FOR the first time in two years, the replica of the Black Nazarene will be brought out in a procession from the metropolitan cathedral in Gaston Park here to the parish church in Barangay Lapasan on foot on Monday dawn.

Thousands of devotees are expected to attend this Cagayan de Oro’s version of the Traslacion or the procession in honor of the Feast of Black Nazarene similar to but much tamer than that of Quiapo.

“After two years of absence, we cannot estimate the exact number of devotees but we expect it would be big considering the attendance in the Mass last Christmas,” Monsignor Perseus Cabunoc, vicar general of the Cagayan de Oro diocese.

The only one of its kind in Mindanao, the Black Nazarene procession was put on hold for the past two years amid fears of a spike in infections during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Cagayan de Oro police spokesperson Lt. Col. Evan Viñas said they would meet with church officials today to discuss the security preparations for this Monday’s Traslacion.

Viñas said it is expected that the mandatory rule of “no backpacks and no umbrellas” would be implemented just like the previous past processions.

Cabunoc said the replica of the Black Nazarene will be brought out from the Jesus Nazareno parish church in Barangay Lapasan and would be ferried by vehicles to the Cagayan de Oro Metropolitan Cathedral Sunday night.

BLACK NAZARENE. Religious devotees pray to an icon of the Black Nazarene at the Nazareno Parish Church in Cagayan de Oro. Authorities are preparing for next week’s Traslacion procession. GSD file photo by Nitz Arancon

“The image will spend the night in the Cathedral but the Traslacion would start around 5 am after a Mass would be heard in its honor,” Cabunoc said.

He said the life-size replica of a dark-skinned, kneeling Jesus Christ would be carried on the shoulders of “Hijos del Nazareno (Sons of the Nazarene) members who usually wore yellow t-shirts.

Cabunoc said devotees are expected to join the procession bringing back the icon to its home in the Jesus Nazareno parish church in Barangay Lapasan.

“The City Government has given a special permit to hold the procession but we are expected to implement strict health precautions,” Cabunoc said.

Cabunoc said it would be mandatory for devotees to wear facemasks when they joined the procession or attend Masses.