One of the most revered figures in the realm of Philippine Catholicism, the Holy Child Jesus, popularly known among Filipinos as “Santo Niño de Cebu,” was honored at Birmingham’s first Sinulog festival held Jan. 21 at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church.

The Sinulog festival hearkens to the day Catholicism was introduced to the Philippines in Limasawa, Leyte, some 501 years ago. At that watershed event, the first Roman Catholic Mass in the Far East was celebrated, and the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, representing the Spanish empire, presented a statue of the Holy Child Jesus as a gift to the local leader, Rajah Humabon, who was baptized together with his 800 subjects. That original statue, the oldest religious relic in the Philippines, is still enshrined in a chapel within the Basilica Minore del Santo Niño de Cebu.

From that first Mass in Leyte, the Philippines has become one of the largest Catholic nations in the world, with about 86% of the population being Roman Catholic. It’s also the only predominantly-Christian country in Asia.

The Birmingham Sinulog festival started at 10 a.m. with a novena and a multi-dialect Rosary, highlighted by a Mass celebrated by Bishop Steven J. Raica and concelebrated by Fathers Justin Ward and Sherwin Monteron. The Mass featured well-loved sacred hymns in English, Tagalog, and Visayan as sung by the Birmingham Fil-Am community’s Quincentennial Choir under the direction of Frederick Pollman. The choir was formed from last year’s celebration to mark the quincentennial anniversary of Christianity in the Philippines.

The Mass was followed by a procession around the St. Francis Xavier Church grounds, headed up by volunteers bearing the carriage of the Santo Niño statue. The event concluded with lunch and an entertainment program in the afternoon. The program included dance numbers by the Quincentennial Dancers from Birmingham and the Mabuhay Dance Group of North Alabama.

God willing, the festival will become an annual event that will help keep alive one of the praiseworthy religious traditions in the Philippines.

To read Bishop Raica’s homily, click here.