MANILA, Philippines—She didn’t wear the signature color the whole democratic world has come to identify with her. She wore pink after her favorite prayer warriors. And she said so herself.

Former President Corazon Aquino made her first appearance in public Saturday during a Mass for her recovery from colon cancer at the St. Joseph Adoration Convent on Hemady Street in Quezon City.

She rejoined her “prayer brigade,” the Holy Spirit Adoration Sisters, more popularly known as the Pink Sisters, to offer prayers for her healing and full recovery.

Aquino heard Mass in a room inside the cloistered halls of the Pink Sisters, while her three daughters, their husbands, and her grandchildren remained outside joining the rest of the faithful in the Mass.

The Mass Saturday marked the start of the nine-day novena to Our Lady of Fatima for Aquino’s full recovery.

Aquino has a special rosary made by Sister Lucia, one of the three children to whom the Blessed Mother appeared in Fatima, through the late Cardinal Sin.

Aquino has had the rosary since 1986 when the Edsa People Power revolution swept her to the presidency through prayer power.

The rosary is credited with sparing Aquino from at at least seven coup attempts during her six-year presidency which was entrusted to Our Lady of Fatima.

Though somewhat thin, Aquino’s face bore no sign of the difficulties she has gone through after two months of treatment. Speaking in a soft voice, she addressed the Mass attendees, thanking everyone who prayed and continue to pray for her.

“It has been a difficult two months but I know God takes care of me,” she said.

Aquino also mentioned her special closeness to the Pink Sisters, saying she had always sought refuge from the rose-garbed sisters whenever she’s faced with a difficult situation.

“If I were to choose a favorite place of worship, it [would be] here,” she said, referring to the Pink Sisters whose convent is in the compound of the St. Joseph Adoration Convent.

Aquino shared that it was also in the same convent where, in 1985, she finally decided to run for President after praying eight hours straight.

“After that very long prayer I knew at the end of the day what I had to do,” she said.

Aquino and the contemplative nuns share a long history, starting with her ups and downs as wife of the late Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr. and later, as the country’s president.

It was the Pink Sisters Convent in Cebu where she found refuge during the first night of the 1986 Edsa revolution.

The Pink Sisters also had the distinct role of being assigned, by the late Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin, as Aquino’s “prayer warriors” during the four-day Edsa I People Power phenomenon in 1986.

“I count on the Pink Sisters to continue to pray for me,” she said.

Aquino added that every time she visited the Pink Sisters, she would give her yellow garments a rest and would wear pink to match the habit of her dear prayer nuns.

Despite ill-health, a smiling Aquino found time to deliver a testimonial on how her prayers always seemed to find answers after she spent time at the Pink Sisters Convent.

Being herself a testimony to the power of prayer, she urged Filipinos to pray for the problems the country is facing right now.

“If all of us will pray for each other and for the country, then we will all have better lives,” she said.

The last time Aquino was seen in public was during a television interview on “The Buzz” aired on April 20, a month after she was diagnosed with colon cancer.