FR. ROMEO Desuyo, parish priest of the Birhen de los Remedios parish in the island village of Odlot in Bogo City, puts an image of the Sto. Niño in the sea off the shores of Odlot in a ritual that started at least 600 years ago and has been revived as a punishing drought brought by El Niño continues to ravage the province and city of Cebu. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
CEBU CITY—A religious practice that started at least 600 years ago is acquiring modern-day relevance as the Catholic Church in Cebu province turned to the heavens for rain that Church leaders pray would end a devastating episode of drought.
The practice surfaced again recently in a small fishing village in northern Cebu.
Fr. Romeo Desuyo and several parishioners in the island village of Odlot, Bogo City, brought a six-inch-tall image of the Sto. Niño de Cebu to the village shore.
As the sun rose over the island, the priest, wearing a white shirt and dark short pants, waded knee-deep in the sea, raised the Sto. Niño image and immersed it in the water for an hour.
Desuyo, parish priest of the Birhen de los Remedios parish in Odlot, led the faithful in a prayer pleading for rain.
“Our plants have withered and the soil has dried up,” said Desuyo.
“We need to pray because we do not have the power to pour out rain on our parched land. Only God can do it,” he said.
Although it seemed that the prayer was unanswered as it did not rain in Bogo City after the ritual, Desuyo said it rained in some parts of Cebu, like Toledo City and Pinamungajan town.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) recently issued an oratio imperata, or mandatory prayer, for rain.
Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma adopted the CBCP prayer and urged all priests in the archdiocese to lead the people in praying for rain, said Fr. Mhar Vincent Balili, the prelate’s secretary.
Desuyo said the practice of bathing the image of the Sto. Niño in the sea during drought dates back to the 1500s.
He said the natives then immersed the icon in the sea and rains would come.
At that time, Cebuanos would use the original image of the Child Jesus that was given by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan as a baptismal gift to Cebu’s Queen Juana in 1521.
Fray Gaspar de San Agustin wrote about it in his book, “Conquistas de las Islas Filipinas.”
The practice of immersing the sacred image is also mentioned in the Sto. Niño’s prayer hymn published in an 1888 novena.
“If they seek rain and you delay it, you’d be brought to the shore and bathed in the sea. And they then obtain the rain they desire,” a stanza of the song read.
Desuyo said the “Ligo Señor,” or the practice of immersing the Sto. Niño in the sea, and other prayers seemed effective, according to accounts of the practice in old books.
After the ritual, Desuyo said rain fell on the island of Odlot while skies in the village turned dark with clouds.
He said the village faithful would continue to storm the heavens with prayer until God sends enough rain.
The priest said another ritual would be organized depending on the availability of participants.
“We need to pray. And when we pray, we believe,” said Desuyo.
“Prayer is more powerful than anything else,” he added.
A state of calamity has been declared in the city and province of Cebu due to the El Niño.
The drought has destroyed or damaged at least P13.4 million worth of crops planted in 87.4 hectares of land in 28 mountain villages of Cebu City.