Ferdinand Magellan

Ferdinand Magellan (c. 1480 – April 27, 1521) was a Catholic Portuguese explorer. Ferdinand Magellan initiated, organized and led what was to become the first circumnavigation of the globe.

At a young age of 17 Magellan sailed around the Cape of Good Hope and he sailed for the King of Spain.

He got five ships and left Seville on September 20, 1519. He sailed around the tip of South America. He found the westward passage and it was named the Strait of Magellan in his name. He also found the new ocean and named it the Pacific in honour of its calm and peaceful waters, and crossed it East to West.

He also gave a large sum of money to the monks of the monastery in order that they might pray for the success of the expedition.

He landed in Guam and then in the Philippines (then called the Archipelago of San Lazaro) where he was received in a friendly manner by the chief of the island of Cebú, who, after eight days, was baptised Catholic along with several hundred other natives.

He persuaded Rajah Humabon and his wife Hara Amihan, to pledge their allegiance with Spain. They were later baptized into the Catholic faith, taking the Christian names Carlos and Juana.

The above is a chapel containing a replica of Magellan's Cross, containing the remnants of the original one planted by Ferdinand Magellan on Cebu's shores. It commemorates the conversion of the first Filipinos to Christianity. Ceiling murals depict the first Catholic mass celebrated on Philippine shores.

Magellan presented the Santo Niño to the newly-baptized Queen Juana as a symbol of the alliance. To her husband Carlos, Magellan presented the bust of the "Ecce Homo", or the depiction of Christ before Pontius Pilate. He gave an image of Our Lady to the natives who were baptised with their rulers.

The annual Feast of Santo Niño de Cebú

The Santo Niño de Cebú ("Holy Child of Cebu") is a Roman Catholic figure of the Child Jesus highly similar to the Infant Jesus of Prague. Like the image's counterpart in Prague, the figure is clothed in expensive textile robes mostly donations from fervent devotees in the Philippines and abroad. The statue is the oldest Catholic relic in the Philippines and permanently housed since 1565 at the Basilica Minore del Santo Niño in Cebu.
Numerous miracles have been wrought by the power of the Santo Niño. It is said that a voluminous book is needed to contain all the attestations and testimonials of the goodness and mercy of the Infant Jesus of Cebu. Considered as the prime of all Christian relics in the Philippines, the image of the Infant Jesus continues to shine as the lodestar that attracts the hearts of the Filipino people.

Stories of the Miracles of the Señor Santo Niño spread like wildfire in the Seas, placing Cebu as the Cradle of the Santo Niño devotion in the Philippines. His devotion spanned to the nearby island-provinces of the Visayas, then advanced to the north to as far as the Ilocandia and reached down south in Mindanao.

Magellan's exploration provided the first positive proof that the world was round, and that opened up trade routes to explorers all over the world, he also introduced Christianity to the Philippines.

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