Aside from the miraculous healing among sick devotees and the protection the Holy Child had offered to Pandacan during the revolution, the Sto. Niño was also believed to have performed other wonders in the town.
When a massive fire struck near Pandacan in 1911, a priest placed the image on a church window facing the sea of flames. Suddenly, the wind changed its course, saving the town from what could have been a tragedy.
The image is also known to have averted an explosion after troops of the United States Armed Forces in the Far East (Usaffe) supposedly ignited oil tanks in Pandacan before retreating to Bataan on Dec. 18, 1941. It also reportedly healed a boy named Mark of a threatened blindness in April 2002.
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| This old photo is reminiscent of a legend of a store ownder who turned down a little boy buying puto seco asking for credit. The puto seco factory at Calle Labores is a stone's throw from the church. It closed sometime after the liberation of Manila from the Japanese occupation. It became a billiard hall operated by Mr. Lozano and later became a sign painting shop and eventually demollished. The legend has been preserved in the nursery rhyme Sitsiritsit as follows: “Santo Niño sa pandacan, Puto seco sa tindahan, Kung ayaw mong magpautang, Uubusin ka ng langgam.” |
“[But] most often, the Sto. Niño comes to us as He is, a child in His way—unobtrusive, ordinary, simple, hidden in the guise of a little boy,” said Abaco.
He said residents often spot a curly-haired and dark-skinned boy, his plump face smeared with dirt, roaming the streets of Pandacan—recalling the wooden image caked in mud when it was found among the pandan reeds 300 years ago.
The boy, who frequents the church patio, is seen mingling with people and talks to them as if he knew what was going on in their lives. “Residents believe that this little child is their beloved patron, the Sto. Niño,” said Abaco.
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