[PHOTO - STO. NIÑO'S GILDED
GLORY. The Boy King reigns amid the gold-leafed altar designed by interior
designer Tony Adriano at the Sto. Niño Chapel on E. Rodriguez Avenue in Quezon
City. The chapel is a gift of Mr. and Mrs. Butchie Violago to the Congregacion
del Santisimo Nombre del Niño Jesus, founded by designer Ben Farrales. The
300-year-old Sto. Niño de Pandacan is another storied icon celebrated for its
miracles. MANDY NAVASERO]
MANILA, JANUARY 16, 2012 (INQUIRER)
By Jocelyn R. Uy - More than the flamboyant dancing and merrymaking that every
year engulf the streets of Pandacan in honor of the Sto. Niño, this tiny,
ancient district in eastern Manila has all the trappings of what its parish
priest calls a "Little Nazareth."
While it is known that its patron saved the town from being crushed by
Spanish colonial troops in the 1890s, Pandacan's story has been overshadowed by
the more spectacular tales of the miracles wrought by the Holy Child in other
parts of the country, including another old Manila district to the north, Tondo.
But parish priest Fr. Lazaro Abaco believes that after being unknown and
"hidden" for hundreds of years, the Sto. Niño de Pandacan will rise and begin to
"do its public ministry" come Nov. 23, its 300th anniversary.
"If you look at it with a spiritual eye, it's just right because if you look
at the Nazareth experience, Jesus was hidden for 30 years. In our case, it is
300 years of hidden life of Jesus in Pandacan," Abaco said in an interview.
A Buling-Buling (vernacular for "polished" or "well-prepared") dance festival
and a solemn High Mass officiated by the new Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio
Tagle were held Saturday to kick off Sunday's Feast of the Sto. Niño, usually
marked by far more extravagant parades in other regions of the country.
Sunday's festivities were part of a string of activities that the parish has
prepared in the run-up to its tercentennial anniversary celebrations in
November.
From 'Little Italy'
[PHOTO - The Sto. Niño de Pandacan
Parish, which celebrates its fiesta every 3rd Sunday of January. The City of
Manila boasts of its rich cultural history every year in Pandacan with the
traditional "Buling Buling" Dance Festival. Because many of the country's
literary and musical geniuses of the 19th century came from Pandacan, an annual
traditional dancing in the streets of Pandacan is featured every Saturday before
the main celebrations for the feast of the Sto. Niño every 3rd week of
January.]
According to Abaco, the grand occasion will bring to mind how
Pandacan—previously depicted as "Little Italy" for its many estuaries leading
into the Pasig River—became a "Little Nazareth" to a centuries-old wooden image
of the Holy Child that was found among clumps of vegetation by a muddy pool
where carabaos wallowed.
As the story is told, sometime in the 17th century a group of children
playing in the sleepy barrio suddenly spotted a mahogany image of the Sto. Niño
among some pandan reeds that thrived near a waterhole.
In his book, "The Child of the Pandan Reeds: The Spiritual Journey of the
Santo Niño de Pandacan Parish," Abaco quoted a passage from a narrative by
historian Ricardo Mendoza:
"The children were startled and [they] stopped playing, then admiringly gazed
at the small and beautiful image. In a moment, they all felt terrified, and some
knelt and prayed because it crossed their mind that this may be the image of the
Holy Child."
Plausible explanation
According to Abaco, there could only be one plausible explanation for how the
image ended up there: it may have been part of the cargo carried by a ship
plying the galleon trade between Manila and Acapulco, Mexico, during the Spanish
colonial period.
A storm that often disturbs the Pacific Ocean may have sunk or destroyed the
galleon, and the currents may have swept the image into the Pasig River leading
to one of its arteries in Pandacan, which was then part of the parish of
Sampaloc.
"The discovery of the little statue of Sto. Niño was only the start in the
train of miraculous happenings," Abaco wrote.
Over the years, some elders of Sampaloc attempted to transfer the image to
their parish church following the discovery. But strangely, the image always
found its way back, reappearing at the very site where it was discovered.
After this peculiar reappearance, residents began to revere the site,
building a nipa hut to enshrine the miraculous image. The water hole frequented
by carabaos was eventually turned into a well, where a natural spring thrives to
this day.
Eventually, the Franciscan friars and the townsfolk had a stone chapel built
on the hallowed spot, also incorporating the well. This was finished in time for
the formal creation of the parish of Pandacan in 1712, when the district was
ecclesiastically separated from the Loreto Church of Sampaloc.
Healing water
The original stone chapel was destroyed by powerful earthquakes in the 1800s.
The renovated structure and the well, which existed until the early years
following World War II, had to be demolished because of the expansion of Jesus
Street into a major road.
It was revived sometime between 1951 and 1971 when Msgr. Guillermo Mendoza
was the parish priest.
Though parishioners continue to believe that the well is a source of healing
water, the parish has advised them not to drink it after the water tested
positive for impurities.
To avoid further contamination, Abaco had a replica of the well constructed
in the inner part of the church property near the Blessed Sacrament Chapel,
redirecting the flow of the water from the original spring.
The wooden image of the Sto. Niño remained enshrined in the stone chapel even
after the church that took nearly 30 years to build was finished in 1760.
It was only transferred permanently to the church in 1906 when the church
compound and the convent, taken over by revolutionary priests of the Iglesia
Filipino Independiente (the Philippine Independent Church, more commonly known
as the Aglipayan Church) in 1902, were legally reclaimed by the Archdiocese of
Manila.
Miracles
Aside from the miraculous healing among sick devotees and the protection the
Holy Child had offered to Pandacan during the revolution, the Sto. Niño was also
believed to have performed other wonders in the town.
When a massive fire struck near Pandacan in 1911, a priest placed the image
on a church window facing the sea of flames. Suddenly, the wind changed its
course, saving the town from what could have been a tragedy.
The image is also known to have averted an explosion after troops of the
United States Armed Forces in the Far East (Usaffe) supposedly ignited oil tanks
in Pandacan before retreating to Bataan on Dec. 18, 1941. It also reportedly
healed a boy named Mark of a threatened blindness in April 2002.
"[But] most often, the Sto. Niño comes to us as He is, a child in His
way—unobtrusive, ordinary, simple, hidden in the guise of a little boy," said
Abaco.
He said residents often spot a curly-haired and dark-skinned boy, his plump
face smeared with dirt, roaming the streets of Pandacan—recalling the wooden
image caked in mud when it was found among the pandan reeds 300 years ago.
The boy, who frequents the church patio, is seen mingling with people and
talks to them as if he knew what was going on in their lives. "Residents believe
that this little child is their beloved patron, the Sto. Niño," said Abaco.
Aside from these stories, the Holy Child is also believed to have healed the
age-old rift between the Iglesia Filipiniana Independiente (IFI) and Catholic
parishes in the area.
Another icon exists
Unknown to many, one of the festering issues between the two church
communities was the existence of another icon of the Sto. Niño—an ivory image
brought by the Franciscans and installed as the patron of the IFI church in
Pandacan.
"Both community of believers, the Catholic and the Aglipayans, [were] vocal
about their claim that their image of the Sto. Niño was 'the original,' implying
that the other image is not authentic nor worthy of veneration by Christian
believers of the town," noted Abaco.
Somehow, the argument has been settled with this piece of history: at one
point, when devotees did not want the wooden image of the Child Jesus to be
removed from the stone chapel, the ivory statue was installed as the centerpiece
icon in the main church after it was built in 1760.
(The IFI, founded by a Catholic priest and revolutionary named
Gregorio Aglipay gained many adherents by exposing the venality of the Catholic
clergy and by canonizing heroes of the Philippine revolution. After breaking
from Rome in 1902 and a five-year campaign to take over Catholic Church
properties in the Philippines, the IFI acquired nearly one-half of Church
properties in the country. In 1906, the Supreme Court ruled that all properties
of the Roman Catholic Church that had been occupied by Aglipay's followers had
to be returned to the Church. PHOTO - Gregorio Aglipay in his youth before
excommunication)
The ivory statue was later installed at the IFI Sto. Niño Church after its
priests were expelled from all Roman Catholic churches following the Supreme
Court order.
A caretaker, an IFI adherent who grew attached to the ivory image, was said
to have brought it with her at the time of the expulsion, which prompted the IFI
priests to build a separate chapel, which still stands today on Central Street.
"Clearly then, both the wooden and the ivory images are 'original icons,'"
said Abaco.
The hostility between the two churches ended in 2007, when both agreed to
jointly participate, for the first time, in the colorful Buling-Buling festival
and grand procession held yearly on the eve of the Feast of the Sto. Niño.
"Before that [turning point], we made sure that our respective parades didn't
run into each other or else there will be a commotion … you'll see sacristans of
the two churches hitting each other with their candles," Abaco recalled with a
chuckle.
Two icons reunited
But following the reconciliation, the Buling-Buling festival has always been
an anticipated event among devotees, wherein they witness the meeting of the two
icons of the Sto. Niño like two brothers reunited after being estranged for
centuries by war and religion, said the priest.
Happy about the reunion, the small district has been abuzz with stories about
the sight of two children—one dark and the other fair—playing in the
neighborhood in the early evening, noted Abaco in his book.
"When twilight gives way to the night, the two young boys disappear into the
dark … townsfolk surmise that the toddlers are the ivory image of the Sto. Niño
enshrined in the IFI church and the dark image in the high altar of the Roman
Catholic church perhaps echoing their longing to pray and worship as children,
Romanos and Aglipayans, of the same God," he wrote.
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
All
rights reserved
PHILIPPINE
HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE [PHNO] WEBSITE
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