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As her own name suggests, Maria Agwanta has to endure a whole day of work at the Carreta cemetery, earning P80 for a day’s work of never-ending prayers.
The 68-year-old widow stays at the cemetery from sun up to sun down, praying for the dead – a “mananabtan” – but only when she gets paid.
She murmurs prayers called gozos for departed members of families who engage her services, and then recites three Hail Marys and one Glory Be.
For every prayer service, she receives P5 to P20. On any given day, she gets less than 10 requests for prayers so she offers other services, such as cleaning graves and helping vendors make candles.
Agwanta strolls around the cemetery in hopes of bumping into a customer who will ask her to pray for the dead. But the economic crisis has taken its toll on her livelihood as well.
“People nowadays don’t have money. They hardly even buy flowers,” said Agwanta in Cebuano.
“And since everyone knows how to pray, they do it themselves instead of paying someone to do it. We’re lucky to get P40 in a day.”
Each time she is asked to pray, she does so not just seek the salvation of the dead but also for her own financial salvation.
“Because of hunger and poverty, I also ask for something from the dead. ‘Give us grace this day.’ Sometimes, they do give something,” she said.
The widow says she doesn’t pray over the dead who are unvisited.
“It’s tiring to say prayers all the time, so I don’t pray for them. It’s exhausting and doesn’t pay. I’m looking to earn. But don’t misunderstand, when we pray, we do it properly. We don’t fool around when we pray. You think we’d mess around with the dead? You don’t mess around with the spirit world. Spirits know how to answer, but they also know how to push,” Agwanta explained.
For the dead who no longer get visitors, a Holy Mass is offered every Monday, which most mananabtans, and vendors of candles and flowers attend.
The services of a mananabtan are particularly useful for visitors who come alone.
Jen Pangilinan, one of Agwanta’s customers, said she hired the mananabtan because she didn’t have anyone else to pray with over her parents’ graves.
