Faith Healer
Faith Healer
Faith Healer
The Albularyo
In the rural areas, by tradition and because of chronic economic
constraints, the albularyos are the general practitioners, the primary
dispensers of health care. As with other healers, there is usually a
history of a healer in the family-line, their healing a continuum of a
"calling," the power or ability bestowed by a supernatural being, often,
attributed to the Holy Spirit. Often lacking in formal education, his skills
are based on and honed from hand-me-down practices and lore, with a
long period of understudy or apprenticeship with a family elder or a
local healer. Years of patience and study bring the healer into a
familiarity with the lore, rituals and modalities of diagnosis and healing,
the prayers, bulong and orasyon, and the use of herbal medicinal plants.
Some acquire an expertise in the art of pulse taking and diagnosis.
Mang Ino, Albularyo: He used to hold weekday clinic hours in a corner of the basement p
market/mall in the San Pablo, Laguna area. His sign translates: Look for Tata Ino if you ne
painful body condition. I also treat fractures, dog bites, diabetes, stones, arthritis, heart pro
others. I also sell herbal medicines. Clinic hours are from 9 AM to 4 PM. I can also do hous
from this basement.
Although most are available for daily consultations, some practice their
craft only on Tuesdays and Fridays, days of the week coinciding with
the feast of the Sto. Niño and the feast of the Black Nazarene, when they
believe their healing powers to be at their optimum.