The Image of the Black Nazarene As Larauan

In Pedro Chirino’s account of the religion of the early Filipinos, he mentioned about the “adoration and deification of the ancestors – especially of those who distinguished themselves through valiant deeds… It was a general practice for anyone who could successfully do so to attribute divinity to his old father when the latter died.” Example of larauan is the Bulul (bul–ul) or tinagtaggu from Ifugao. It is a carved wooden image used to guard the rice crop by Ifugao and their sub-tribe Kalanguya peoples of northern Luzon. The Nazareno is a larauan because it “represents” the suffering Christ. Through the Second Council of Nicaea (787 A.D.), the Roman Catholic Church justified the inclusion of painted and carved figures in her services with these words: “Adoration is rendered to God, veneration, to the saints. Homage is paid to an image not for its sake but for the holy personages represented.”