MANILA: Hundreds of thousands of Catholics took part in a barefoot procession in Manila on Friday, carrying the Black Nazarene, a centuries-old ebony statue of Jesus Christ believed by devotees to have miraculous powers.
Around 80 percent of the Philippines’ 110 million population identify as Roman Catholic, a legacy of more than 300 years of Spanish colonization.
After a midnight mass joined by tens of thousands of worshippers, the procession began at the Quirino Grandstand at 4 a.m., with the statue of Jesus placed on a cross carried by a four-wheel carriage, which then slowly traveled through Manila’s roads, thronged by massive crowds, for around 6 kilometers.
The procession — which is known as the Traslacion (“transfer”) or as the Feast of the Black Nazarene — commemorates the 1787 relocation of the Black Nazarene from a church inside the colonial Spanish capital of Intramuros in Manila’s center to its present location in Quiapo Church.
For many Filipino Catholics, the annual procession and the festivities surrounding it are deeply personal — a way of expressing deep faith and spiritual devotion, and conveying their personal prayers.
