St.Nicholas de Tolentino Church



In this church of Sinait, Ilocos Sur, Philippines, is a life size Black Crucified Christ which is believed to have come from Nagasaki, Japan in 1620. The early Spanish Missionaries must have brought images for the early Japanese Christians. When Christianity was persecuted in 1597, the Japanese converts must have given away the images so as not to provoke the anger of the rulers and not to be detected as Christians.
​The images of the Black Crucifix and of the Blessed Virgin Mary put in a box must have drifted in the sea till they reached the boundary shores of Sinait, Ilocos Sur and Badoc, Ilocos Norte, an adjacent town. In 1620, the Black Christ was taken to the church of Sinait and it was locally called: “El Santo Cristo Milagroso,” while the Blessed Virgin Mary was taken to Badoc church known as: “La Virgen Milagrosa.”
​In order to seek help and continued protection from the epidemic and calamities that afflicted the Ilocano provinces in 1656 and 1660, the miraculous images of the Santo Cristo and the Virgen were brought to Vigan. The believers, though drained by anguish, offered prayers which were repaid with bountiful favors. Hence, they are considered intercessors of all kinds of afflictions and sicknesses. The replica of the Virgen Milagrosa is enshrined in a side Chapel of the Church, so that when one comes for the intercession of the Black Crucifix, at the same time and place one can make the devotion to the Virgen