Healing Water

The original stone chapel was destroyed by powerful earthquakes in the 1800s. The renovated structure and the well, which existed until the early years following World War II, had to be demolished because of the expansion of Jesus Street into a major road.

It was revived sometime between 1951 and 1971 when Msgr. Guillermo Mendoza was the parish priest.

Though parishioners continue to believe that the well is a source of healing water, the parish has advised them not to drink it after the water tested positive for impurities.

To avoid further contamination, Abaco had a replica of the well constructed in the inner part of the church property near the Blessed Sacrament Chapel, redirecting the flow of the water from the original spring.

The wooden image of the Sto. Niño remained enshrined in the stone chapel even after the church that took nearly 30 years to build was finished in 1760.

It was only transferred permanently to the church in 1906 when the church compound and the convent, taken over by revolutionary priests of the Iglesia Filipino Independiente (the Philippine Independent Church, more commonly known as the Aglipayan Church) in 1902, were legally reclaimed by the Archdiocese of Manila.