Stories about the Sto. Niño

These stories I’m about to tell you were related to me over and over again by people I know. Some may be true and some may be exaggerations, but I'm not forcing you to believe in them. Afterall, faith isn’t something you can just impose on people. But I believe in them, and this is why I wrote them here, to share them with you. I just want to tell them, because if I don’t, they may get lost forever.

“Amorsiko”

It was told that when the Basilica was built and the holy child housed, there were many times when the priest, after checking the image, would call his acolyte and tell him to clean the child’s dress up. When the acolyte would ask why, the priest would say that the child has got out of the basilica and wandered about again (nagsuroy-suroy). The acolyte would go and check the Sto. Niño, only to find out that its dress is full of Amorsikos. Amorsiko is a weed that usually grows on unmaintained lands or meadows. Its flowers have a structure that makes them capable of sticking to your clothes. The acolyte, getting to understand the implications (the child Jesus got out of the church and walked around on his own), he would quietly pick the Amorsikos out and clean the child up.

“ Stringful of Fish”

There was a time, a long time ago in the beaches of Cebu, when a child took a stringful of fish from a fish vendor on credit. The child told the vendor to just ask the priest for the payment. So that afternoon the vendor went to the basilica, went to the priest and asked for the payment. The priest was bewildered. He never asked anybody, or any child to get fishes on credit. The vendor explained that that morning, a child approached her to get the fishes and said to ask the priest for the due. The priest got a hint at that and asked the vendor to come with him. Together, they visited the place where the image of the Sto. Niño was kept and there, on the neck of an urn beside the image, hung a string full of wriggling fishes. Knowing who did it, the priest paid for those fishes.

“A child of wonders”

The original Sto. Niño today has one gold leg. Why? Because according to stories, it was cut by the clergy in Spain to stop it from going to Philippines. The Sto. Niño is a miraculous child. During the time when it was housed in the basilica, the Spanish clergy ordered for its return to Spain. It was brought back to Spain, to the king and to the church. For a few days it remained there, then one day it got lost. In Spain the church was in commotion over the loss of the blessed child. Their churches were searched but the child was nowhere to be found.

Meanwhile, in the Sto. Niño basilica (Cebu), several priests were surprised at the appearance of the Sto. Niño at its altar, when it was supposed to be in Spain and nobody brought it back there. Spain sent a message asking its whereabouts and they told them that the child was in Cebu and no one knows how it got there. Some Spanish clergy went to bring the Sto. Niño back to Spain. To make sure the child would not go back to Cebu again, the clergy had one of its legs cut and replaced by gold.

The next day, the child was lost again. The Spanish church was in commotion, again. Where was the Sto. Niño? While the Spanish priests were in confusion, Cebu priests were again astonished at the appearanceof the blessed child in the altar. It was the second time the child turned up when it was supposed to be in Spain. They asked around the vicinity whether they have seen a ship from Spain that could have carried the image docking somewhere in Cebu. There was none. Then one fisherman related to the priest what he saw. He said that while at sea, he saw a very small boy, standing in the middle of a halved coconut shell, sailing his way from the direction of Spain to the beaches of Cebu. What was amazing was the fact that the boy wasn’t rowing, but was only standing in the shell, and was going full speed, as if propelled by some force, towards the island of Cebu. The priests did not doubt that the boy could only be the Sto. Niño, making his way home, where he belonged for a very very long time. Since then, Spain did not order for its return, feeling that the blessed child would always try to go home, in his home in Cebu, and would love to stay here.

“ First World War”

If you ever wonder why the basilica still stands until now, when it could have gone down with the others during the first and second world wars, then perhaps this story can answer you. The reason was because when the war broke out, the whole basilica was protected by the child. After the war, there were stories that circulated regarding this one. Someone (a bomb-carrying plane pilot) related that during the chaos and the bomb-droppings, he saw a child at the very top of the basilica, catching every bomb that dropped near it, and throwing it back to the sea. Every single drop was caught. Thrown to the sea. Aside from this, he said he saw a sort of “shield” that stretched over the whole area of the basilica church, protecting it from harm, letting it stand strong until now.

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