WATCH: Pampanga penitents' bloody Lenten rites
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga - Filipino devotees marked Good Friday by mimicking the suffering of Jesus Christ in Asia's largest Roman Catholic nation.
Hundreds of barefoot devotees walked the streets whipping their bare, bloody backs with bamboo sticks dangling from a rope while others carried heavy wooden crosses.
Video by Jonathan Asuncion
In Barangay San Pedro Cutud and in nearby villages, devotees had themselves nailed to crosses in the belief that such extreme sacrifices are a way to atone for their sins, attain miracle cures for illnesses or give thanks to God.
Catholic Church leaders have spoken against the tradition, but it continues to attract huge crowds.
At least 4,000 spectators and tourists, dozens of them foreigners, attended the reenactment of Christ's crucifixion at a dusty mound in San Pedro Cutud. - Louis Bacani with AP
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