Black Nazarene procession

draws millions

	Photos by Bob Manzano • This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

MANILA – More than three million barefoot people joined this year’s procession of the statue known as the Black Nazarene from Quirino Grandstand to Quiapo Church on Monday, January 9, despite a warning from President Aquino that a terrorist plot might target the gathering.

About 15,000 police officers, backed by hundreds of army troops, secured the five-kilometre procession route while Air Force helicopters, hospitals and ambulances were kept at the ready. Sniffer dogs were deployed and fireworks were banned. Cell phone service was blocked in procession areas to prevent the possibility of remotely triggered terrorist bombs.

No terrorist attack materialized during the 22-hour procession but nearly 600 people were treated for exhaustion, bruises and minor injuries following a stampede in the early hours of the parade. According to the Red Cross, dozens of people were also hospitalized due to fractures and hypertension.

This year’s Feast of the Black Nazarene began with a mass on January 8 and a vigil that lasted until the following morning. Another mass started the day of the much-awaited procession, which commemorates the installation of the image in itspresent shrine in Quiapo church.

Aside from the crush of millions of people, the especially long procession was delayed when the wheels of the carriage bearing the image broke and the rope pulling it snapped. The procession finally arrived at its destination at 6:00 a.m. on January 10.

“This was the longest and most difficult procession experienced by the devotees,” Monsignor Clemente Ignacio told radio station DZBB.

The life-size wooden sculpture of Christ, crowned with thorns and bearing a black cross, is one of two identical statues brought from Mexico to Manila in 1606 by Spanish missionaries. The first and more famous one was kept at the old church of San Nicolas de Tolentino in Bagumbayan and later transferred to Intramuros where it was destroyed during the World War II bombing of Manila in February 1945.

According to folk tradition, Quiapo’s Black Nazarene originally had a fair complexion but was charred in a fire on board the ship that transported it to the Philippines. Since 1998 a replica of the statue has been used in the processions in order to protect the original from damage, which is kept inside the church. Nevertheless, millions of devotees join the processions, hoping to touch the statue and receive the benefit of what they believe to be its miraculous healing power.

Photos by Bob Manzano • This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Have a comment about this article? Send us your feedback