
The ‘Cross of Tunasan San Pedro’ has been with the old town of San Pedro for centuries. Its miraculous healing powers became popular during the epidemic years, were countless of towns folk sought divine healing from the deadly diseases that ravaged the once rustic town.
It’s a silent witness to the transformation of the small town from a Sampaguita plantation and a narrow passage to the richer Laguna towns to what it is now, a residential and industrial urban municipality. It survived both natural and man made disasters – during this difficult years the older generation of San Pedro knelt in front of the miraculous cross and prayed for a better tomorrow.
Legends varies, from its sudden apparition from some unknown San Pedro barrio to its creation by some miracle Abbott, some even claims that it came straight from heaven. Its one of those icons that represented time and people, one could not tell a story about the small town without suggesting to see it for a visit to San Pedro Tunasan during the old days is incomplete without touching its base.
Today, its odd that its not as revered as it was once, one could watch people go in and out of the church without even noticing the mighty Cross, the Krus ng San Pedro Tunasan. Once it attracted hundreds of churchgoers from different places in La Laguna during Sunday’s and dates of Catholic religious importance. Now, it sits quite in its dark place, with out lights, without candles and if you were to sit inside and attend mass, your back would face it. How could such an important relic be relegated to an obnoxious space inside the church that it practically created?
Rizal appreciated its role both as spiritual and cultural representation of the people of Tunasan San Pedro, he mentioned the cross in his first novel together with the other celebrated Catholic images of the old Spanish era .The least that we can do is its restoration as the center piece of the church, it deserves no less.
A closer look would reveal that its base is of poor construction; a piece of rock holds it in place. Some genius mind painted over the original varnish. Obviously the preservation and its location in the church was not one of those well thought out plan. It could be attributed to a miracle that this Cross made of wood and is said to be the oldest Catholic cross in the whole of Laguna is still in a very good condition.
Perhaps, the reason why its not being noticed is that, today – church and government officials failed to highlight not only its place inside the iglesia but its role as San Pedro’s greatest religious icon.
There is no IKON in this small struggling town that could better represent its past than this cross! La cruz de Tunasan San Pedro!
This is good stuff, where is this Church located bro?
Señor Levi! this cross is with the San Pedro Apostol parish, the one fronting the municipio – the oldest church in San Pedro but since it was heavily renovated you could hardly tell.
good morning…
im a resident of san pedro laguna. im a youth representative of our parish san pedro apostol and actually our parish is already working out for its history, miracles and devotion for this cross.. we`re planning to hold again its fiesta on may 3 this year.. hoping to share your knowledge with us regarding the cross..thanks and Godbless..
Hi Annie, Thank you for reading. I’ve done very little research on the Cross — its strange that not to many people knows about it. During the Spanish years, there are only two things that comes to mind when Tunasan San Pedro is mentioned – its legendary March bands (Bandang Musico) and the miraculous cross of Tunasan San Pedro. The Sampaguita culture of San Pedro became popular during the American era. In Rizal’s Noli, the Cross was mentioned twice. Even in Manila, its fame is known. People was said travel from Manila to Tunasan San Pedro (Via Laguna de Bai)… Read more »
Hello Annie.
Click the below links to read how Rizal wrote about the Cross of Tunasán in his first novel.
In it’s original (Spanish): http://alasfilipinas.blogspot.com/2010/03/la-cruz-de-tunasan-san-pedro-tunasan-la.html
English translation: http://filipinoscribbles.wordpress.com/2010/02/28/2408/
Regards.
how is that i cant understand spanish?
i just hope that you could help us… you could visit us sometimes here in san pedro, laguna.
Sa aking pagkakaalam ang mayo a 3 ay pinagdiriwang ng mga taga san pedro na pista ng cruz.
the cross was said to be growing too. i just want to confirm it as well with the devotions the other way around.. i hope that you could help us here in san pedroa postol parish..
I’m also a youth volunteer together with Annie.
sad to tell but the hermandad dela sagrada pasion is inviting the cross of tunasan for the exhibit next year, however we do not have enough infos regarding the history and miracles of the cross. hope you could help us. thanks and God bless!!
@ Annie & Jason – I just recently attended an exhibition of the Hermandad de la Sagrada Pasion in Intramuros. I was delighted as always with their presentation. Like what I said there is very little knowledge I can share about La Cruz de Tunasan Sn Pedro but I’ll try to get some additional data when I get some free time. These days it’s getting harder and harder because of work 🙁
Ok na po yung krus ng tunasan inilipat na po sya katabi ng retablo maganda na po ung pinaglagyan sa kanya