Over 300 people died while riding the pagoda in 1993. In memory of those who died, they created the exact same replica of the pagoda that sank at the river. But the exact same saint, the one that sank in 1993, is the same saint that's in this picture.

The caretaker told us that, after the pagoda tragedy, there was this one person who came back to the church, carrying and returning the missing head of the statue of the saint that was retrieved after the unfortunate incident. The person said that when he was hanging on to dear life while the pagoda was sinking, the head of the saint "saved him" by helping him float, serving as a lifesaver.