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The Black Nazarene is a blackened, life-sized wooden icon of Jesus Christ carrying a cross. It was constructed in Mexico in the early 17th century by an Aztec carpenter. Spanish Augustinian Recollect friar missionaries to Manila, Philippines originally brought the icon to Manila in 1606. The transport ship caught fire, burning the icon, but the locals kept the charred statue. Miracles, especially healings, have been reported in its presence. The church in which it stood burned down around it in 1791 and 1929, was destroyed by earthquakes in 1645 and 1863, and was damaged during bombing in 1945. It used to be carried through the streets every January, and Christians would rub cloths on it to make healing relics, but centuries of this treatment have left the statue in bad shape, and since 1998 a replica is paraded at the feast day celebrations. In 1650, Pope Innocent X issued a papal bull which canonically established the Cofradia de Jesús Nazareno to encourage devotion; in the 19th century Pope Pius VII granted indulgences to those who piously pray before the image.
Patronage
- Quiapo, Philippines
Source: https://catholicsaints.info/black-nazarene/
