Santo Niño de Tacloban tours Yolanda-hit villages before June fiesta

Residents affected by super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) more than a year ago are getting a visit from the Santo Niño de Tacloban as it tours typhoon-hit villages before the patron's fiesta in June.

The pilgrimage to the typhoon-hit barangays is a pre-fiesta event observed for decades, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines said Sunday.

"While in the barangay, the image goes from home to home as previously arranged by the barangay leaders," an article on the CBCP news site said.

Yolanda had left more than 6,300 dead after devastating the Visayas in November 2013.

According to the article, while the pilgrimage around barangays started April 20, the image will visit government offices in May, and schools in June.

The feast of the Sto. Niño de Tacloban falls on June 30, the one day in a distant past when the image – believed to be miraculous – cured many cholera-stricken residents.

Parish volunteer and Catholic Women’s League member Becbec Campo added the pilgrimage has been a parish custom since the early 1990s.

Lost at sea

The CBCP said the image, whose face is made of ivory, got lost in a sea voyage from Manila to Tacloban in 1889, after it was commissioned for restoration.

Local folk believed there was a cholera outbreak in Tacloban the day the image got lost at sea, and that at the time many cholera-stricken residents were cured.

Also, the CBCP article said the ship carrying the image caught fire.

At present, there are three images of the Señor Sto. Niño de Tacloban: