Alibata Blog feautres: The Black Nazarene is a life-sized, dark-skinned, wooden sculpture of Jesus Christ held to be miraculous by its devotees. Its original carver was an anonymous Aztec carpenter, and the image was transported by galleon from Mexico. The image is currently enshrined in the Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene in Quiapo, Manila, Philippines.
The statue was brought to Manila by the first group of Augustinian Recollect friars on May 31, 1606. The image was originally housed in the first Recollect church in Bagumbayan (now part of the Rizal Park), which was inaugurated on September 10, 1606, and placed under the patronage of Saint John the Baptist.
In 1608, the image of the "Nazareno" was transferred to the second, bigger Recollect church dedicated to San Nicolas de Tolentino (Saint Nicholas of Tolentine). The Recollect Fathers vigorously promoted devotion to the Suffering of Our Lord represented by the image that in fifteen short years, the Cofradia de Jesús Nazareno was established on April 21, 1621. The confraternity obtained Papal approval on April 20, 1650, from Pope Innocent X.
Sometime in the year 1787, then Archbishop of Manila, Basilio Sancho de Santas Junta y Rufina, ordered the transfer of the image of the Nazareno to the church in Quiapo, again providently placed under the patronage of Saint John the Baptist.
The image survived 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.
Recently, however, in 1998, a replica of the original Black Nazarene was first paraded due to the repeated damages inflicted on the statue. Today this replica is still used in the processions while the original rests inside the church, and other, even smaller replicas can be found in other churches.
On January 9, 2008, the number of devotees who joined the procession swelled to 80,000 in Quiapo, Manila. One-and-a-half to three million people can be accommodated around Plaza Miranda and Quezon Boulevard. Two people died and around 50 injured devotees were rushed to 2 hospitals and a makeshift clinic of the Philippine National Red Cross for first aid treatment, as the procession proceeded. Vice President Noli de Castro, a known devotee of the statue, also joined the big procession. MPD District Director Senior Supt. Roberto Rosales stated that the crowd swelled to 2.2 to 2.6 million "when others, including local residents, joined the procession along the 4.7-km route.” The procession ended at 9:45 p.m. In 2006, 2 devotees also died and 20 others only were injured during the procession.