Ruben Enaje, a Filipino carpenter and billboard maker, announced on Friday that he would retire from playing Jesus in a famous ceremony in Pampanga, the Philippines, after being crucified for the 37th time.
San Pedro Cutud, a neighborhood of Pampanga, has become internationally known for staging live crucifixions annually to mark Good Friday, the Christian holiday that solemnly observes the day Jesus Christ was crucified. Good Friday occurs three days before Easter, the holiest holiday on the Christian calendar, which marks Jesus’s return to life and triumph over death.
According to the Filipino news outlet ABS-CBN, 15 people were crucified across five different locations in the region. An estimated 15,000 people attended the events, including 8,000 in the San Pedro Cutud neighborhood, which is believed to host the oldest such ceremony beginning around 1961.
While the Catholic Church has repeatedly discouraged self-harm on Good Friday — explaining that Jesus’s sacrifice has erased the need for such human physical sacrifice according to Christian doctrine — a small group of individuals in Pampanga have continued to uphold the tradition of being crucified every year, while a much larger group engages in a practice called penitensya, or penance, in which they walk the streets alongside those being crucified and self-flagellate, leaving a bloody trail behind them.
Warning – graphic images:
The Agence France-Presse (AFP), reporting from Pampanga on Friday, described scenes of “devotees deliberately puncturing their skin with glass shards attached to a small wooden paddle to ensure their bleeding during the ritual, a way to atone for sins and seek miracles from God.” The outlet estimated that hundreds of people partook in the ceremony.
Those who engage in penance or crucifixion say they do so as a form of prayer, both to ask God for gifts such as health and peace, and as a form of worship.
Enaje has become perhaps the best known of those submitting themselves to crucifixion in San Pedro Cutud. He began subjecting himself to the practice in 1986 after, he has said in past comments, he miraculously survived a fall while on the job.
“While I was falling I uttered the words ‘Dios ko!’ (‘My God!’), and the next thing I knew I was on the ground, but fully conscious!” Enaje said in a 2020 interview. “It was a miracle I survived the fall without a bone broken. In fact, when I was on the ground, I did not stand up immediately thinking I broke my legs and body, but after a few moments I found out I was okay. I owe my life to Jesus that’s why every Good Friday I have to undergo the crucifixion ritual.”
Enaje has failed to be crucified in only two years between 1986 and today: 2020 and 2021, as the government of then-President Rodrigo Duterte, an openly anti-Catholic bigot currently on trial before the Hague for crimes against humanity, banned all religious gatherings during the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic. The Philippine Inquirer reported on Friday that Enaje announced he would no longer play the role of Jesus next year due to health complications and his family pleading with him to reconsider given his age.
Enaje is 65 years old and suffers from asthma. The Inquirer reported that his participation this year required some modifications, such as the actors playing Roman soldiers refraining from beating him during his walk to the crucifixion and that only his hands, and not his feet, be nailed to the cross.
“Enaje’s panata (vow) was originally meant to last nine years, but he extended it by 18 more years for his ailing wife and daughter,” the Inquirer observed. “The 27 years were further prolonged by another nine years, as village officials struggled to find a suitable Kristo (Christ) — someone without vices and respected in the community.”
Enaje told reporters in 2025 that he expected that to be his last year on the cross, as well.
“I really can’t do it anymore. They had to aim portable fans at me earlier just for me to breathe normally,” he explained in remarks to the press at the time. “I will try to still take part in the ritual next year, but if not, I know someone will take my place and continue the tradition.”
The longtime Christ actor dedicated his final crucifixion to peace in the Middle East and the world, according to Philippines news outlets.
The tradition will continue beyond Enaje. The Inquirer reported that San Pedro Cutud had found his successor, 47-year-old Arnold Maniago, who has been crucified 24 times.
“I’m ready to take the role of Kristo. This is my devotion,” the Philippine outlet GMA quoted Maniago as saying, accepting the role of Enaje’s successor.
In San Fernando, another part of Pampanga, 66-year-old Wilfredo Salvador was crucified for the 15th time — and vowed to continue the tradition next year.
Follow Frances Martel on Facebook and Twitter.
Read the full article here