Birhen sa Kalooy Chapel

Overview

Birhen sa Kalooy Chapel is a religious site in barangay Bentig, Calape, northwestern Bohol. “Kalooy” is Cebuano for mercy or compassion — making this effectively a Chapel of Our Lady of Mercy. It is recorded in the BPTO provincial tourist-attraction inventory under History and Culture.

The chapel is in barangay Bentig, one of the Ben-Cal-Man barangays also associated with strip broom making — a traditional cottage craft practised in the same area.

Local tradition holds that the image was found around 1800 by fisherman Maximo Dumangca in sitio Kalooy, Barangay Bentig — the sitio that gave the devotion its name. Known as Nuestra Señora de los Remedios, or Our Lady of Kalooy, the image is not tied to a specific religious congregation; inquiries run through the parish priest of San Vicente Ferrer Church in Calape poblacion. Feast day is December 10. The original wooden chapel has since been rebuilt in concrete, funded by donations and offerings from devotees.

Location

Barangay Bentig, Municipality of Calape, Bohol. Calape is on the western coast of Bohol, approximately 35 km from Tagbilaran City.

Getting There

From Tagbilaran, take a bus or jeepney along the western coast route toward Tubigon. Alight at Calape and arrange a tricycle or habal-habal to barangay Bentig. [TO ENRICH: distance from Calape poblacion to the chapel]

Practical Info

• Open to visitors; no confirmed admission fee
• Feast day: December 10, honoring Our Lady of Kalooy

What to Expect

The image stands inside a Takubo shell, roughly 7 inches tall — left hand raised in blessing, right hand holding a lily stalk as a symbol of purity, the shell and figure both carrying an ivory-like finish. Devotees, some traveling from as far as Mindanao and Luzon, leave ex-votos — jewelry, necklaces, rings — on the image as tokens of gratitude. [TO ENRICH: chapel building dimensions/floor area]

Barangay Bentig also anchors the Ben-Cal-Man broom-making strip, and Binogawan Pottery in Sta. Cruz, Calape, sits within the same municipality for a combined itinerary.

Notes

• The name “Kalooy” distinguishes this from the Birhen sa Barangay Shrine in Jagna — they are separate entities in different municipalities
• Barangay Bentig was among the barangays of Calape formally organized in 1957. Calape - Provincial Government of Bohol, accessed 2026-07-17.
• Origin story, feast day, image description, and devotional practices sourced from Virgen de Kalooy: The Virgin that appeared from a shell - Pintakasi, accessed 2026-07-28.
• Distance from Calape poblacion to the chapel in Barangay Bentig could not be sourced this round. Tried: Trip.com attraction listing (gives only a Plus Code / road name, no distance), PhilAtlas barangay profile for Bentig (coordinates/elevation only, no travel distance), and general web search for “Bentig Calape Bohol distance poblacion.” No LGU, BPTO, or tourism-office page with a specific km/travel-time figure was found; a future pass could try Google Maps driving-distance lookup directly or the Calape municipal Facebook page, checked 2026-07-28.
• Chapel building dimensions/floor area (as distinct from the 7-inch image) could not be sourced this round; the Pintakasi origin-story blog post and video sources describe the image in detail but not the building’s measurements. A future pass could try BPTO records, CENRO/municipal engineering permits, or on-site photos via Google Maps reviews, checked 2026-07-28.