Photo: Black Nazarene

A man dressed up like the Black Nazarene speaks on a mobile phone in front of the Saint John, the Baptist Church in Manila’s Quiapo District. The Black Nazarene is a life-sized statue of Christ that a priest bought in Mexico and brought to Manila in 1606. Since 1787 the statue has been housed at Saint John the Baptist Church. Today, January 9, Manila will celebrate the annual Black Nazarene Procession with throngs of people following the statue through the neighborhood in hopes of a miracle. For more than 200 years the church has been placing the statue on a gilded carriage every January and pulling it through the streets of Quiapo. People who touch it are reported to sometimes be healed of diseases. It is usually the single largest festival of the year in the Philippines, the only country in Asia where Roman Catholics make up a majority of the population. (Mindanao Examiner Photo Service)