1. BASILICA DEL SANTO NIÑO

 BASILICA DEL SANTO NIÑO

Sto. Niño: Our Source of Peace in the Walk of Faith

The Santo Niño Church is the oldest Roman Catholic Church in the country. The location of the church is said to be where the image of the Child Jesus, which was gifted by Magellan to the newly baptized Queen Juana, was discovered. The one currently on display is a replica while the original one is kept at the parish convent. The church was built in 1565.

Regarding to the basilica of the Santo Niño, it was only in 1735 when the first stone was laid down to build the concrete church that is still standing today. Prior to it, the church housing the historic image was generally constructed from humble and light materials. In 1965, during the centenary celebration of the Christianisation of the Philippines, Cardinal Hildebrando Antoniutti, Papal Legate to the Philippines, conferred upon the church the title of Basilica Minore, a special privilege granted to the Augustinian Order by Pope Paul VI. A few years later, former President Ferdinand Marcos declared the Santo Niño Basilica a national shrine because of its historical significance.

The Sto. Niño Image

The Santo Niño de Cebu is a one-foot-long wooden image of a baby Jesus standing, portrayed as a child king. He holds in his left hand a globe and in his right, a scepter. He wears a combination of red and gold vestments, a golden crown, and golden boots and has golden gloves on his hands. Most of the precious gems he wears today are donations from devotees and patrons of its Basilica.

The image throughout the centuries has experienced some accidents and deformations. In the late 19th century, for example, an Augustinian painted him black, thus, the Santo Niño once became black. Convent fires and wars, although generally spared the image, nevertheless slightly affected it.

The feast of the Santo Niño falls on every third Sunday of January. Previously it was every April 28, the day of its discovery in a box by Juan Camus, one of Legazpi’s soldiers. The reason for the transfer of its feast was the former date’s proximity to Easter Sunday. Its transfer to January aptly positions it for its thematic celebration given its nearness to the Christmas season. It was Pope Innocent XIII who granted the request and, at the same time approved, the liturgy proper to the celebration of the Santo Niño devotion. (As to the exact date of the transfer of the feast, there is no record, but certainly, it was during the same pontificate.)

Since the devotion to the Santo Niño is a broad topic to be discussed, I opted to talk about how the devotion to the Santo Niño is being celebrated today and just a little historical background of its origin. The devotion to Santo Niño de Cebu has both its religious and secular aspects. But again, I would limit my talk to the spiritual aspect of the devotion.

The devotion to Santo Niño has spread outside the boundaries of Cebu and the Philippines, and we could say that its devotion is spread by Filipino Catholic devotees. Although, there in the Philippines we don’t clearly distinguish the peculiarities among the various icons of the Santo Niño; they represent the same entity, the baby Jesus.