Procession of the Bom Jesus dos Passos in Macau

The Procession of the Bom Jesus dos Passos in Macau (also known as the Procession of the Great Jesus in Chinese or the Procissão em Honra do Senhor Bom Jesus dos Passos in Portuguese) is the most famous Catholic procession in honor of Jesus Christ organized in Macau about forty days before Easter. The main purpose of the devotion is for the Catholic Church to remind its members and believers to remember the Passion of Christ and prepare them for the celebrations of the Holy Week.

The two-day procession of the Senhor Bom Jesus dos Passos (The Good Lord Jesus of the Steps) is part of a more extensive novena in honor of Our Lord in His Agony.

It is similar to other Processions of the Bom Jesus dos Passos, such as in Florianópolis in Brazil or the Procession of Our Lord of the Passion of Graça in Portugal, which has been celebrated since 1587.

Background: the Portuguese mission in Macau
The Portuguese first settled in Macau in 1557, as a trading port between the East and the West, and survived there for almost two hundred years before obtaining the approval of the Qing dynasty in 1749. Not until 1887 did Macau become a Portuguese colony, until reverted back to China in the year 1999. Formally established in 1576, the Diocese of Macau is the oldest diocese in the Far East in continuous existence: around 5% of population (30,000 people) is Catholic.

Folk legends
Along the historical development of the devotion of the Bom Jesus which was expressed by the solemn procession in Macau, urban legends were, and are still well spread.

The legend of the guardian
One legend about the origin of this particular statue of Jesus in Macau says that in a deep winter night, the sleeping sexton heard someone knocking on the cathedral door, but did not answer the call; so the Hallowed Guest ended up going to St Augustine’s Church, where the statue is kept throughout the year, to be processed back to the Cathedral once a year and spend that missed long winter night there.

The legend of the Chinese New Year Storm
Another story claims that after a terrible storm, huge wooden crates were washed ashore, and they turn out to contain mountable body parts that were eventually pieced together to form this miraculous statue. Locals affectionately call it “Daai Yea So” in Cantonese, “The Grand Jesus.”

The legend of the Bom Jesus hill
The devotion to the Bom Jesus has grown so much in Macau that even English travellers in the 194s were aware of the legends that anyone who would dare to build on the hill of the Bom Jesus, would immediately die.

A Portuguese devotion dating back to 1587
The procession of the Bom Jesus dos Passos of Macau is similar to the Bom Jesus dos Passos procession which still takes places in Portuguese capital of Lisbon and has been organized since 1587. Both processions have many common elements which are signs of antiquity, one of them being their peculiar Via Crucis with only 7 stations, in contrast with the Via Crucis with 14 stations as promoted by Leonard of Port Maurice which became the standard in the 17th century.

The immemorial procession in Macau takes place between two churches, the Church of Saint Augustine built 1591 and the Sé Catedral da Natividade de Nossa Senhora built in 1576, just around the time of the birth of this Portuguese devotion. The Church of Nossa Senhora Da Graça, commonly known as the Church of Sto Agostinho, is run by the Brotherhood of Senhor Bom Jesus dos Passos. This church has always been and continues to be the center of the cult of Nosso Senhor dos Passos, whose image is venerated there.

The Confraternity of Nosso Senhor Bom Jesus dos Passos was established in Macau shortly after the Augustines arrived in Macau from the Philippines in 1586, as in that year the Passos procession started taking place.

A tradition restored by popular demand in Macau in 1721
Two and a half centuries ago, in 1717, the celebration stopped due to the absence of the friars of St. Augustine, who had been expelled to Goa. There was such a great famine that the Macanese merchants went to the City Chancellor on the 14th of February 1721 asking that the "wooden man" carried on the people's back would come out onto the street again, at their own expense. This was done and the famine ended.

Replacing the image of the Bom Jesus in the 19th century
The earliest recorded statue of the Bom Jesus was made of wood and its scaffold came from Brazil, being brought by Commander Domingos Pio Marques, who arrived here on the ship Ulisses on October 14, 1818; he had gone to Rio, as a deputy from Macau, to attend the festivities acclaiming the throne of King John VI of Portugal celebrated on February 6, 1818.

The old image that existed in Santo Agostinho, a century ago, went to Timor. Count Bernardino de Senna Fernandes, treasurer of the Brotherhood of the Bom Jesus dos Passos, offered, on February 12, 1876, one hundred patacas to buy a new image that he himself ordered from Paris.

In addition to this image, there was another smaller one that was in the Brotherhood's session room and to which the wife of Governor José Maria Lobo d'Ávila (1874-1876) offered a rich tunic; On February 10, 1884, this tunic was offered to the Missions of Timor.

On January 17, 1907, a Portuguese from Hong Kong, João Joaquim Gomes, offered a scaffold with its frame to carry the image.

The image, coming from Paris and offered by Bernardino de Senna Fernandes, in 1876, was taken in procession through the streets of Macau for 34 years (1876-1910). But, after the advent of the Republic on October 5 of that year, we do not know whether due to a decrease in Faith or physical strength, the Brothers found it too heavy. In 1911, the Portuguese Republic decreed that all religious practice should be confined within designated religious buildings, intending to minimise the ecclesial influence in the newly formed secular state. The Passos did not comply with this law, but during the session of the Confraria, on April 5, 1911, it was decided to replace the large statue with a different lighter statue which caused an uproar among the conservative faithful of Macao who were strongly attached to this solemn devotion.

Extension of the devotion in the 1955s
When, in the 1950s, the Macanese emigrated to Hong Kong and other ports in China, the devotion to Senhor dos Passos became more deeply rooted in the Catholic life of the Macanese to the point that he instituted this practice in his new place of residence. This custom still persists today in Hong Kong, where an annual procession organized by the respective Brotherhood takes place in the Cathedral on the second Sunday of Lent. In the Rosary Church in Kowloon, an image is exposed for veneration by the faithful for a fortnight (coinciding with novenas in Macau and Hong Kong) and according to old residents this practice must be at least fifty years old.

Between health concerns and touristic frenzy in the 21st century
Today, the Passos is officially enlisted as one of the 12 intangible cultural heritage items of Macau. For years, faithful from Hong Kong have flocked to Macau to take part in the Novena and especially the procession of the Bom Jesus. Since at least the 1970s, the Bom Jesus has attracted tourists from abroad and been recognized a part of the folklore of Macau. During the coronavirus pandemic, the grand procession stopped due to COVID; however it was held in a smaller scale within the court of the Diocesan Seminary of Macau.

Since 1910, when Portugal became a republic, no nobility had been present. However, in 2024, Dom Duarte Pio, Duke of Braganza, claimant to the dormant Portuguese throne, as the head of the House of Braganza, joined the procession enrobed as an ordinary penitent. "Though the Passos can be seen to be a folkloric tradition, after all, such a religious practice entails a history of more than a hundred years. It still retains its religious appeal. It not only touches the individual on the three levels of emotion, mind and spirit but also through a long-term collective experience, a call for a collective identity is also formed. This allows the devotees in Macau to bear a uniqueness."

Novena
A nine-day prayer or novena that precedes the feast is very popular, always held on the first Sunday of Lent in the Church of Saint Augustine.

Procession
The procession "represents the journey of Jesus Christ and the procession takes place over two days. It begins at the Church of St. Augustine and around St. Augustine Square and goes to Macau Cathedral, before making the reverse course on the second day."

At the beginning of the 19th century, Swedish merchant, Anders Ljungstedt, described the procession in these words: "The Redeemer — an image the size of a man — covered in a purple cloak, carrying a crown of thorns on his head and a heavy cross on his shoulder, bends one knee on the bottom of a scaffold, carried by eight of the most distinguished citizens. The bishop, with the secular and regular clergy, the governor, the ministers, the nobility, the military and the entire Roman Catholic population, can be said to watch, deeply moved by a scene that foretells the divine sacrifice that will be made to reconcile man with his Creator. Children — with light and dark faces — dressed in angel dresses, with beautiful muslin wings on their shoulders, carry the miniature instruments, which were used for the crucifixion. This procession runs through almost the entire city; when finished, the image is deposited in its sanctuary in the Convent of S. Agostinho."

To this day, after a conventual Mass on Saturday morning at the Church of Saint Augustine, a Via Crucis in Chinese takes place in the afternoon, followed by the Vigil Mass and the Via Crucis in Portuguese. At 7 pm, the Statue of the cross-bearing Bom Jesus, (veiled in purple lace to symbolize Our Lord being brought to trial), is carried down to the Sé Catedral da Natividade de Nossa Senhora.

The procession is made according to a certain order. At the time when the convents were full of friars - Franciscans, Dominicans and Augustines, in addition to the numerous Jesuits of St. Paul and St. Joseph and the entire diocesan clergy, all either with their religious habits or with their black cloaks and bishop at the front- this procession must have been very imposing. A woman representing Veronica deressed in white and holding an icon of Christ leads the way followed by the Little Angels also came with the instruments of the Lord's Passion, throwing flowers. The Dean of the Cathedral Chapter leads the procession, escorted by the magenta-clad members of the Confraria (Confraternity). The Macau Police Brass Band provides the beating march music to this annual event. The Bishop of Macau welcomes the Statue at the Cathedral and the vigil concludes with a sermon in Portuguese.

On Sunday, the statue is brought back to St. Augustine’s Church through the major thoroughfares of the city centre. The bishop, carrying the relic of the True Cross under a canopy, participates in the procession together with the Canons, clergy, twelve children dressed in white, torch-bearers and banner-bearers representing each parish.

Music
A young girl is chosen each year to perform the role of Veronica, and sings the O vos omnes while unveiling the cloth depicting the Holy Face each time the procession stops for a stational shrine. The faithful all respond likewise in Latin singing Parce Domine with the short refrain Senhor Deus, misericordia in Portuguese. In the Sunday procession, the classic hymn sung is called “Joe Sousa Misericórdia”, usually sang by a tenor.

The procession is accompanied by the brass band, which plays traditional tunes, including an arrangement of the Marche funèbre for piano written by Frédéric Chopin in 1837, which became the 3rd movement of his Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 35.