Basilica del Santo Nino - Ruby Tuesday

You won't miss the reds in the following photos. My first visit to the Basilica del Sto. Nino was ten years ago during my first few trips to Cebu. On Saturday afternoon, from the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral, I walked one block to the basilica, taking pictures along the way. It was probably my first walking tour of the city.

The Basilica del Sto. Nino is the most popular church in Cebu, and probably in the Visayas. It houses the statue of the Santo Nino (Holy Child), considered as the oldest religious relic in the Philippines. The black Santo Nino was Magellan's gift to Queen Juana, the wife of Rajah Humabon, the king of Cebu, when the couple converted to Catholicism in 1521. During WW II, a bomb fell on the basilica but did not explode. The statue was found, unscathed, hanging near the altar. (Source: Cebu Heritage) The statue is believed to be miraculous and became the patron saint of Cebu. Flock of Santo Nino devotees fills the basilica everyday, praying before the statue that shaped Cebu's history since Ferdinand Magellan landed on the island more than 488 years ago.

The first church was constructed in 1566 by an Augustinian priest, Fr. Diego de Herrera, using wood and nipa, on the site believed to be where the statue of the Santo Nino, a sculpture depicting Jesus as a black Holy Child, was found by Spanish conquistadors in 1565 preserved in a burned wooden box which was left behind during the 1521 Magellan expedition.

When the wood and nipa church burned down, a stone church was constructed in 1735 on the exact spot and was completed in 1739.

Enshrined in the basilica is the black Santo Nino, although I can't help but wonder if it is indeed the original statue brought by Magellan. Cebu historians believe that the statue in the basilica is the original. I tried to fight my way in to see the glass-encased statue but I was not determined enough. A Cebuano friend told me that the Santo Nino is adorned with gold and precious stones, and he had goosebumps the first time he saw it. As a non-Catholic, I find all these interesting!

Throng of devotees and tourists visit the basilica every day, a novena and mass for the Santo Nino are held every Friday.

Santo Nino shrine

a balloon vendor at the church's grounds

petitions and wishes are brought here

lighting a red candle---a symbolic gesture

just you, a candle and your thoughts going up to God

flower vendors outside the church's gate

vendors selling replicas of the Santo Nino

Posted for Ruby Tuesday