The Devil Triumphant: Don Simeon Bernardo's Grave 3

mymalabon.com

The statue has been placed in a cage because in spite of its reputation, drunks and druggies who do their business in the cemetery like to throw stones at it. At one point in the 1960s it was actually destroyed. The Bernardo clan had it rebuilt but a few inches taller, thus spawning the legend about the statue "growing." But that did not stop a few desperate souls from stealing the trident - probably to sell for scrap.

Some pious nut job wrapped a rosary around its wrist, thinking it would contain the demon. Obviously missing Bernardo's point that the real devil was roaming the earth, sowing sin and evil at the constant expense of good.

In spite of the changes, the statue of Satan crushing St. Michael beneath his feet still carries Don Simeon's crushing indictment upon the world he knew, an indictment, rather worryingly, that seems to sting even more today than during his time. According to the Bernardo clan, if they feel that the world has changed for the better, they will celebrate humanity's triumph by placing another statue over their patriarch's grave, one where the devil lies crushed beneath St. Michael's feet.

Will that day ever come?