About Us

Welcome, and thank you for visiting Aurora Aragon-Quezon online, a website dedicated to the late Aurora Aragon-Quezon, first First Lady of the Philippines, whose life and Christian virtues are worthy to be extolled and emulated by all. We hope that our website would be an avenue to make Mrs. Quezon known by more people and move forward the proposed cause for her beatification. Please feel free to read more about our website.

Our mission is to promote the life and holiness of Aurora Aragon-Quezon, a great Catholic Filipina known for her charitable acts and devotion to Our Lord and Blessed Mother. To achieve this, we commit ourselves to unite people to pray for the opening of the cause for her beatification and collect testimonies and other related documentation in support of the proposed cause.

Proposed Cause

"Thus it is evident to everyone, that all the faithful of Christ of whatever rank or status, are called to the fullness of the Christian life and to the perfection of charity; by this holiness as such a more human manner of living is promoted in this earthly society. In order that the faithful may reach this perfection, they must use their strength accordingly as they have received it, as a gift from Christ. They must follow in His footsteps and conform themselves to His image seeking the will of the Father in all things. They must devote themselves with all their being to the glory of God and the service of their neighbor. In this way, the holiness of the People of God will grow into an abundant harvest of good, as is admirably shown by the life of so many saints in Church history. The classes and duties of life are many, but holiness is one-that sanctity which is cultivated by all who are moved by the Spirit of God, and who obey the voice of the Father and worship God the Father in spirit and
in truth. These people follow the poor Christ, the humble and cross-bearing Christ in order to be worthy of being sharers in His glory. Every person must walk unhesitatingly according to his own personal gifts and duties in the path of living faith, which arouses hope and works through charity. (Lumen gentium 40, 41)

For her part, Aurora responded to Jesus’ call to holiness through the various facets of her life – as a wife, mother, and public figure. She epitomized the people Jesus was alluding to in the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-10):

1. She was "poor in spirit" (verse 3). She relied more on God's power than her own by fostering a prayerful life and willingly accepted the pain of poverty in the many chapters of her life. First when her father died leaving his survivors in extreme poverty (Gwekoh,1950) and then later when she and her family lived in difficult conditions in Corregidor during the Japanese Occupation in 1941 (Guerrero, 1953).

2. She was humble (verse 4). During her husband's political career, she stayed in the background engaging with charitable acts and women organizations. Instead of residing at the Presidential Palace, she preferred to stay in a "nipa house" within the vicinity of the palace or at their farm in Arayat,Pampanga (Gwekoh, 1950). When offered to run for a seat in the Philippine Senate, she declined and simply supported those she deemed worthy to be elected (Time Magazine, 1946).

3. She mourned over the suffering of her people (verse 5) and offered them consolation in many humanitarian endeavors such as the Philippine National Red Cross, Girl Scouts of the Philippines, Asociación de Damas Filipinas, White Cross, and Philippine Tuberculosis Society (Filipinos in History, 1990).

4. She hungered and thirsted after justice (verse 6) and was one of the leading women who campaigned for Filipino women to have the right to vote; a right that was achieved in 1937. Through her invitation, the American Carmelites established the Mt. Carmel High School of Baler (now Mt. Carmel College of Baler) in 1948 to satisfy the need for an evangelical mission in that part of the country (Gamboa, 2004).

5. She was merciful (verse 7) and came to the aid of those in need, be it in the Philippines or in the United States of America where she and her daughters volunteered as nurses for the Red Cross while waiting for their return home in the late 1940s. While exiled in the States during World War II, she devoted her time looking after her ailing husband until his death in 1944 (Filipinos in History, 1990; Gwekoh, 1950).

6. She had a clean heart (verse 8). When Philippine Congress voted a pension of PhP 1,000 a month to be given to her, she rejected the offer with the explanation: "I feel that on account of ... countless war widows and orphans ... I should waive collection of a pension . . . I cannot, in good conscience, receive... government assistance when so many of my less fortunate sisters and their children are not yet taken care of. . . I know [if I accepted] I would not be keeping faith with the memory of my beloved husband. . . ." (Time Magazine, 1946). Instead, she donated the money to the special fund being raised for the relief of war victims (Gwekoh, 1950).

7. She was a peacemaker (verse 9). Through her many efforts in the fields of education, health, social justice, community service, etc. she promoted peace and friendship and restored the dignity of people (Filipinos in History, 1990; Gwekoh, 1950). The Aurora Aragon Quezon Peace Awards conferred by the Concerned Women of the Philippines attests to this attribute.

8. She suffered persecution for justice’s sake (verse 10). In spite of her love and service to others, Mrs. Quezon and her companions were ambushed and killed by insurgents while on their way to inaugurate a hospital named after her late husband on April 28,1949 (Gwekoh, 1950).

Mrs. Quezon is not only an icon in Philippine history, but also in the life of God’s People, the Church. As a witness to the compassion of Jesus towards the least, the lost, and the last, she stands as a heavenly model and intercessor for wives, mothers, politicians and their spouses, professionals, community servants, and the like. Raising her to the altars in recognition of her holy life would give glory to God whom she served without any reservation.