The original shrine was founded in 1600, it is administered by the Order of Preachers and is a popular tourist and pilgrimage site among devotees due to the veneration of Our Lady of Manaoag.

[4] Pope Benedict XVI decreed an affiliation with indulgences for the shrine to the Basilica of Saint Mary Major in 21 June 2011.

[a] Pope Francis raised the shrine to the status of a Minor Basilica via his Pontifical decree Spiritualem Fidelium Progressionem on 11 October 2014.

Numerous threats from the Igorot tribes of the surrounding mountains led to the transfer of the entire community to the present site on a hill.

The Dominicans started to build a large church on its present site in 1701 under the sponsorship of Gaspar de Gamboa and his wife, Agata Yangta, who were wealthy residents from Manila who moved to Lingayen.

During the tumult of the Philippine Revolution for independence from Spain, revolutionaries set fire to the church, its treasures, ornaments, and records on May 10, 1898.

A huge crowd attended the canonical coronation of the image on April 21, 1926, by the Apostolic Delegate to the Philippines Guglielmo Piani, SDB, as authorized by Pope Pius XI.

This meant that the Catholic Church officially recognized and proclaimed that the Virgin Mary acclaimed as Our Lady of the Rosary of Manaoag had granted favors and blessings to or formidable intercessions for her devotees through the centuries.

Benedict XVI issued a Pontifical decree via the former archpriest of the Basilica of Saint Mary Major, Cardinal Bernard Francis Law on June 21, 2011, which canonically approved the granting of a "special bond of spiritual affinity in perpetuity" through which the pilgrims are assured of the same blessings and entitlement to a plenary indulgence equal to that received when visiting a papal basilica in Rome.