Purely personal

I never had the privilege of meeting her. I did not have any knowledge of who she truly was aside from the face and the byline that appeared with her columns. Josephine Clemente Darang was a name I came to know only from her writings in the Inquirer.

In the 21st century, her columns may not be seen to have shaken foundations. She wrote on topics that seemingly nobody writes about anymore—devotion to the saints, pilgrimages to honor Our Lady, help for priests and seminarians, donations for Catholic charities. But there are those who believe that in her fearlessly simple, “purely personal” way of writing, Josie Darang brought souls to God. And in that sense, I think, she in fact did shake foundations.

Inquirer’s Lito Zulueta wrote perhaps the most weighty description of the person behind Purely Personal: “For more than two decades, Darang charted the devotional life of the Catholic Church with a spiritual zeal matching that of the heroic saints and martyrs she frequently wrote about in her column.” Indeed, if this is an age in need of saints, Darang not only provided us with an almanac of them; there are those who attest that she herself was one.

On the week of her death, social media gave us a meaningful glimpse of who Josie Darang was. Thespian Bernardo Bernardo paid her a terse but profound paean: “DEAR, DEAR FRIEND from Disco Daze when she was known as Mother Earth to some, and Mother Urge to others before she became PURELY JOSIE.” The closing statement intimates what must have been a bosom friendship: “Please visit her to pay your last respects to this lady who offered her life to serve the Church.”

It should speak volumes about her that names resonating with prominence were among those who arranged the Masses offered for her repose. Photography artist Mandy Navasero and designer Barge Ramos posted notices of the Mass marking the ninth day after her death. That Mass was held last night at the Malate Church. (A “40th day” Mass is already scheduled on Feb. 2.) I do not know if the choice of venue was deliberate. The church is dedicated to Our Lady of the Remedies.

A signature Darang apostolate was to spread word about forgotten Catholic devotions. One she had written about not infrequently was Saint Peregrine. But who knew Saint Peregrine? Through Darang, it became known that he was the patron of cancer patients. Besides writing about such saints, Darang would offer readers copies of prayer cards if they sent her a self-addressed, stamped envelope. It was a simple but deeply remarkable gesture. Soon the devotion spread. Stricken with cancer 11 years ago, my mother learned about Saint Peregrine from reading Darang. One day, she received a gift from a friend who had read Darang. It was a small vial that contained an “oil of Saint Peregrine.”

As generously as she had made known the efficacy of prayers and the intercession of saints, Darang herself, unknown to everybody except her close friends, was suffering from stage 4 breast cancer the last two months. The lady who had made herself an instrument of healing to many people was herself given one more insurmountable task—to offer her illness to those who needed the touch of a loving God. A friend of hers told me that Darang “suffered much in her final weeks, but that as a true child of God, she had offered her pains to God” for the relief of those who were also suffering like her.

I was told that Darang died penniless. A far cry from the Darang described by Zulueta as a bohemian party girl in the days of Coco Banana, a popular pre-martial law nightclub in Malate. The party days ended when Darang suffered from achalasia, a severe affliction of the esophagus that prevents one from ingesting water and food. She had prayed for the intercession of Our Lady of Peñafrancia of Paco. Cured of the illness, Darang turned her back on that carefree lifestyle. That led to the birth of Purely Personal. Friend Gabby Lopez describes her transformation well for us: “Her metanoia from bohemian hedonism to service to the Church is miraculously outstanding; we have the makings of a Pinay for canonization.” Indeed as we write, friends are beginning to initiate the process of documenting Darang’s life for possible Catholic sainthood.

In 2006, the Inquirer honored Darang by publishing the book “A Purely Personal Book of Miracles: A Collection of Columns.” What we may find ironic is how Darang, who brought many readers to become good Catholics, was herself never honored with a Catholic Mass Media Award.

Darang died on a Saturday. Those who know the promise of the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel must have seen a connection.

Darang’s apostolic service to the Catholic Church, through her writings, is something that cannot be approximately rewarded with an award. On the pages of a school textbook for communication arts in English for first-year high school students is Darang’s account of a family whose son was cured of cancer by praying to Our Lady of Manaoag. The textbook “Integrating Values with Communication Arts,” written by Luz Colendrino Bucu and Feliciana Aquino Reyes, was published in 1994 by Rex Bookstore. The piece was made an example of a writing that teaches virtues.

Darang herself may not have even known that her writings and her prayers had gone beyond Purely Personal. One can imagine people in various parts of the Philippines, and even the world, now bursting with much gratitude for the “service” this possible contemporary Filipino saint extended to them during her lifetime.