By: Rey Anthony Chiu
SEVILLA, Bohol, Dec 10, (PIA) –If, sometime you hear that in Sevilla town, “la mesa ra’y patag,” [only tables are even) think of it as a joke. But believe me half of it is probably right!
The other half is that fiesta tables here are great equalizers and nothing can be a better leveler than the moneyed and the barefooted rubbing elbows in a sumptuous feast that they believe would sate their bodies and their souls as well.
When you partake at the lavish banquet at the feast day of Virgin of Guadalupe, the town patroness, there you would be glad why tables here should be flat, or your stewed carabeef soup would spill before you could take in a deliciously long sip.
Historically, the place was formerly called “Panas” for its characteristic rock cliffs, a part of nearby Loboc town.
Many historians believe that the town only came to be called Sevilla after Spaniards who could have been from Seville , south of Spain came to settle and establish formal government in the town in 1872.
“Panas,” being located on top of the gorges carved by Loboc River the natives settled here who saw the rockslides at the riverbanks and the hinterlands as a perfect venue for escaping the white skinned conquerors’ probing eyes and be relatively independent in their remoteness.
Practically a place diligently carved out of the cliffs, Sevilla’s flat surfaces can be a glaring testament of man’s adaptation to the harsh environment and a little ingenuity to fill the rest.
Having been administered by missionary priests from mother town Loboc, Sevilla picks the habit of taking its mother town’s devotion.
With Loboc’s devotion to the Virgin of Guadalupe as its secondary patroness after Saints Peter and Paul, Sevilla also took on the devotion of Guadalupe.
That accounts for the two feats days for Guadalupe: May 25 for the Guadalupe de Extremadura of Loboc and December 12 of the Guadalupe de Mexico of Sevilla.
Loboc, picked Our Lady of Guadalupe de Caceres, patroness of Extremadura.
Guadalupe de Caceres is notably the carved black Madonna (Mary with a child) as legends say that Luke, the evangelist personally carved the image and was buried with him.
Guadalupe de Mexico on the other hand, is that unmistakable image on a wooden plank with the light radiating from her body.
When Luke’s tomb was excavated, the statue was brought to Rome , and at a time when there was a plague that hit the place, the statue was taken out for a great procession and the epidemic ceased.
The statue was buried again in a casket near Guadalupe ( Hidden River ) to hide it from the invading moor. That was when the statue came to be called The Lady of Guadalupe.
Years later, yet another miracle caused its excavation and the statue was then put in a Franciscan hermitage in Guadalupe, an autonomous region south of Spain .
As a Franciscan monk became bishop of far-away Mexico , the prelate heard of another Marian apparition, this one to Juan Diego.
The visionary said the virgin told him her name as Coatlaxopeuh (Quatlasupe) which when translated from its Inca term into “She who crushes the Serpent.”
The image of the lady crushing the serpent is also a common presentation of Mary.
To the monk, the name couldn’t be far sounding than the Guadalupe de Caceres in distant Spain .
Loboc’s virgin of Guadalupe devotion then is that which allows them to celebrate every May 25, while the Guadalupe of Sevilla is the virgin of the Mexican apparition that celebrates her feast day every December 12.
So, on December 12, Sevilla makes sure her tables are leveled and enjoins every devotee of the virgin of Guadalupe to come and partake on the table where the rich and the poor sit as equals in thanksgiving for the blessings.