Our Lady of Caysasay, the Chinese Goddess of the Sea

Abstract

This chapter examines the foundation and growth of the devotion to a foot-high wooden icon of the Immaculate Conception who has also been identified as Ma-Cho, the Chinese goddess of the sea and seafarers, since the seventeenth century. It argues that Tagalogs, Spaniards, and Chinese embraced the devotion to Our Lady of Caysasay as a means to protest the indiscriminate massacre of the Chinese of 1639. Tagalog and Spanish grievances over the mass killings of the Christian Chinese in the Taal region were recorded in an investigation conducted by the Manila Church in 1640. The investigation concerned Juan Imbin, a Christian Chinese stonecutter who was believed to have been pulled out of the sea and revived by Our Lady of Caysasay after he had been executed, along with other condemned Chinese, by Spanish forces. Imbin’s miracle investigation is also the only extant source that voices the story of the massacre from the point of view of the Chinese who were targeted by the order of extermination. I argue that it is only by examining the testimonies of witnesses who participated in the investigation of the miracle that we can understand why this particular story was chosen to be remembered by the community at large.