The Black Nazarene (Spanish: El Nazareno Negro, Nuestro Padre Jesús Nazareno; Filipino: Poóng Itím na Nazareno, Hesus Nazareno) is a life-sized image of a dark-skinned, kneeling Jesus Christ carrying the Cross enshrined in the Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene in the Quiapo district of the City of Manila, Philippines.
The Black Nazarene image was made by an anonymous Mexican sculptor and arrived in Manila via galleon from Acapulco, Mexico on May 31, 1606.Many thought that the image was charred in the galleon while in transit to the Philippines, but Monsignor Sabino A. Vengco Jr. from Loyola School of Theology meanwhile noted that the image was not charred, but in fact dark through to its core as it was carved from mesquite wood. Vengco based this claim on personal research in Mexico, where he said mesquite wood was a popular medium in the period the image was carved.
Pope Innocent X approved veneration of the image in 1650 as a sacramental, and authorised the establishment of the Confraternity of the Most Holy Jesus Nazarene (Spanish: Cofradía de Nuestro Santo Jesús Nazareno).Pope Pius VII granted the image his Apostolic Blessing in 1880, which granted a plenary indulgence to those who piously pray before it.
The Feast of the Black Nazarene commemorates the anniversary of the Traslación procession or the transfer of the image from its original location at a church in modern-day Luneta Park to Quiapo. The image was brought to the Church of San Juan Bautista in Bagumbayan (now Luneta) until May 31, 1606 by Augustinian Recollect priests. In 1608, the icon was enshrined at the Recollect church of San Nicolás de Tolentino in Intramuros. It was moved to the Saint John the Baptist Church, which is now commonly referred to as the Quiapo Church, on January 9, 1787. The "solemn transfer" eventually became the date of the Feast of the Black Nazarene
The image (in recent years a composite replica) is removed from its shrine in procession three times a year: January 9, the Feast of the Black Nazarene (the anniversary of the icon's translation), Good Friday (the Nazarene's proper liturgical feast, commemorating the culmination of the Passion), and December 31 (New Year's Eve, the first day of its annual novena).
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