Santo Niño de Tondo

The Santo Niño de Tondo is a Catholic title of the Child Jesus associated with a religious image of the Christ Child. The image was brought to the Philippines during the expedition of Miguel López de Legazpi in 1572 and is the 2nd oldest image of the Child Jesus in the Philippines, after the Santo Niño de Cebú. The image is enshrined in the Archdiocesan Shrine of Santo Niño de Tondo.



Origin
The statue of the Infant Jesus was originally brought to Manila from Acapulco in the early 1570s. This was likely during the expedition of Miguel López de Legazpi. The shrine of the Holy Child was recognized as a Provincial Chapter by the Spanish Augustinian friars of Luzon on May 3, 1572, with its parish priest, Fray. Alonzo Alvarado, OSA, becoming the official parish priest and director of the church of Tondo, Manila.

Theft and recovery
The image of Santo Niño de Tondo was taken from its shrine on July 14, 1972. Fr. Lorenzo Egos, the then-assistant parish priest, had claimed that the robbers fled the church after the doors were locked at 8 p.m, that day.

Coincidentally, after the image was stolen, the country was struck by one of the worst weather-related natural disasters in Philippine history, Typhoon Gloring. A majority of the Filipino faithful believed that the disaster was caused by the theft of the image.

Sometime after the theft, authorities had captured the four men responsible for stealing the image. When the image was found, it was dismembered. The main body was discarded in a nearby canal, while the head, hands, and feet were found in the possession of other robbers. All parts of the image were, nonetheless, recovered.

Former Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos ordered the urgent reconstruction of the desecrated image, which was handed to sculptor Máximo Vicente.

Today


The Santo Niño de Tondo is considered the second-oldest venerated image of the Child Jesus in the country, next to the Santo Niño de Cebu. On February 5, 2019, the Parish of Santo Nino de Tondo was elevated as an Archdiocesan Shrine. Under this decree, the Archdiocese of Manila recognizes the spiritual, historical, and cultural importance of the shrine and the devotion to the Santo Niño de Tondo within and outside the archdiocese. Filipinos regard the image as miraculous. Replicas of the original image can be found in Filipino homes, households, and business establishments. Devotees of the Christ Child often refer to Him as Hari ng Tondo, which translates to the "King of Tondo".

Feast Day of Sto. Niño de Tondo
The feast day of Sto. Niño in Tondo is celebrated in the third Sunday of January. The fiesta in Tondo has the biggest participation in Manila, not only because Tondo is the most populous district in the city and poorest but perhaps because of the many anecdotes connected with the Sto. Niño of Tondo.

According to the Philippine Historical Commission, the people of Tondo celebrated the feast day with a fluvial procession that "attracted thousands of visitors." Tondo's terrain at that time consisted of waterways and tributaries which were connected to Manila Bay, a probable reason why the present stone church of Tondo was constructed on elevated ground (several meters above sea level) to prevent sea waters from inundating the Church.

Nick Joaquin writes, "historically, the devotion to Santo Niño (in general) outranks all others because the first church in the Philippines was built to enshrine an image of the Santo Niño". In his book entitled Almanac for Manileños (Published in 1979), Joaquin describes the previous celebrations of the fiesta:"At four in the afternoon on the visperas (meaning the Saturday before) the Sto. Niño of Tondo is borne to the sea by a dancing crowd among which groups of women in pastora hats, or in katipuneda attire: white camisa, red saya. The dancing is through sunny streets hung with bunting and here and there will be a giant heart of bell that opens up as the Sto. Niño passes to unloose a shower of petals. Everyone dances, even the barefoot men bearing the image and the boys bearing standard or farol.

At North Harbor waits the great pagoda with turreted altar. The Sto. Niño embarks, along with everybody who can squeeze abroad and the pagoda moves through the flaming hues of the sunset escorted by fishing fleets bedecked with banners the smaller boats racing each other round and round the pagoda. Dusk falls as the flotilla sails northward along the bay. On the pagoda the dancing continues but the trip has also become a picnic as the good old custom of caridad showers forth bags of biscuits and baskets of native oranges. The Sto. Niño moves in a blaze of light on the waters of his city. The voyage ends at the landing in the Velasquez and Pritil, densest tenement of Tondo is even livelier because folks back from school or works join in the merriment and besides, it's always more fun to dance under the stars than under the sun. Parents not only from Tondo or Manila but also from the province come to dance before the Sto. Niño to pray for a sick child or give thanks for a child's recovery."

The fiesta of the Santo Niño has since been called the "Labayaw Festival". The name of the festival is a portmanteau of the Tagalog-Filipino words Lakbay (meaning "to journey") and Sayaw (meaning "to dance"). It essentially means "a joyful journey with the Lord".