The Legend of the Holy Mountain - Mt. Banahaw

HOLY MOUNTAN - THE LEGENDS OF MT. BANAHAW

A legend has it that because of the turmoil in the Middle East in a not too distant past, the four Archangels transferred the Holy Land to Mt. Banahaw. In the 16th century, a legend said that a Chinese cutter, Juan Ynbin, who’s body dismembered by the Spaniards and thrown to the sea as a result of a revolt against forced labor during the construction of the shrine of Caysasay came back to life. He claimed that a beautiful woman saved him from the sea and placed him on a leaf that carried him to Majayjay within the view of Banahaw.

Another legend says that somewhere in between 1886 and 1939, a Holy Voice or Santong Boses, dictated the locations of the holy places in Banahaw which also gave the names to these places. It was given to one of the famous mystics of Banahaw, Agripino Lontoc from Taal Batangas who hid in the mountains from the Spaniards who branded him as a rebel. He also went into the mountains to seek for amulets.

The story goes that every time he tried to leave the mountain, he would go blind and this forced him to stay in Banahaw to become one of it’s first hermits.

Banahaw was also the headquarter of a group of dissidents headed by the famous local hero, Apolinario de la Cruz or Hermano Pule sometime in 1840-43.

He was the person who named places such as Jacob and Kalbaryo. In an offensive against Pule, he and his wife was killed wherein his head, stucked to a pole, was displayed at the road to Tayabas to warn all rebels. Pule promised to return as the Santong Boses.