After 491 years, the revered icon of the Señor Santo Niño de Cebu will make a historic voyage to Limasawa in Southern Leyte to be part of the anniversary celebration of the first Mass in the Philippines.
The pilgrim image will leave the Basilica Minore in the afternoon on March 29 on board a Philippine Navy gun boat for Maasin City, where it will be welcomed by devotees at dawn the following day.
There will be a festive procession in Maasin City and a day-long activity that includes a Pontifical Mass by Bishop Precioso Cantillas, SDB, pilgrim Masses by priests from the different parishes of the Maasin Diocese, lecture on spiritual and historical perspectives of the First Mass and on ecological evangelization.
The Holy Child Jesus will stay at the Maasin Cathedral for one day and will leave at dawn the next day for a fluvial parade to Limasawa, the site of the first Catholic Mass in the Philippines on March 31, 1521.
The fluvial parade will be managed by the Philippine Coast Guard and the Philippine Coast Guard Auxiliary.
Fr. Tito Soquiño, head of the Santo Nino de Cebu Augustinian Social Development Foundation (SNAF), said hundreds of pilgrims from the diocese as well as from Cebu, Bohol and Samar are expected to attend.
He also said that traditional pilgrims from Manila also include active and retired military officers.
In Limasawa, the image of Señor Santo Niño will be welcomed by officials of both the Roman Catholic Church and the Philippine Independent Catholic Church.
The United Christian Churches of the Philippines also expressed intention to join in the historical part of the celebration.
There will be a foot procession from the port of Triana in Limasawa to the site of the Magellan’s Cross where the celebration will be capped by a Eucharistic celebration, a reenactment and a barrio fiesta.
The reenactment will involve firing of 6-gun salute to signal the start of the Mass and a 3-gun salute by Philippine Navy gunship to mark the elevation as narrated by Pigafetta in his account of the First Mass.
This is the fourth time that the pilgrim image will leave Cebu through the “Duaw Santo Niño.”
The other three visits (duaws) were held at the Diocese of Talibon in Bohol, Naval Forces Central Base in Mactan and the Diocese of Biliran.
The “Duaw Santo Niño” was designed by SNAF, the social arm of the Augustinians, as a way of bringing the holy image closer to the devotees, and to spread the message of ecological evangelization.
The Naval Forces Central (Navforcen) of the Philippine Navy is the official carrier of the Señor Santo Niño de Cebu.
The “Duaw Santo Niño” and First Mass anniversary celebration is organized jointly by the Diocese of Maasin, provincial government of Southern Leyte, city government of Maasin, municipal government of Limasawa, the SNAF, Basilica Minore del Santo Niño de Cebu and the Philippine Navy. /Correspondent Carmel Loise Matus