MARIA AUXILIADORA

Devotion to the Blessed Mother, Help of Christians, is an ancient tradition in the Catholic Church. St. John Chrysostom was the first to call the blessed mother under this title in 354. The devotion spread, however, through the efforts of John Bosco and Pope Pius V. In the 15th century, when an Ottoman invasion was looming in Europe, the Dominican pope called on the armies of Europe to defend the continent, and asked them to pray to the Blessed Mother under the title, Help of Christians for victory. The feast, May 24, was established by Pope Pius VII in 1814. Since then, the devotion spread all over the world, with the blessed mother under such title being the patroness of Australia, New Zealand and China.

Devotion to Mary Help of Christians in the Church of Lingayen-Dagupan began when Cesar Ma. Guerrero, the very pious and dedicated ordinary of the then Diocese of Lingayen, dreamed of having a local seminary for his own diocese. Back then, training for the priesthood was difficult, because seminarians would have to take their formation either in seminaries in Manila or in Vigan. Msgr. Orlando Sabangan once narrated that his former parish priest (when he was still a seminarian) would have to travel from his home town to Bolinao, where boats bound for Vigan are available. 

At first, Bishop Guerrero wanted to name the seminary under the patronage of St. Alphonsus Ligouri, patron saint of confessors and moral theologians. This dream became a reality when in 1929, a high school seminary was established in Binmaley, Pangasinan. The rectory of the Parish of Nuestra Señora de la Purificacion was converted into a formation house. But instead of placing under St. Alphonsus Ligouri's patronage, it was named after the Blessed Virigin Mary, under the title of Help of Christians. This was after Archbishop Guglielmo Piani, SDB (Guillermo in Spanish, William in English), a Salesian prelate and Apostolic Delagate to the Philippines (equivalent to Nuncio) gifted an image of the patrona to the bishop of Lingayen. And since then, the Archdiocese of Lingayen-Dagupan has placed under the Blessed Mother, Help of Christians, the care of vocations, establishing the Mary Help of Christians College Seminary in 1985, and the Mary Help of Christians Theology Seminary in 2013. The parish and parochial school in Basista, Pangasinan was also named after the Blessed Mother under this title. As such, Mary, Help of Christians is one of the three Marian titles in the Archdiocese, represented by the three flowers in the coat-of-arms of ALD (the other two being Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary and Our Lady of the Purification).

On August 22, 2018 devotion to the Blessed Mother, Help of Christians in the Archdiocese of Lingayen-Dagupam will reach another milestone as the Holy Father Francis granted the privilege of a Papal Coronation to the image of the Blessed Mother, Help of Christians, venerated by seminarians of the Archdiocese for 90 years now. The papal nuncio, Gabrielle Giordano Caccia will preside over the ceremony at the Cathedral of Saint John the Evangelist, Dagupan City.

May Mary, the Help of Christians, be our constant guide.