Black Nazarene draws massive crowds to traditional Philippine procession

(OSV News) -- The streets of the Philippine capital of Manila were packed Jan. 9 with throngs of faithful devotees jostling for a brush with the encased icon of the Black Nazarene.

On the third and final day of veneration, approximately 2 million Catholics attended the procession of the Black Nazarene in what a late Dominican Filipino priest called "a pact between the Filipinos and their God."

This was the first year that the annual procession of the blackened statue of Jesus Christ on bended knee under the weight of the cross officially became part of the Philippine liturgical calendar.

The devotion to the statue, whose roots go back to the early 1600s in the predominantly Catholic Philippines, drew hundreds of thousands to the opening Mass at midnight in historical Luneta Park on Manila Bay led by Manila Cardinal Jose Advincula.

The cardinal warned the faithful in his homily that if they followed money, evil and vices, they would end up disappointed.

"The only one who is reliable and the only one who gives us hope without fail is our beloved Lord Jesus the Nazarene," said Cardinal Advincula.

"Our hope is alive because our beloved Lord is alive. He is alive in our hearts. He is alive at our side. He is alive with us. Let us not be dead. As long as there is hope there is life and so let us live in the life of Jesus," he said.

"Viva Jesus Nazareno!" he cried out to the crowd, which responded likewise.

After the Mass and a program of church youth groups and singers as well as celebrity testimonials of God's work in the lives of the young movie stars devoted to the Nazarene, the winding procession to the Minor Basilica and Shrine of Jesus the Nazarene in Quiapo began in the wee hours of the day. Its numbers swelled into a wide sea of human waves by nightfall.

Many devotees told several media outlets of self-described miraculous healings they have received after praying to the Black Nazarene.

Prior to the procession a married couple outside the basilica told a local Catholic TV Maria network they arrived from Bulacan province about 28 miles north of Manila. They said they had been going together to the procession known as the "Traslación," or transfer in Spanish, for the past five or six years to pray for their loved ones and they have received "overflowing blessings" from God.

The statue was carved in Mexico and then sent to the Philippines in the early 1600s. Since arriving it had several "transfers" to accommodate growing devotion, from its original location at a Luneta church to the Intramuros district church, both run by Augustinian Recollects, and a replica was placed in the Quiapo Church, which grew into a pilgrimage site for the image that many deemed miraculous by the late 1700s.

Michael "Xiao" Chua, a history professor at Catholic-run De La Salle University in Manila said the icons were made of a kind of wood, which darkened over time and made the image even more relatable to the dark-skinned Philippine nationals, who were under Spanish colonial rule at the time.

He explained to OSV News that it was part of a Lenten set depicting the passion of the Lord.

"This image, although it was a suffering Christ who looks like us as we suffer, we all know that that was not the end. The end of the story was the resurrection, the glory of Jesus Christ," said Chua, a former Catholic who calls himself a Protestant. "And so Filipinos held their hopes for a better life through the image of the Black Nazarene. It was like an inspiration and a visual representation of what the Lord represents for all of us, which is hope."

Chua said his dissertation was on the "Traslación" devotion, a study of the fervent, enthusiastic loyalty of faith-filled believers made up of human waves buoying one another to the plinth carrying the icon of the Black Nazarene.

Live footage online showed devotees clambering onto the encasement after climbing and walking on the shoulders of those bearing the image, grasping at other devotees' clothing to steady themselves and touch the glass. Others with arms outstretched, holding white hand towels reached for a swipe at the glass and others simply threw their towels at those surrounding the case who took a quick wipe at the glass and tossed them back to their owners.

Chua said those outside the country see the images of such devotion and "would think this is something that is strange, and fanatical and crazy." But he called it something akin to a choreographed expression of strong devotion.

"They actually want to struggle. You see, they don't want it to be easy because they want to replicate their everyday struggle, their everyday life there, together. Then after that they achieve a form of 'communitas' (heightened solidarity) and they come out feeling refreshed, more blessed," said Chua.

Planners of the feast, which takes place yearly on the 9th marking the end of the novena to the Holy Name of Jesus (which starts on Jan. 1), this year emphasized that "a true devotee follows the teachings of Jesus Christ and the Church."

Chua said, "The church is reminding us that doing popular devotions is not enough. You should go to Mass. You should do the sacraments if you're a good Catholic. … Going to the Nazarene procession does not replace the Eucharist."

Late Filipino Dominican Father Enrico Gonzales, who died in 2023, said about the tradition that "the Filipinos own their God. They believe that the Nazareno belongs to them. They look at his statue and they see their color -- sunburned. They gaze at its face, bloodied, crowned with thorns of suffering."

Father Gonzales' meditation continued: "So, this is their God -- the Lord who enters into their very own skin -- and for this reason can empathize with them. ... So, don't call their love for Nazareno fanaticism. No. It's a pact between the Filipinos and their God. It's God and the Filipinos promising each other, 'You're my own, I'll be responsible for you.'"