Seventy five years after the Miracle of the Rosary at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, history will repeat itself in the East at the battle of La Naval de Manila in October 1646. Thanks to the Virgin of the Rosary, Manila and the rest of the Philippines were spared from these foreign invaders.
With the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Filipino and Spanish Catholics successfully defeated the invading forces of the Protestant Dutch Republic during the Battles of La Naval de Manila in the year 1646, in a triumph similar to the Battle of Lepanto of 1571.
The Spanish and Filipino forces, consisted mainly of three Manila Galleons miraculously neutralized a Dutch fleet of nineteen warships. Heavy damage was inflicted upon the Dutch squadrons forcing the Dutch to abandon their invasion of the Philippines.
Pope Pius X granted the image a Canonical Coronation on 5 October 1907. In 2009, the Philippine government designated the image and its shrine as a National Cultural Treasure, making it one of the country’s Cultural Resources.
Santo Domingo Church in Quezon City, Philippines was constructed by the Dominicans in 1954. The church also holds a secret vault that contains ivory icons and wooden images of saints.
The church centerpiece is the shrine of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary of La Naval, sculpted in the 18th century by a Chinese artist, who later converted to Christianity. It is said to be the oldest Marian icon in the country. Her oriental features make Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary a uniquely indigenous Virgin.
She is called the Nuestra Señora del Satissimo Rosario de la Naval de Manila in Spanish; in Filipino: Ang Mahal na Ina ng Santo Rosaryo ng La Naval de Manila.
The image of the Blessed Virgin Mary is venerated in the Philippines because devotees believe that she interceded during the Protestant Dutch invasion in the Battle of La Naval de Manila in 1646, just as she ensured victory for allied Christian forces, in the Battle of Lepanto of 1571, against the Islamic Ottoman Empire.
