Sto. Niño de Cebu to sail to Limasawa

CEBU, Philippines - The image of the Sto. Niño de Cebu will visit Limasawa Island again this Easter Sunday.

According to Fr. Tito Soquiño of the Basilica del Sto. Niño, the event, dubbed as “Duaw Sto. Niño,” is a project of the Basilica del Sto. Niño, which is a religious, socio-cultural, ecological and historical undertaking of the Sto. Niño de Cebu Augustinian Social Development Foundation, Inc. (SNAF) under the umbrella of the Augustinian’s ecological evangelization.

This will be the second time that the pilgrim image visits Limasawa as it celebrates the 492nd anniversary of the first mass there, the first visit was made last year.

The pilgrim image will leave the Basilica Minore del Sto. Niño on the night of March 30 on board a Philippine Navy ship bound for Limasawa, and is expected to arrive at Triana, Limasawa at 7 a.m. of March 31.

From there, a foot procession will be held from the port to Magallanes, the site where the first mass was officiated.

A six-gun salute will greet the Holy Child, signaling the start of the Holy Mass.

At 3 p.m., the Sto. Niño departs for Maasin, Leyte, where a series of Holy Masses and venerations are scheduled.

On April 1, the Sto. Niño will move to Sto. Niño de Malitbog Parish (Malitbog Vicariate) and then to the Holy Child de Bontoc Parish of Sogod Vicariate.

The pilgrim image will also pay a visit to the Sto. Niño de Ibarra Parish of the Assumption in the Hills Vicariate and the Holy Child Parish of Bato and Hilongos Vicariate. It heads back to Cebu at 8 p.m. on the same day. This is the fifth “Duaw Sto. Niño,” a project of SNAF which aims to promote ecological evangelization in all of the country’s hundreds of islands.  (FREEMAN)