Hundreds of thousands of Catholic pilgrims swarmed the streets of Manila in search of a miracle Thursday, straining to reach a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ in an annual display of religious fervour.
The procession to the Philippine capital’s Quiapo Church, which started before dawn after an open-air mass, was expected to swell to more than two million participants from across the heavily Catholic country, church officials said.
Barefoot men and women in maroon shirts — the colour of the robe that covers the black, wooden Jesus the Nazarene statue — scrambled to grab the rope used to draw the life-sized religious icon, believing it would bring good health.
“I prayed that my mother be healed from her heart attack,” Dong Lapira, 54, told AFP of a previous procession where he had been bruised and jostled in his attempt to join those pulling the rope.
But he vowed to try …