Feast of the Most Holy Black Nazarene, PhilippinesPhotograph by Aaron Favila/AP
Devotees mob a life-size image of Christ, the Black Nazarene, as it’s paraded through the streets of Manila. Each year the image draws tens of thousands of devotees, most of them barefoot, who hurl cloths to handlers in the hope that they will rub them on the Christ and throw them back. The faithful credit the 400-year-old statue with miraculous powers, perhaps due to its own incredible history. During a 1606 voyage from Mexico the ship carrying the image caught fire—but the statue survived, blackened. |