Be a light to others, Jaro Archbishop Lazo urges Our Lady of Candles devotees
By Tara Yap
ILOILO CITY – Devotees of Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria (Our Lady of Candles), the patron saint of Western Visayas region, have been urged to be a light to others.

DEVOTEES flock to the Jaro Metropolitan Cathedral in Iloilo City on Friday, February 2, to honor the Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria or Our Lady of Candles, the patron saint of Western Visayas region. (Arnold Almacen)
“Kita tanan gin tawag para mangin kapawa ang tanan. Sa Ingles, may ginatawag sanda opposite pairs – ang pag imaway sang tinaga ugaling lain ang iya kahulugan (We have all been called to be a light to others. In English, there’s what you call opposite pairs or the use of words with different meanings),” said Archbishop Jose Romeo Lazo of the Archdiocese of Jaro.
“Good and evil; church and doer; spirit and flesh; sacred and profane; light and dark; either and or. Words that are paired but has different meanings,” Lazo told the faithful who flocked to the Jaro Metropolitan Cathedral for the First Friday Mass on February 2.
The Jaro Metropolitan Cathedral has the distinction of having the country’s only Marian image to be crowned by a Roman Catholic saint. On February 1981, Saint John Paul II, who was then a pope, crowned Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria.
The Marian image is not only venerated by the people here. It also draws devotees from the towns of Iloilo province as well as the provinces of Aklan, Antique, Capiz, Guimaras, and Negros Occidental.