Relics of St. Therese arrive in Negros Occ

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines —The pilgrim relics of St. Therese of the Child Jesus arrived in Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental yesterday (March 4) and will be on caravan today (March 5) with brief visits to towns in southern Negros before proceeding to the San Sebastian Cathedral and Carmelite Monastery in this city.

The relics, now on its third visit to the country and this province since 2000 and 2008, will stay in the Carmelite Monastery until March 7, organizers said. After Bacolod, it will go to Roxas City in Capiz.

From Kabankalan City, the relics will take off today at 7:30 a.m. for whistlestops in the parishes of Hinigaran, Pontevedra, San Enrique, Valladolid and Bago.

At 11 a.m. the relics are expected at the Negros Occidental District Jail in Bago City where there will be a veneration by the inmates, and a motorcade from the jail to the San Sebastian Cathedral in Bacolod.

Veneration of the relics at the San Sebastian Cathedral will start after a Concelebrated Mass at 1:30 p.m. then at 4:30 p.m. a motorcade of the relics from the Cathedral to the Carmelite Monastery in Mandalagan will follow.

A welcome mass will be celebrated by Rev. Fr. Mario Agruda III at 6 p.m. and veneration of the relics will follow at 7 p.m.

Tomorrow, March 6, a Mass will be offered at 6:30 a.m. and veneration starts again at 8 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. when there will be another Concelebrated Mass. Veneration of the relics continues from 6:30 p.m. to 11 p.m.

On Wednesday, March 7, a farewell Mass will be offered at 6:30 a.m. before the relics depart for a motorcade to the Bacolod-Silay Airport for its next stop to Roxas City

The pilgrim relics of St. Therese of the Child Jesus have arrived in the Philippines last December 15 for a four-month tour to 48 archdioceses and dioceses of the Catholic Church around the country.  (FREEMAN)