Feast of the Black Nazarene

The tradition & historical record

The Feast of the Black Nazarene, officially and liturgically referred to as the Feast of Jesús Nazareno (English: Feast of Jesus the Nazarene), is a devotional Catholic event originating in Manila, Philippines. The commemoration centers on the traslación (lit. 'transfer') of the Black Nazarene, in which a 16th-century image of a black Jesus carrying the cross is carried in a mass procession. The event is observed on January 9 each year since its inception. ¹

The Feast of the Jesús Nazareno marks the octave day of the Feast of Most Holy Name of Jesus (the original dedication of Quiapo Church), traditionally kept on 2 January or the Sunday after, and since 2002 on 3 January. The octave day is celebrated by the annual procession of the image of the Nazareno along the streets of Quiapo. It is now considered the image's national liturgical feast day. Contrary to popular belief that the Traslación occurred on 9 January 1787, which became the basis of the annual Traslación, no extant historical record verifies the exact date of the image’s translation from Intramuros to Quiapo. There is no definite date of the arrival of the image either. The Augustinian Recollects assert how upon their arrival in the Philippines in 1606, the Nazareno was not among the sacred images they had brought with them. Their arrival was also the basis of the erroneous celebration of "400 years" of the Nazareno in 2006, which began the custom of starting the Traslación at Quirino Grandstand. The original image was enshrined in a church which once stood near the Quirino Grandstand, the Church of San Juan Bautista of the Augustinian Recollects in Bagumbayan, Luneta. Nevertheless, it can be assumed that the image was already in the Philippines before the mid-17th century, as Pope Innocent X authorized the formation of Cofradía del Nuestro Padre Jesús Nazareno (Confraternity of the Lord Jesus the Nazarene) on 20 April 1650. ¹

The image wears a braided wig made of dark, dyed abacá, along with a golden Crown of Thorns. Attached to the Crown are the traditional "Tres Potencias" ("three powers") halo, variously understood as symbolising the three powers of the Holy Trinity; the faculties of will, memory, and understanding in Christ's soul; or his exousia (authority), dunamis (power), and kratos (strength). These three rayos ("rays"), likely an angular variant of the cruciform halo, are used exclusively for and proper to images of Jesus Christ in traditional Filipino and Hispanic iconography to signify his divinity. The original image has lost several fingers over the centuries. Jesus is shown barefoot and in a genuflecting posture, symbolising the agony and the weight of the Cross, along with the overall pain Christ endured during his Passion. The Cross itself is of black wood tipped with flat, pyramidal brass caps.