Every year, on the third Sunday of January, the Catholic community in the Philippines celebrates the feast of Santo Niño. So too in 2026, this feast was celebrated with great devotion; in particular, we saw through social media how the participation of Redemptorist Youth in the various communities in this Asian country has grown.
For example, in Davao City, this great devotion was celebrated in all the Masses on this Sunday. The 6:00 p.m. Mass, presided over by Rev. Father Paul Ho Cong Hoan, CSsR, was filled with faith and gratitude, made even more vibrant by the Sinulog dance offered by the Redemptorist Youth Ministry (RYM–Davao), a beautiful expression of love, praise and devotion to the Santo Niño.
The photos of this celebration speak volumes about the participation of the Catholic community. We would just like to mention a small detail that links this feast with the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer:
In Cebu, the Redemptorists run the Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. They established their presence in the Philippines at a time when the Spanish friars were leaving after the Philippine Revolution of 1898.
Before the church was built, Our Lady of Perpetual Help was a small chapel, inaugurated on 2 August 1929. It played a key role in safeguarding the image of the beloved Santo Niño of Cebu towards the end of the Second World War. Cebu was heavily bombed by US forces, causing widespread destruction. The Church of Santo Niño was damaged and a bomb fell in front of the altar where the consecrated image was located, which was saved by only a few metres.
This was why the miraculous image of the Santo Niño was kept in a steel safe from September 1944 to April 1945. It was placed behind the main altar of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in the chapel of the Redemptorist monastery.
(Facebook of Our Mother of Perpetual Help – Davao, Scala News)
