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Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage is a 17th-century Roman Catholic wooden image of the Blessed Virgin Mary venerated in the Philippines. The image, a Black Madonna that represents the Immaculate Conception, is enshrined in Antipolo Cathedral. The image was brought to the country by a Governor-General from Mexico in 1626.
His safe voyage across the Pacific Ocean was attributed to the image, which was given the title of “Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage”. This attribution was verified later by six other successful voyages with the image aboard as its patroness. When the Governor-General died in 1632, the statue was given to the Jesuits for enshrinement in the church of Antipolo which was then being built. The statue is one of the most celebrated images of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Philippines, gaining devotees since the mid-19th century. From May to July each year, the image attracts millions of pilgrims from all over the country and abroad.

CLAIMS OF MIRACLES
During construction of the Antipolo church in the 1630’s, the image would mysteriously vanish several times from its shrine, only to reappear atop a breadfruit tree. This was taken as a heavenly sign, and the church was relocated to where the tree stood. The pedestal of the statue is supposedly made from the trunk of that same tree.
In 1639 the Chinese rose in revolt, burning the town and the church. Fearing for the statue’s safety, it was moved to a safe place. It was then shipped back to Mexico, but, at that time, the statue of a saint onboard served as the ship’s patron saint. The statue crossed the Pacific six times aboard various ships. In 1864 the statue was once again given back to the Jesuits.

WORLD WAR II AND CORONATION
In 1944, the Japanese Imperial Army invaded the town of Antipolo and turned it into a military base, with the shrine being used as an arsenal to store weapons.. To save the image, the church’s head sacristan, Procopio Ángeles, wrapped it in a thick woollen blanket and placed it in an empty petrol drum, which he then buried in a nearby kitchen.
Fighting between Imperial Japanese troops and the combined American and Phillipino forces drove Ángeles and other devotees to exhume the image and move it to another town. The statue was then kept in a family home in Manila before it was enshrined inside the Parish Church for the remainder of the Second World War.
On the 15th October 1945, the statue was taken back to the church in Antipolo, where it remains until today.

CATHEDRAL SHRINE
The first missionaries in Antipolo were the Franciscans, who arrived in the vicinity in 1578. The Jesuits then followed and administered the church from 1591 until May 1768, when the decree expelling the Jesuits from Spanish lands reached Manila.
The church was greatly damaged during the Chinese uprising of 1639, the 1645 Luzon earthquake, and the earthquakes of 1824 and 1883. Notable Filipino historians ministered at the church.
The Diocese of Antipolo was created on 24 January 1983 and Parish was given the formal title of NATIONAL SHRINE OF OUR LADY OF PEACE AND GOOD VOYAGE – IMMACULATE CONCEPTION PARISH.

PILGRIMAGES
Pilgrimages to the image’s shrine begin and peak in May, which in Catholicism is dedicated to the Virgin Mary. On 30 April—the eve of May Day—thousands of devotees from Metro Manila customarily perform what is called the “Walk Offering”, where pilgrims spend the night travelling on foot to the shrine, where they they participate at Holy Mass at dawn. There is a long tradition of pilgrims visiting the shrine in May which was already recorded in the 19th century.