Don Vicente Rama’s article on the miracles attributed to the Sto. Niño de Cebu (First of two parts)

Rama’s article is originally written in Bisaya (Ang Santo Niño sa Sugbo) translated into English by Fr. Rudy Villanueva contained in the book he wrote, “The Vicente Rama Reader, An Introduction for Modern Readers”:

“The innumerable miracles attributed to the Santo Niño in the early days may be read exactly as they were signed and attested to by the Office of the Governor of Cebu, and identified by months and years that go back to the time of General Legazpi. These accounts were once made the subject of research and then certified true by then-Gov. Juan de Atienza, an old resident of Cebu and many times its alcalde, or mayor. From the oldest of those accounts we have drawn the amazing samples that follow:

“The very first miracle the Santo Nino performed, perhaps, was preserving from harm the house where the image had been longtime resident. All of Cebu had been fuel for King Tupas’s fire, but the house that had been home to him for so long, no flame could touch, none could harm.

“1618, the whole of Cebu experienced widespread drought. All the wells went dry, the trees died, and there was neither corn nor rice to harvest since all vegetation had dried up. Many Cebuanos moved close to shore areas to escape a deadly heatstroke while their animals gradually perished.

“What did the Cebuanos do? They carried the image of the Santo Niño and paraded the streets with it until they reached the cathedral; there, it was planned, Mass was to be celebrated among other ceremonies. Yet the parade was still to enter the main portal of the church when everything became dark as sudden appearance of black cloud formations covered the sun. After a while a heavy rain fell-the salvation for which the Cebuanos had been fervently praying.

“In 1631 there arrived in Cebu a shipment of sixteen barrels of government gunpowder. One night the entire stock was ignited and caused a fire wherein homes were lost. Before that relentless force all the city stood helpless, facing its total reduction to cinders. The people turned to the Santo Niño and had the image brought to the scene of the fire. The people went to their knees and begged for help. In a shore while the flames turned gentle and then went out.” (To be continued)