Basilica de Santo Nino

The Minor Basilica of the Holy Child (Spanish: Basílica Minore del Santo Niño), commonly known as Santo Niño Church, is a minor basilica in Cebu City in the Philippines that was founded in 1565. It is the oldest Roman Catholic church established in the country on the spot where the image of the Santo Niño de Cebu, a statue depicting the Child Jesus was found in 1565 by Spanish explorers led by Miguel Lopez de Legazpi. The Holy See calls the temple the "Mother and Head of all Churches in the Philippines" (mater et caput ... omnium ecclesiarum insularum Philippinarum) .The image is the same statue given by Ferdinand Magellan to the wife of Rajah Humabon as a gift Over forty years after the island's baptism to Christianity on April 14, 1521. It was found by a soldier preserved in a burnt wooden box after Legazpi razed the village of hostile natives.When Pope Paul VI made ​​the church a basilica in 1965, he said it was "the symbol of the birth and growth of Christianity in the Philippines."

The present building, which was completed from 1739-1740, has housed the oldest religious image in the country ever since.

History

Previous churches

The church of the Holy Child was founded by an Augustinian priest, Andrés de Urdaneta, on April 28, 1565. The first church and convent were built out of earth, hard wood and nipa. Both structures burned down on November 1, 1566. In 1605, Rev. Pedro Torres started the construction of its replacement. The second church was completed in 1626, but was also destroyed by fire in March 1628. It was immediately rebuilt under the administration of Rev. Juan de Medina with stones and bricks, but construction was stopped because of problems with the integrity of the bricks being used.

Present church

Fernando Valdes y Tamon, the Spanish governor of the Philippines, in 1735 ordered the church to be constructed of hard stone. Father Provincial Bergano, Governor-General Fernando Valdes, Bishop Manuel Antonio Decio de Ocampo of Cebu and Rev. Juan de Albarran, Prior of the Santo Niño, started the foundations of the church on 29 February 1735. Construction was designed and led by Rev. Fr. Fr. Fr. Juan de Albarran, and it was completed in 1739 or 1740. The convent and library were added later and completed in 1764.

In 1965, during the fourth centenary of the Christianization of the Philippines, Pope Paul VI elevated the church to the rank of Minor Basilica; it remains under the care of the Order of St. Augustine.

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