A giant cross atop a mountain overlooking the West Philippine Sea has been drawing the Catholic faithful to this agricultural town in western Pangasinan every Holy Tuesday.
This is Surip, a village where the town’s version of Calvary is found. Pilgrims have to pass through 1,000 steps to finish the Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) that runs through a forest and which leads to a 40-foot-high concrete cross in a religious ritual that draws thousands of pilgrims from Pangasinan and nearby provinces.
The construction of what became the Calvary Hills was initiated by the late Segundina Navarro, mother of Mayor Marcelo Navarro Jr., who wanted a cross built on the highest peak of Surip when she first saw the area.
“She told my Daddy (the late Mayor Marcelo Navarro Sr.) that she wanted to have the cross there, not only for religious reasons but also as a guide for fishermen out in the sea. But she had no money so she approached people who had influence and who could fund the project. She assigned [the construction of] each station [of the cross] to her friends,” Mayor Navarro said.
This was in the early 1970s when the area was covered by a thick forest and only a trail goes up the hills.
“Since there was no road passable for trucks, the workers had to carry water, cement and other construction materials on their backs. It was a long, tedious process,” Navarro said.
Finally, during the Holy Week of 1975, Surip’s Calvary Hills was ready to welcome devotees. That year, the annual Archdiocesan Penitential Pilgrimage was started to be celebrated every Holy Tuesday. Then Pangasinan Archbishop Federico Limon oversaw the religious activities.
Almost 40 years later, Surip is alive with around 5,000 devotees coming to join the pilgrimage, Navarro said.
“Some come as early as Palm Sunday, staying with the locals or pitching tents on the hills,” Navarro’s wife, Elizabeth, said.
But the real action starts on Holy Tuesday when at least 30 priests come to hear confession. Then at noon, devotees start the trek, passing through the stations of the cross, until they reach the cross atop the hill.