CT News
Jan. 10, 2026 : In a powerful testament of faith, millions of barefoot devotees filled the streets of Manila for the annual Black Nazarene procession. Chanting and reaching to touch the centuries-old statue believed to work miracles, many Filipinos joined the six-kilometer journey on Friday (January 9) as an act of penance, hope, and devotion. Under the heat and heavy security, the crowd’s enduring faith turned exhaustion into worship.
The annual religious procession marks the arrival in 1606 of a wooden statue from Mexico depicting a dark-skinned, suffering Christ. Augustinian Recollect missionaries landed ashore on May 31, bringing religious images including the Nuestro Padre Jesus Nazareno, showing Christ carrying his cross en route to crucifixion.
The Black Nazarene is a life-size statue sculpted from mesquite wood now enshrined in the Minor Basilica and National Shrine of Jesus Nazareno, popularly known as Quiapo Church. Over decades, it has become one of the most popular objects of devotion for Catholics in the archipelago nation of 116 million people.
Through the years, the devotion has not waned in its intensity and passion — folk Catholics still experience a profound personal encounter with the image of Christ. The main attraction is “traslacion,” a reenactment of the 1787 solemn transfer of the image from its original shrine in Bagumbayan, the present Rizal Park, to Quiapo Church.
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