What child is this?

Everyone loves the Sto. Niño. Its image is ubiquitous in restaurants, shops and almost every kind of business establishment. You see it on the dashboard of jeepneys or placed on a perch high above the windshields of buses. As if that weren’t enough, some of these buses are even named in His honor. Once upon a time, Philippine cinema’s brightest star was a little boy wonder named, you guessed it, Niño.

The Filipinos devotion to the Holy Child is nothing less than phenomenal and goes beyond prayers and pilgrimages. Devotees dress its image in all manner of costumes, give it baby baths, and gift it with candies or money. Some even talk to it, in a voice mimicking that of a child.

A soon-to-be-launched volume tackles the extraordinary affection for the Sto. Niño in the Philippines. Titled Sto. Niño, The Holy Child Devotion in the Philippines, the book is published by fashion designer Ben Farrales, founding chairman of the Congregacion del Santisimo Nombre del Niño Jesus.

Mang Ben says that to his knowledge, this book is the first that extensively documents the different Sto. Niño images in churches and private collections and the folk rituals associated with the patron as practiced in different parts of the country.

"It is a scholarly and photographic document of the rites and festivals, legends and traditions, myths and miracles connected with the devotion to the Sto. Niño," says Abe Florendo, editor and principal writer, who produced the book together with film documentalist and writer Dez Bautista as consultant, George Tapan as photographer and Eugene Ong as design artist.

Abe is a veteran journalist who started out as staff writer and news deskman for the afternoon daily of the Chino Roces paper The Manila Times then went on to be editor of the country’s pioneering glossies. He was editor and principal writer for the book 100 Women of the Philippines and recently wrote Hair Majesty, a book based on the life story of hairstylist Ricky Reyes. Abe was lifestyle editor of Today, before he decamped to Las Piñas to do more books and escape Manila’s horrendous traffic.

We couldn’t help but surmise that the choice of Abe for editor and principal writer must have really been pre-ordained for, at one time, he was a novice at the monastery of the Augustinians in Intramuros.

"Our past defines and influences our present. I spent five years as a Philosophy student and novice at the monastery of San Agustin in Intramuros. The Augustinians of course were the first evangelizers in the Philippines and they were the ones who also accompanied Magellan and Legazpi in the first expedition in 1521 and the second one in 1565, when the image of the Sto. Niño, the gift of Magellan to the queen of Cebu after her baptism, was found in the hut of one of the slaves. Here I am researching and writing about a devotion that the Augustinians - to whose community I was called but not chosen – introduced and propagated in the Philippines," he says.

Abe adds that what is significant about the Sto. Niño of Cebu is that it has documented and verified historical origin. "It is not a legend as in the case of several venerated Sto. Niño images. It is not fiction concocted by a feverish imagination or a fanatical devotee. What is also significant about the Sto. Niño devotion in the Philippines is that it antedates the devotion to the Child Jesus of Prague by 35 years. (The would- be Prague Child, traveling from Spain, arrived in 1556 in Bohemia, the ancient kingdom of Czechoslovakia, whose capital city was Prague where the devotion to the image of the Holy Child started and spread throughout Europe.)"

"I really felt we had to come up with the book," says Mang Ben. "The Sto. Niño is all over, you see them in homes, shops, everywhere. I wanted a book that would have a proper focus. More or less, I had an idea of how I wanted to present it and this was inspired by books on saints which I saw in my travels."

The designer himself has 20 plus Sto. Niño images in his collection, one of which was unanimously chosen for the cover of the book by Florendo, Tapan and Nolie Hans.

Mang Ben traces the beginning of his devotion to the Sto. Niño when he was invited by a group of Malolos devotees to join one of their services a couple of years ago. Mang Ben credits the Holy Child for the many blessings he has had in life. "Materially, I couldn’t ask for anything more. I started in the fashion business 50 years ago and I’m still here. Healthwise, I still can do the things I want to do and I don’t have any major ailments,"

What he considers the ultimate of graces bestowed upon him are his three niños, children whom he adopted and now raises as his own.

Being a first-time book publisher was quite an eye-opener for Mang Ben. "To begin with, I learned to be more patient," he says. "Originally, production was supposed to have wrapped up in six months time, but it went on for two-and-a-half years. We had keep tab of Sto. Niño fiestas throughout the country, and since each of these happened only once a year, shooting had to wait."

Photographer George Tapan, Dez Bautista and Abe traveled to the major centers of the Sto. Niño devotion in the islands to document the colorful festivals and rites connected to the Sto. Niño. "We also worked on the image makers, the santeros and encarnadores and bordaderas de oro among others," says Abe. "The book has beautiful photos of quaint and little known rituals like the immersion in the sea of the image in Ibajay, Aklan, the bathing of the Sto. Niño in Indang, Cavite, the rites of thanksgiving in Alfonso, a town by Taal lake in Batangas and the door-to-door visits of the Sto. Niño on Sabtang island in Batanes during the feast of the Three Kings."

As for miracles attributed to the Holy Child, Abe has this to say: "Alleged miracles of the Sto. Niño we’ve treated with utmost objectivity and delicacy. We don’t want to patronize believers nor side with unbelievers, nor sensationalize alleged miracles. Just to prove again that nothing in our past or present is an accident, the most popular miraculous Sto. Niño today, the Sto. Niño de Providencia in Las Pinas, is just five houses away on the street where I live."

Mang Ben also takes the same objective stance, in fact he cites an incident that happened two years ago at the Department of Tourism. "Former secretary Gemma Cruz Araneta requested the Congregacion to move our exhibit to the DOT and while we were setting up, tiny footprints were noticed on the ground, these were the size of the feet of one of the statues. Some said the Niño took a little walk. But I leave it at that, its up for anyone to make his own conclusions," he says.

Miracles ascribed to the Sto. Niño comprise a chapter in the book. Among the other chapters are those that dwell on the birth of the Congregacion del Santisimo Nombre del Niño Jesus, images from private collections and the different Sto. Niño rituals throughout the country.

The book is a treasure trove of many images and titles of the Sto. Niño in private collections, many of which have not been seen publicly before, as well as in the yearly exhibit of the Congregacion, where one finds the most imaginative and fanciful representations of the Sto. Niño.

More than this, says Abe, the book delves into history and traditions, the theological and folksy explanations of the phenomenal devotion to the Sto. Niño. "Filipinos love children as evidenced by our exploding population. It is said that a home is not complete without children. Sto. Niño represents the things we cherish about our children – the joy they bring to our lives, our hopes for the future. And as our intercessor to the Father, he is the best. How could the Father refuse a child, And a child is easy to make uto, in the language of the people. That is why devotees cajole him with candies and sweets which they offer before the image."

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Sto. Niño, The Holy Child Devotion in the Philippines will be launched on Friday, June 29, 6 p.m. at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Complex, Roxas Blvd., Manila.

Guests of honor to the opening are Papal Nuncio Antonio Franco, DECS secretary Raul Roco, Tourism secretary Richard Gordon and his wife Kate, Manila mayor Lito Atienza, Makati mayor Elenita Binay, Czech Ambassador Estanislav Slavinsky and Abbot Fr. Tarciso of San Beda. Also invited are President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and former President Corazon Aquino.

The book launch will be highlighted by an exhibition of Sto. Niño images from the collections of Imelda Cojuangco, Danny Dolor, Steve de Leon, Nolie Hans, Tony Adriano, Oscar and Bootsie Violago, Ben Farrales and many others.

The book will be available at the Congregacion del Santisimo Nombre del Niño Jesus Secretariat at Pope Pius XII Catholic Center, 1172 United Nations Ave., Ermita, Manila, with tel. no. 525-91-26, the shop of Ben Farrales at 1902 M. Adriatico St., Malate, Manila, with tel. 524-84-39 and 525-34-21, and at selected book stores.