A Filipino farmer has been nailed to a wooden cross for the 35th time to reenact Jesus Christ’s agony in a horrific Good Friday ritual, vowing to pray for peace in Ukraine, Gaza, and the disputed South China Sea.
On Friday, more than a hundred people watched as 10 followers were nailed to wooden crosses, including Ruben Enaje, a 63-year-old carpenter and sign painter. The real-life crucifixions have become an annual religious spectacle, attracting tourists to three rural settlements in Pampanga province, north of Manila.
The bloody ceremony returned last year after a three-year hiatus owing to the coronavirus pandemic. Enaje has become a village celebrity for his part as “Christ” in the Lenten reenactment of the Way of the Cross.
Before the crucifixions, Enaje told The Associated Press by phone Thursday night that he had pondered abandoning his annual religious penitence due to his age, but that he couldn’t refuse requests from locals to pray for ailing relatives and other ailments.
He further stated that the need for prayers has increased at an unsettling period of wars and conflicts around the world.
“If these wars escalate and expand, more people, particularly the young and the elderly, will be affected. “These are innocent people who have absolutely nothing to do with these wars,” Enaje stated.
Despite the distance, the hostilities in Ukraine and Gaza have caused oil, gas, and food costs to skyrocket abroad, including in the Philippines, making it more difficult for poor people to stretch their limited money, he said.
Closer to home, the rising territorial dispute between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea has raised concerns since it is clearly imbalanced, according to Enaje. “China has several large ships. “Can you imagine what they could do?” he inquired.
“This is why I always pray for world peace,” he said, adding that he would also seek assistance for residents in southern Philippine areas that have lately been affected by flooding and earthquakes.
Enaje survived almost unharmed after he fell from a three-story building in the 1980s, motivating him to undergo the crucifixion as a form of thankfulness for what he saw as a miracle. He continued the pattern as loved ones recovered from serious illnesses one after another, and he secured more carpentry and sign-painting employment contracts.
“Because my body is getting weaker, I can’t tell … if there will be a next one or if this is really the final time,” Enaje remarked in an interview.
During the annual crucifixions on a dusty hill in Enaje’s village of San Pedro Cutud in Pampanga and two other nearby communities, he and other religious devotees wore thorny twig crowns and carried heavy wooden crosses on their backs for more than a kilometer (more than half a mile) under the hot summer sun. Village actors dressed as Roman centurions pounded 4-inch (10-centimeter) stainless steel nails through their palms and feet before holding them aloft on wooden crosses for nearly ten minutes while dark clouds moved in and a large audience prayed and took pictures.
This year’s attendance included Maciej Kruszewski, a Polish tourist and first-time audience member of the crucifixions.
“Here, we would like to just grasp what does it mean, Easter in completely different part of the world,” Kruszewski went on to say.
Other penitents wandered barefoot through the hamlet streets, beating their naked backs with sharp bamboo spears and wood. To ensure the ritual was suitably bloody, several participants beforehand opened incisions in the penitents’ backs with shattered glass.
Many of the primarily underprivileged penitents participate in the ceremony to atone for their sins, pray for the ill or for a better life, and express gratitude for miracles.
The macabre show exemplifies the Philippines’ distinct brand of Catholicism, which combines church traditions and indigenous superstitions.
Church leaders in the Philippines, Asia’s largest Catholic nation, have expressed concern about the crucifixions and self-flagellations. Filipinos claim that they can demonstrate their religion and religious commitment without causing harm to themselves by conducting charitable activity, such as donating blood, however the custom has existed for decades.