09/01/2026
January 9, 2026
✝️ THE BLACK NAZARENE Also known as Nuestro Padre Jesús Nazareno
The Black Nazarene is a blackened, life-sized wooden icon of Jesus Christ carrying a cross. It was constructed in Mexico in the early 17th century by an Aztec carpenter. Spanish Augustinian Recollect friar missionaries to Manila, Philippines, originally brought the icon to Manila in 1606. The transport ship caught fire, burning the icon, but the locals kept the charred statue. Miracles, especially healings, have been reported in its presence.
The church in which it stood burned down around it in 1791 and 1929, was destroyed by earthquakes in 1645 and 1863, and was damaged during bombing in 1945. It used to be carried through the streets every January, and Christians would rub cloths on it to make healing relics, but centuries of this treatment have left the statue in bad shape, and since 1998, a replica is paraded at the feast day celebrations. In 1650, Pope Innocent X issued a papal bull which canonically established the Cofradia de Jesús Nazareno to encourage devotion; in the 19th century, Pope Pius VII granted indulgences to those who piously pray before the image.
O God, who willed that your Only Begotten Son should undergo the Cross to save the human race, grant, we pray, that we, who have known his mystery on earth, may merit the grace of his redemption in heaven. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever. 𝐀𝐦𝐞𝐧. 🙏
