Students taking medical board exam, bar exam, CPA board exam, and other examinations trace this image of Mary for intercession.
People with health conditions and other concerns also come to ask for her prayer.
Others come from different places, grateful and happy for answered prayers.
About 200 kilometers north of Manila, Our Lady of Manaog is regarded as the most visited image of Mary in the northern Philippines. About two to three hours of driving from Manila, the country's capital.
Paid parking lots near the church offer spaces for visiting motorists.
Hundreds of thousands of people visit this place annually.
The local government recorded 800,000 visitors to the basilica during the Holy Week in 2003 alone.
The basilica is also the province's top destination.
Located in Manaoag, a landlocked town in Pangasinan, the image is enshrined in the Minor Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary of Manaoag.
A museum stores and exhibits religious memorabalia.
Improvements were made for conducive prayer and worship.
A prayer is also offered for the sick after the mass.
Motorists travel to the basilica to have their vehicles blessed.
Miracles attributed to Our Lady of Manaoag are immortalized in the murals in some parts of this Neo-Romanesque church.
The church has a length of 290 feet and a width of 183 feet. It has one tower and a dome.
It was completed in 1912, one hundred and twelve years ago.
The shrine is dedicated to Mary under the title Our Lady of the Rosary.
The first chapel of Santa Monica (the original name of Manaog) was constructed by the Augustinians in 1600. In 1605, the Dominicans took over.
The Augustinians tried to evangelize the locals during pre-Christianity time. However, there were resistances, as the locals were practicing paganism at the time.
The friars left and turned the church over to the Dominicans.
However, threats from the Igorots forced the Dominicans to relocate the structure to its present site. They erected a bigger church in 1702, sponsored by the wealthy Gaspar de Gamboa and his wife.
The revolutionaries also put the church on fire during the fight for independence from Spanish rule. The image was barely spared, found at the rear of the church.
The church was also destroyed by the bombings during the Japanese invasion and was rebuilt during World War 2.
On October 11, 2014, Pope Francis elevated the shrine to the status of a minor basilica. It was solemnly declared minor basilica on February 17, 2015.
The church is currently administered by the Order of Preachers.
The Dominicans turned over all their Pangasinan missions to the diocese, except for Manaoag.
In 1925, the Vatican perpetually granted the Dominicans the administration of the shrine.
The feast of Our Lady of Manaoag is celebrated on the third Wednesday of the Easter Season, coinciding the town fiesta.
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