Nuestra Señora del Santísimo Rosario de Manaoag (English: Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary of Manaoag) or popularly known as Our Lady of Manaoag , Apo Baket to the people of Pangasinan, is one of the most revered image of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the country venerated in Manaoag, Pangasinan.

The title’s associated image, which dates from the 16th century is enshrined inside the Minor Basilica of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary of Manaoag. In Pangasinense, she called as “Apo Baket”, a name of reverence as an act of respect to an elder woman. The Manaoag shrine is a major pilgrimage site in the country, and is administered by the Dominican Order within the Archdiocese of Lingayen-Dagupan.

Our Lady of Manaoag, who is invoked as patroness of the sick, the helpless and the needy, is celebrated on two feast days: the third Wednesday after Easter (Patronal Feast), and the first Sunday of October (as Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary).

The Apparition 

Documents dating back to 1610 attest that a middle-aged farmer walking home heard a mysterious female voice. He looked around and saw on a cloud-veiled treetop an apparition of the Virgin Mary, holding a rosary in her right hand and the Child Jesus in her left arm, all amidst a heavenly glow. Mary told the farmer where she wanted her church to be built, and a chapel was built on the hilltop site of the apparition, forming the nucleus of the present town. This venerable tradition holds how the town of Manaoag got its name derived from the Pangasinense verb mantaoag, which means “to call” (from the root taoag, “call”).

History

The Augustinians built the first Chapel of Santa Monica (the original name of Manaoag) in 1600, at the site of the present graveyard. It was served by the friars from the town of Lingayen, who were succeeded by the Dominicans in 1605 and served from the town of Mangaldan..

The first Dominican priest to work in the Manaoag mission was Juan de San Jacinto, O.P., who was the first curate of Mangaldan. It was only in 1608 that the Mangaldan mission was formally accepted by the provincial chapter of the Dominicans. In 1610, Tomás Jiménez, O.P. became the Manaoag mission’s first resident priest.

Numerous threats from the Igorot tribes of the surrounding mountains led to the transfer of the entire community to the present site on a hill. The Dominicans started to build a large church on its present site in 1701 under the sponsorship of Gaspar de Gamboa and his wife, Agata Yangta, who were wealthy residents from Manila who moved to Lingayen. Later expansion of the church from 1882 was frustrated by an earthquake in 1892.