Viva Zamboanga!

Everyday until sunset most especially during Sundays and holidays when churches and chapels of the city are closed, Zamboangueños from all walks of life are seen at the Fort to pay a short visit to the Shrine of Our Lady. They pray, light a candle and pour out their joys and pains in life.

A genuine Zamboangueño will readily admit there’s probably not a single day or night of the year when Fort Pillar is totally deserted.

Those who come home, particularly those who make a trip or long journey or those who have left and migrated elsewhere, usually go to the venerated shrine at the Fort to pay homage to our Lady.

Historically, the Spaniards built the Fort in 1635 as a bastion to protect themselves from the constant raids by marauding moro warriors who defied the white invaders and colonizers. Rebuilt in 1819, the fort has been successfully used to thwart attacks by pirates through the centuries.

The lady’s image was enthroned on the eastern side of the fort in 1734, originally intended as a front piece atop the main entrance.

The fort was known as Real Fuerza de San Jose. Before 1860, the eastern side of the fort where the image was located was converted into a permanent shrine. The main entrance was sealed. After its reconstruction, it was renamed Real Fuerza de Nuestra Señora La Virgen del Pilar de Zaragoza. It carried this name until 1945 when after its occupation by American forces, it was named Fort Pilar. Since tehn it has simply been known as such.

The Lady of the Fort has been full of enchanting legends and beautiful stories of miracles ranging from the Spanish sentinel, who saw the lady dressed in white with a child in her arms while walking along the ramparts of the fort. The sentry was about to shoot the apparition when he asked him, “Don’t you know the mother of God?” The sentry knelt, prayed and asked for forgiveness. It was said he died a saintly death.

Then there were stories of the Lady awakening the sleeping sentries on duty to warn them of armed pirates scaling the walls of the fort, thus saving in many occasions the people from attacks.

She was said to have been seen in mid-air in the Basilan Strait on September 21, 1897. She raised her right arm to signal the on rushing giant waves to stop, thus saving the city from the holocaust. Another story says that she appeared on August 16, 1976 when a killed quake and tsunami threatened the city, but her intercession saved the place. Her many miracles are retold through generations.

Every year, the religious celebration starts with a nine-day novena and masses at the shrine. It culminates on her feast day, October 12, highlighted by the traditional afternoon procession bearing the Lady’s image from the Immaculate Conception cathedral (now the Zamboanga Metropolitan cathedral of the Immaculate conception) to the consecrated shrine at the fort where a high mass is celebrated drawing thousands of devotees and even strangers.

In recent times during the stint of the late Mayor Maria Clara Lobregat, Zamboanga city marked the annual Fiesta Pilar with a weeklong observance of Zamboanga Hermosa Festival starting October 1 capped with varied colorful activities to promote the city’s multi-ethnic cultures and historic tourist destinations.

The Lady’s feast day October 12, is reserved for religious activities. It is a city wide holiday in Zamboanga pursuant to a law sponsored by the late Mayor Maria Clara Lobregat during her term in Congress in the early 1990s.

But minus the pomp and pageantry, Zamboangueños believe they always have as their protector, Our Lady of Nuestra Señora La Virgen del Pilar. Hence, their abiding faith in her to protect them and never abandon them in times of trials and tribulations.