Black Nazarene

The Black Nazarene is a life-sized, dark-colored, wooden sculpture of Jesus Christ which is held to be miraculous by many people, especially to its Filipino devotees. Let us look at its history and devotion in today's 5 Points series.

1. The image of the Black Nazarene, carved by an anonymous Aztec carpenter, is made from a particular dark hardwood and arrived on a galleon ship from Mexico in 1606 by the first group of Augustinian Recollect friars on May 31, 1606.

2. The image was originally housed in the first Recollect church in Bagumbayan (now part of the Rizal Park), which was established on September 10, 1606, and placed under the patronage of Saint John the Baptist. Sometime in the year 1787, then Archbishop of Manila, Basilio Sancho de Santas Justa y Rufina, ordered the transfer of the image of the Nazareno to the church in Quiapo (now known as the Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene) , again providently placed under the patronage of Saint John the Baptist.

3. The feast of the Most Holy Black Nazarene is celebrated on January 9th while Novena Masses begin on the first Friday of the year, in honor of its weekly Novena Mass held every Friday. During the annual public procession, only the replica of the original Black Nazarene is paraded due to the repeated damages on the statue. The original head and the cross stay on the Altar Mayor of the Minor Basilica while the original body image of the Black Nazarene is used in the processions.

4. The Black Nazarene made a lot of miraculous things. These are the survival of the image from the great fires that destroyed Quiapo Church in 1791 and 1929, the great earthquakes of 1645 and 1863, and the destructive Bombing of Manila in 1945 during World War II.

5. The uniquely Filipino devotion to the Black Nazarene merited the sanction and encouragement of two popes. In 1650, Pope Innocent X gave his pontifical blessing with a Papal Bull that canonically established the Confraternity of the Most Holy Black Christ Nazarene (Cofradia de Santo Cristo Jesús Nazareno) and Pope Pius VII gave his second blessing in the 19th century, by granting plenary indulgence to those who piously pray before the image of the Black Nazarene of Quiapo.


Resources:

http://www.philippinecountry.com/philippine_festivals/black_nazarene.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Nazarene