Legends of the Sto. Niño de Cebu

(Part 3)

Manuel Enriquez dela Calzada originally wrote this in Cebuano, it was translated into English by Martin Abellana. It was published in 1965. It was Consuelo Enriquez-Uy, a descendant of the Dela Calzada, who donated copies of the book to the Cebu City Library.

Numerous entries on the legends of the Sto. Niño de Cebu is contained in the book. CEBUpedia is running a series of selected stories in the book, with the hope that the Cebu City government, in coordination with the family of Manuel Enriquez dela Calzada, will reproduce the book so it can be distributed to the public schools in Cebu City.

“The next day he was given the same assignment. This time the palay covered a bigger area. Without telling him so, the family borrowed the Image of the Holy Child and placed it in the midst of the palay being dried. While Longino was thus watching the palay, he thought he heard some chickens picking on the palay. He shooed the chickens. But the more he shooed, the clearer he heard the chickens picking on the palay. Longino got angry. He picked up a piece of stone and threw it at what he thought were the chickens. But as he threw a piece of stone on one side, he could hear the chickens picking at the opposite side. This made Longino angrier.

“He got hold of a coconut husk. He timed his movement. As soon as he heard picking on one side, instead of dashing the coconut husk to where he heard the noise, he threw the coconut husk with all his might at the opposite side. He made a bully’s eye! But simultaneously he found out that what he hit with the coconut husk was no other than the Image of the Holy Child. With a bound, he went to the fallen Image, clutched it to his breast and with a voice full of regret asked pardon from the Holy Image. At the same time he gave profuse thanks to it for giving him his sight.

“When the people needed rain

“The old kingdom of Banawa lay prostrate under the heat of the pitiless sun. There was not even a cloud to mar the blueness of the sky. The earth was parched for there was no rain for quite a long time. The people feared that they would have hunger unless the rain came. For the plants and the grass were thirsty. They needed water to make their leaves green again. This happened in the months of April and May 1523.” (To be continued)