Black Nazarene image 400 years in Manila on Wednesday

Devotees are expected to troop to Manila's Quiapo district on Wednesday to kick off a two-day celebration marking the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the Black Nazarene image in the country. Mammoth crowds of hundreds of thousands of devotees traditionally gather at the Quiapo district on January 9, the Feast of the Black Nazarene, for a chance to touch the image as it is drawn across the streets. The life-size image of Jesus Christ genuflected under the weight of the cross was brought to the country from Mexico on May 31, 1606 by the first group of the Augustinian Recollect missionaries who landed on the shores of Manila. Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales said the Archdiocese of Manila has petitioned Pope Benedict XVI, for the "canonical celebration" of the 400-year-old image. "The image providentially 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," Rosales said. “Today, despite the rough and tumble that usually accompany the three yearly procession of the image, the Filipino people’s devotion to Our Lord in the special appellation of ‘Nuestro Padre Jesus Nazareno’ continues to flourish and shows no sign if waning death, wounds, bodily pains and physical discomfort notwithstanding," the Manila archbishop added. It was in Quiapo that the devotion to the Black Nazarene attracted an even bigger following, its popularity spreading throughout the country.-GMANews.TV