Replica of 450-year Old Sto. Niño Arrives in Northern Mindanao

The replica of the 450 year-old-image of the Sto. Niño child arrived here on a five-day leg in Northern Mindanao, pilgrim officials said Wednesday.

The replica image arrived at the Port of Cagayan De Oro Monday morning and welcomed with a Sinulog dance by the local parishioners.

From the port, pilgrim officials brought and encased the image at the St. Augustine Cathedral, where hundreds of the faithful continued to flock and queue endlessly since Monday – stopping only when a Mass is in progress.

Lorna Alvarez, the team leader of the pilgrim group, said that two other replicas of the Child Jesus are now also circulating around the country in observance of the 450 year anniversary when the Sto. Niño image arrived in the country in 1565.

A Spanish priest actually gave the image of Sto. Niño to Lady Humamay, wife of Raja Humabon of Cebu, when the couple became converts of the Christian faith in 1521.

Alvarez said that the image of the Sto. Niño lost in a fire in Cebu on April 27, 1565.

The devotees, however, recovered the image in the ruins, miraculously unscathed, a day after the big fire, Alvarez said.

From then on, the Sto. Niño has become an iconic symbol of the Christian faith in the country where its replicas are touring various dioceses nationwide for the whole year from April 2015 to March 2016 in celebration of the occasion, Alvarez said.

Alvarez said that the year-round tour also served as the 450th anniversary of the Augustinian presence in the country with the arrival of Miguel Lopez de Legazpi.

About 400 years when the discovery of the Sto. Niño first miracle in 1965, then Pope Paul VI elevated Cebu City’s Church of St. Augustine into a basilica, thus the pilgrimage tour also triples as the 50th anniversary celebration of the existence of the Basilica del Santo Niño. (PNA) CTB/CD/MARK FRANCSICO