LXXVIII. How the Guinhawa Chapel Became More "Maginhawa," Part Two.

(Continued from Part One)

In all the excitement of refurbishing the Guinhawa Chapel’s Marian and Child Jesus images and installing a larger Crucifix in time for the Barangay fiesta in November 2007 and the subsequent Christmas and New Year celebrations, most parishioners forgot about the old small Crucifix that used to hang on the altar wall.

But I didn’t, because I was anxious to return it to the community, lest I be classed amongst the unscrupulous antique santo traffickers or however they’re alternatively called these days. Mr. Kiko Vecin and I agreed that the image was worth salvaging for adaptive re-use purposes, so that’s what we proceeded to do.

The Crucifix was also brought to the Vecin Workshop, where I was able to photograph it up close just a couple of days after Christmas 2007.

There was a brass plate at the base of the cross, indicating that it was originally bequeathed to the Guinhawa Chapel by “Eric, Noli, Antonio II, Jose Mari, and Leslie Perez, sons of Antonio “Nena” Bernabe-Perez” in 1979.

However, with the avalanche of work that the Vecin Workshop had to contend with for the upcoming Holy Week 2008 (not least of which was our Institution of the Eucharist processional tableau for Malolos), it remained untouched even a month later, at the end of January 2008.

But at least, I could see what Mr. Vecin meant when he said that the head of the corpus was simply too small for the rest of it

and probably ought to be replaced.

Holy Week 2008 finally over, Mr. Vecin and his crew could afford to take a well-deserved work break. It was brief however, since they had to get on with numerous outstanding jobs, including this three-decade-old Crucifix. By June 7^th, 2008 a new more proportional head had been carved and affixed to the existing body, and the whole corpus repainted in oil to replace its previous uniform color of brown overlaid with plastic varnish.

By June 11^th, it was still drying.

By July 15^th, the corpus had been affixed to the wooden cross, which itself already had its brass cantoneras, INRI, and skull-and-bones in place.

And by July 26^th, it was completed

and ready for pick-up from the Vecin Workshop, which is what I did.

I loaded it into my van, drove off to pick up my mom and her sister (a.k.a., the Crucifix Delivery Gang), and went straight to our Parish Church of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, in San Felipe Subdivision, Mojon, Malolos, Bulacan, a couple of kilometers or so from the Guinhawa Chapel.

The former was to be the beneficiary of the adaptive re-use of the latter’s previous altar crucifix, as it had now been reconfigured as a free-standing altar cross. Our parish priest, Father Jun Roxas, fastidiously positions it in place

and proudly shows off the new church piece, together with the two members of the Crucifix Delivery Gang.

- - - - - - - -

While all that Crucifix adaptive re-use was going on, we were simultaneously working on another area of concern in the Guinhawa Chapel – the fact that the beautifully refurbished images of the Our Lady of Remedies and the Holy Child Jesus of Prague were standing there naked, as it were, that is, exposed to the usual chapel dust.

But rather than reinstalling their previous artless “estantes,” we instead commissioned the Greg and Marilou Bloomquist Workshop of Lipa, Batangas, to design and make new wood-and-glass urnas for them, using old “ipil,” a Filipino hardwood that was typically used in constructing traditional Filipino houses in ages past.

Here are the plans and design treatments that Greg prepared prior to actual construction

and here is how they looked in the Bloomquist Workshop right before delivery.

On August 30^th, 2008, the urnas were delivered and the images placed within.

The small Santo Niño urna had a cross on the apex, finials on the edges of the pediment

and lightly etched ornamentation including a simple “JHS” monogram.

The larger urna for Our Lady of Remedies had a glass area that followed the contours of the twelve-star halo.

It too had a cross and finials

and an appropriately intertwined “AVM” monogram.

With the larger Crucifix previously installed, the new urnas and the images within made up a not-too-bad-looking Chapel Altar.

(Sorry about the green tabernacle cover.)

- - - - - -

While the altar area seemed to be in tip-top shape by now, the other end of the nave, by the entrance, seemed rather bare and forlorn in comparison. I figured that with images of Christ and His Blessed Mother in front, it was just appropriate that “His Earthly Father” and “her Chaste Spouse” (to name just two of his appellations) be present as well. The best image of Saint Joseph that I have ever seen has got to be the life-sized one in the Vecin Collection

so that’s what I asked Mr. Vecin to use as a model for the Guinhawa Chapel.

We did this project in a bit of a reverse way, in that, first, I asked the Bloomquist Workshop to make an “SJ” urna of exactly the same dimensions as the “AVM” urna that we just did for the Our Lady of Remedies image. Because fortunately there was still ipil hardwood left over from that project, this was not at all difficult to do. Here it is with its fitted four-legged stand, awaiting delivery in the Bloomquist retail shop (in Philtrade Hall 6 along Roxas Boulevard in Pasay City).

Mr. Kiko Vecin went over to Philtrade to measure this urna, to see what exact size of Saint Joseph to make, to be modeled on his antique original. By December 6^th, 2008, the image was fully carved.

and by Ash Wednesday February 25^th, 2009, the head was completely oil-painted

and ready for wigging and mounting on the body.

The lily staff though had yet to be painted.

By Saturday, February 28^th, Mr. Ramon Gutierrez, the Vecin Workshop’s regular garments maker, had completed dressing the image

in Saint Joseph’s traditional colors of green and yellow.

Of course, his staff was now painted as well.

Delivery of both image and urna to the Guinhawa Chapel was made on that same day. But it wasn’t until nearly two months later, after the usual Saturday evening mass, that I was able to take some photos of the resulting ensemble.

As expected, the Vecin image fitted the Bloomquist urna perfectly.

On the base of the image is inscribed yet another of his appellations, as Patriarch and “Holy Father,” not only of His Divine Son but also of the Universal Church, and by inclusion, the members of the Guinhawa community.

His serious mien befits one possessing the proverbial "diligence of a good father of the family."

Saint Joseph stands by the Chapel entrance, welcoming the faithful of the community

including these ladies, who administer the sub-parish and its chapel.

- - - - - - -

The work of improving the Guinhawa Chapel isn’t really over, as we still need to renovate the sacristy behind the altar, raise the floor of the nave to avoid annual flooding during the typhoon season

and lengthen the nave and move the façade forward to include this partly makeshift extension in front of the entrance.

Given the need to ensure that the Chapel will continue to be available for weekly use despite the attendant work, not to mention the limited financial resources available, these projects will most likely take a few years to finish. But expect to read about them here in the future as they get completed.

Originally published on 30 April 2009.  All text and photos copyright ©2009 by Leo D Cloma. The moral right of Leo D Cloma to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted. 

Original comments:

arkd wrote on May 15, '09 very nice leo! my inang is very proud of you! i see her in several pictures here :-)

rally65 wrote on May 17, '09 arkd said very nice leo! my inang is very proud of you! i see her in several pictures here :-)  Thanks, Dodi. You should show up in some of these photos some time. Ha ha ha.

arcastro57 wrote on May 18, '09 The urnas are just my cup of tea. I hope someone would do the same for our chapel. I will just wait for "your wish is my command"...

rally65 wrote on May 18, '09 arcastro57 said The urnas are just my cup of tea. I hope someone would do the same for our chapel. I will just wait for "your wish is my command"... Why not get a quote from the Bloomquist Workshop? You already met Marilou in Philtrade, right?

jamaica1ph wrote on Jun 18, '09 Congratulations Leo for a fabulous project. May Our Lord and His Blessed Mother bless you and your family. mic cal

rally65 wrote on Jun 18, '09 jamaica1ph said Congratulations Leo for a fabulous project. May Our Lord and His Blessed Mother bless you and your family. mic cal Thanks for the visit and the appreciation, Mike.

timmoffy wrote on Jul 2, '09 ang galing!