PHILIPPINES: 400th Anniversary Feast of Black Nazarene

The Black Nazarene, center, a life-sized centuries-old statue of Christ is carried through town by devotees during an annual procession celebrating the Feast of the Black Nazarene in Manila, Philippines, on Tuesday January 9, 2007. The procession commemorates the first procession to transfer the Black Nazarene from a church in Intramuros to the Minor Basilica in Quiapo on January 9, 1767.

The Black Nazarene is a more than 200-year-old statue. Black? One tale is telling that during the Spanish colonial period missionaries brought an icon to Manila. During the trip however, there was a fire on board and the icon, the Nazarene, caught fire. Despite its charred condition, the Nazarene was kept save and honored from then on. The statue is to be seen in the Saint John the Baptist Church in Quiapo in Manila, where it has been housed since 1787.

This annual display of faith at yesterday’s procession of the Black Nazarene, which was no less fervid, resulted in fewer injuries because of the benign weather. It also marked the first time since 1767 that the venerated image was brought in procession way beyond its Quaipo's home grounds. Thousands of devotees follow the image of the Black Nazarene as it is being transferred in a motorcade from the Quiapo Cathedral to the Quirino Grandstand in Manila, Philippines for an overnight vigil on the eve of its 400th anniversary Monday January 8, 2007. Tens of thousands of devotees are expected to follow the Black Nazarene for the procession back to the cathedral Tuesday. The annual festival is fast becoming a tourist attraction.