Filipino Catholic devotees gesturing to the statue of the Black Nazarene during its annual procession on its feast day in Manila on Jan 9, 2025. - Reuters
MANILA: Hundreds of thousands of Catholic pilgrims swarmed the streets of Manila in search of a miracle Thursday (Jan 9), straining to reach a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ in an annual display of religious fervour.
The procession to the Philippine capital's Quiapo Church, which started before dawn after an open-air mass, was expected to swell to more than two million participants from across the heavily Catholic country, church officials said.
